A discourse analytic perspective on the HEI rector’s leadership: subject positions and positioning

Author(s):

Christa Tigerstedt(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 03 D, Academic Work and Professional Development

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-10

17:15-18:45

Room:

STD-402

Chair:

Hugh Busher

Contribution

The focus in this paper is on the HEI (Higher Education Institution) leadership in Finland and more specifically on the rector’s leadership.

The higher education system in Finland consists of traditional universities and universities of applied sciences. The former is more into traditional academic research and while the latter concentrates more on applied research and closeness to the professional working life.

In the HEI field we can see that the HEI sector is in for many changes and has been so for a long time. At the time being one can identify the following main change processes in the HEI field: Profiling and specialisation, consolidation, restructuring, effectiveness, restructuring: forming of alliances, mergers, internationalization, ranking, accreditation, transnational evaluation, new legislation, change of financial position, change in ownership etc.

How, then, do the current changes become visible from a leadership perspective? The leadership discourse is here investigated by analyzing the rectors’ inauguration speeches. How does the rector talk about these changes? The aim is to describe the leadership discourse, with the help of occurring subject positions and the positioning on the same.

The researcher applies a micro perspective on HEIs and this is a perspective that has not been widely investigated in Finland nor within the Nordic countries. Teichler and Sadlak (2000) acknowledge that the HEI research has had a policy focus in Europe. In the US the focus on the organization/institution and the leadership is much more common. In Finland the focus on HEI institutions has often been on policy and on the sociology of education.

The leadership thinking that has been inspiring me in this paper is related to what Juuti (2001) call postmodern leadership thinking. Postmodern organization research is not aiming at creating new tradition nor action models. It wants to open up social constructions which are also well suited for my discourse analytic interest here. Post-structural research on the other hand is emphasizing the importance of context and language and the way language can be interpreted as something that constitutes the subject, the talk and actions. (Juuti, 2001.) People form the organization as they talk and depending on how they talk (Wood, 1998 in Juuti 2001, pp. 128-133).

The research questions are: What kind of a discursive practice is the rector’s leadership of today? What kinds of subject positions occur and how do these describe the HEI leadership discourse in the chosen setting?

Method

This research is a discourse analytic study influenced by the discursive psychology (for example Potter & Wetherell). The focus is on the rectors’ speech - how does he/she talk and about what. The focus is not on why. The rector as an individual is not important. It is the speech as such that form the leadership discourse in the research and parts of the speeches will together form unit for analysis. Discourse psychology is well suited when the focus in a smaller discourse and everyday talking. Another feature describing small discourses is the way the actor him/herself is speaking/talking in the material. The material analyzed here consists of 61 inauguration speeches given by rectors during 2008-2010. An inauguration speech is here understood as the speech held by the rector in the beginning of the academic year. The speeches are official documents and most of them are found online. They are about 3-5 pages long. The ones analyzed here are in fact all found on official websites. Speeches of both rectors and site/vice-rectors are included. The inauguration speeches are a so called naturally occurring material that already existed when this research project started.

Expected Outcomes

My main findings are reported in the form of occurring themes, subject positions as well as positioning. I identified 15 subject positions from reading 2 and 3. These are the most frequently occurring subject positions in the speeches. When I look at the theories touched upon in the introductory parts I can see that the talk is very much circling around the things in the context. Restructuring and the university law are main themes. It is clear that the views on the new law are dividing the rectors into separate groups. It has also been interesting to see so far how the talk varies when the language within the same talk changes. (Many rectors switch between Finnish, Swedish and English). What caught my eye was that the tone was more positive when the English language was used. This can of course be caused by the receiver in such cases.

References

Amaral, A., Meek, V.L. & Larsen, I. M. (eds.) (2003).The higher education managerial revolution? Dorrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers;Bergström, G. & Boreus, K (red.) (2005). Textens mening och makt. Metodbok I samhällsvetenskaplig text- och diskursanalys. Lund: Studentlitteratur;Bolman, L. G. & Deal, T.E. (2005). Nya perspektiv på organisation och ledarskap. Lund: Studentlitteratur;Ferlie, E. & Steane, P. (2002). Changing developments in NPM. International Journal och Public Administration. Vol 25, no 12, pp 1459-1469; Juuti, P. (2001) Johtamispuhe. Juva: PS Kustannus;Kauko, J. & Varjo, J. (2008). Age of Indicators: changes in the Finnish education policy agenda. European educational research Journal, vol 7, no 2,219- 231;Moos,L. (2009b). A General Context for new Social Technologies. Handout, 23.10.2009;Möller, J. (2009). Approaches to School Leadership in Scandinavia. Journal of Educational Administration and History. Vol 41 no 2 pp 165-167;Potter, J. & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and Social Psychology. London: Sage Publications;Prichard C. (2000). Making Managers in Universities and Colleges. Bukingham: Open University Press;Tjeldvald, A. (2001).Globalization and European Universities. Studies in Comparative and International Education (vol 7). Report no 2, 2001. Oslo: University of Oslo, Institute for Educational Research;Söreide, G-E. (2007). Narrative construction of teacher identity. Dissertation for the degree doctor philosophie. Bergen: University of Bergen;Teichler, U. & Sadlak, J. (2000). Higher Education Research. It’s relationship to policy and practice. Pergamon, IAU Press;Tight, M. (ed) (2000). Academic work and life: what it is to be an academic, and how this is changing. London: Elsevier Science;Toikka, M. (2002). Strategia-ajattelu ja strateginen johtaminen ammattikorkeakoulussa. Tampere: Tamperen yliopisto;Välimaa, J. & Hoffman, D. (2008). Knowledge society discourse and higher education. Higher Education, vol 56, pp 265-285;Välimaa, J. & Treuthardt, L. (2007). Analysing, Finnish steering system from the perspective of social space: the case of the “Campus University”. Higher Education, vol 55, pp 607- 622.

Author Information

Christa Tigerstedt (presenting / submitting)

Åbo Akademi University

Faculty of Education

Esbo

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