The purpose of my doctoral thesis is to examine how teachers in VET function as transformative change agents in their college and employ futures consciousness, epistemic practices, and professional networks for fostering systemic college-culture improvements. The world of work has become increasingly complex and turbulent due to digitalization; rapid and constant changes in society and the labor market are challenging teachers and education providers. The demand for transformative VET education in colleges is real as vocational education and training (VET) intends to produce empowered citizens and future proof workforce for the labor market.  

Digitalization-related societal changes, rapid and constant changes in society and the labor market challenges teacher professionals to develop their skills and practices for proactively meeting possibilities of future development. Research on transformative agency (e.g.Reinius et al., 2022) in Finnish teachers and schools, highlights extended professional roles, knowledge sharing, collaboration and networks. Teachers have an expanded responsibility of developing and innovating (Nerland & Jensen, 2012), collectively building knowledge via digital instruments (Ritella & Hakkarainen, 2012) and engage in epistemic practices (Nerland & Hasu, 2020). Thus, knowledge, expertise and practices grow in emerging professional epistemic culture (Knorr Cetina & Reichmann, 2015). In the sociomaterial intersection of technology, work, and organization (Orlowski & Scott, 2008) teachers are facing a complex challenge: construct knowledge, operate innovatively (Widmann et al., 2018), adapt collaborative practices (Ahonen et al., 2023) and network with various stakeholders e.g. working life; higher educational institutes (Reinius et al., 2022). To overcome such challenges, teachers must challenge their minds and adapt to future oriented thinking (Ahvenharju, 2022). Previous VET research has focused on professional agency (Vähäsantanen, 2016), identity and development (Vähäsantanen & Hämäläinen, 2019) amid the VET renewal and changes in working life. Nevertheless, there is an urgent need for studying VET teachers’ transformative agency by collecting qualitative data of the targeted VET teachers expanded professional roles, their epistemic practices, futures consciousness and efforts of building of extended professional networks as these themes have not been studied. Furthermore, such VET-based research is pivotal as, on average, around 60% of secondary education students are in the VET system in Finland. 

The study explores VET teachers’ transformative agency within their team organization VET college; the analysis is carried out across teacher level (RQ1), team level (RQ2) and network level (RQ3). The study examines VET teachers’ futures consciousness, epistemic culture and practices in their team organization and their professional networks in relation to transformative professional activity. The research questions are as follows: 

RQ1. How do teachers in VET college perceive and engage in future thinking and futures consciousness?  

RQ2. What collective epistemic practices do VET teachers report employing when functioning as change agents and engaging within their teams in codesigning pedagogical innovations?  

RQ3. How do VET teachers internal and external professional networks support transformative agency?  

The study produces novel scientific knowledge of VET teachers’ transformative role of the targeted VET college and their role in eliciting professional and pedagogic renewal and future oriented VET system. Further, the study generated research findings which can be effectively disseminated to VET educational stakeholders; teachers, principals, management on municipality level, as well as to other educational policy and decision-making actors who are involved and committed to transforming educational culture. 

This exploratory qualitative research is conducted in a self-selected vocational college in Helsinki capital region that is committed to change. The participants are the VET college’s teachers (n=14) who participate in EU funded three-year (2024-2026) future-oriented futures literacy for vocational education and training project. Additional participants are identified and nominated by the initial participants via snowball sampling. The participants include both vocational teachers and core subject teachers with diverse experiences as they work together in a team organization. In the first phase of the study, the initial participants (n=14) are observed in five (5) futures workshops related to the futures literacy project (Spring 25). Participants also produce reflective diaries before, during and after the Spring 2025 workshops in which they reflect insights and professional development due to the futures workshops. They are also interviewed (Autumn 2025) to answer (RQ1). In the second phase of the study, further interviews (Spring 2026) are conducted with additional participants identified in the Autumn interviews via snowball sampling to answer (RQ2; RQ3) of the study. I collect qualitative data using multiple methods due to the complexity of the phenomena. Interviews and participant diaries provide a window into participants’ perspectives, experiences and knowledge. Observations in the authentic setting provide valuable insights (McKenney & Reeves, 2019). To explore the teachers' perceptions on futures consciousness (RQ1), to determine how future oriented VET teachers are, I observe the teachers’ participation in the future literacy projects future workshops, conduct audio-recorded interviews and trace participants' perceptions by diary and process data and my retrospective field notes. To examine the emerging epistemic professional culture and practices (RQ2) and to investigate the relevancy of networks, I conduct semi-structured thematic individual interviews and apply the critical incident technique (Butterfield et al., 2005) to trace teachers’ concrete experiences and key moments in relation to engaging VET teachers in codesigning professional innovations and participating in building and sharing of knowledge (RQ2) and to examine professional networks and their roles and impact on teacher’s transformative agency, to provide more personal insights on the meaning of the internal and external networks in their professional innovation and development (RQ3).

The thesis generates knowledge of professional innovation practices that has thus far been missing from the VET research. The findings provide teachers and decision-makers with knowledge on transformative educational practices and processes and produce adaptable evidence-based guidelines on how to facilitate the transformative processes in schools and colleges. By September 2025, I will have preliminary findings to answer research question one (RQ1). It is important to note that as reported, the data collection is still ongoing at this stage. However, the observation data (the future workshops for teachers) and reflected participant diaries have been collected and analyzed. On that basis, I expect to be able to answer questions on how do VET teachers perceive futures consciousness in relation to their professional development and transformative activity, and how do they foster expansion of futures consciousness of their teacher colleagues at the VET college.

Ahonen, H., Franska, N., Palonen, T., Reinius, H., Tiippana, N.M., & Hakkarainen, K. (2023). From autonomous actors to collaborative professionals. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. Ahvenharju, S. (2022). Futures consciousness as a human anticipatory capacity. University of Turku. Knorr Cetina. K., & Reichmann, W. (2015). Professional epistemic cultures. In Langemayer et al. (Eds.) Epistemic and learning cultures (pp.19-33). Juventa. Nerland, M., & Jensen, K. (2012). Epistemic practices and object relations in professional work, Journal of Education and Work, (25)1, 101-120. Nerland, M., & Hasu, M. (2020). Challenging the belief in simple solutions: The need for epistemic practices in professional work. Medical Education 55, 65–71. Orlowski, W.J., & Scott, S.V. (2008). Sociomateriality: Challenging the separation of technology, work, and organization. The Academy of Management Annals, 2(1), 433-474. Reinius, H., Kaukinen, I., Korhonen, T., Juuti, K., & Hakkarainen, K. (2022). Teachers as transformative agents in changing school culture. Teaching and Teacher Education, 120. Ritella, G., & Hakkarainen, K. (2012). Instrumental genesis in technology-mediated learning. International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 7(2), 239-258. Vähäsantanen, K. (2015). Professional agency in the stream of change. Teaching and Teacher Education, 47, 1-12. Vähäsantanen, K., & Hämäläinen, R. (2019). Professional identity in relation to vocational teachers’ work. Learning: Research and Practice, 5(1), 48-66. Widmann, A., Mulder, R.H., & Köning, C. (2019). Team learning behaviours as predictors of innovative work behavior – a longitudinal study, Innovation, 21(2), 298-316.