Addressing graduate capability through action research: a cross-disciplinary perspective in a New Zealand context
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Addressing graduate capability through action research: a cross‑disciplinary perspective in a New Zealand context Qilong Zhang1,2 Received: 24 March 2020 / Accepted: 18 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract The concept “graduate capability” has been created to respond to the trend that tertiary education graduates routinely encounter uncertainty and complexity. Adopting a multiple-site action research design, this study explored ways to address graduate capability across five disciplines in a New Zealand vocational education institution. Participants were 215 students and 21 teaching staff. Data collection included interviews, team meetings, and a variety of pedagogical documentation. Ethnographic content analysis was used for data analysis which generated five disciplinespecific approaches to graduate capability intervention. Each approach included five dimensions: selection of focus capability items (FCIs) for intervention, composition of FCIs, strategies to address FCIs, impact of the intervention, and relationship between the intervention and the academic programme. This study not only helps the sampled programmes address graduate capability in an intentional and systematic way, but also offers an operational framework for designing capability intervention programmes in similar settings. Keywords Uncertainty · Graduate capability · Action research · Cross-disciplinary
Introduction Uncertainty and complexity is a distinct feature of the employment environment facing tertiary education graduates in changing times (Higdon 2016; Molla and Cuthbert 2015). In response to such uncertainty and complexity, the concept of ‘capability’ has been introduced into tertiary education to categorise non-traditional graduate outcomes which go beyond knowledge and skills. The New Zealand Qualifications Framework provides, “In developing graduate profiles, the qualification developer
* Qilong Zhang [email protected] 1
Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology, Mokoia Drive, Rotorua 3046, New Zealand
2
United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
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should consider the full range of capabilities and competencies” (New Zealand Qualification Authority 2016 p. 7). However, it remained an unresolved question how graduate capability can be addressed in tertiary education programmes, and this study was aimed at answering the question. Understanding the term ‘capability’ is a starting point for addressing it in a tertiary programme. Classical definitions of capability emphasise the element of ‘changing context’. Stephenson and Yorke (1998) defined capability as “an integration of knowledge, skills, personal qualities and understanding used appropriately and effectively—not just in familiar and highly focus specialist contexts, but in response to new and changing circumstances” (p. 2). Stephenson (1998) elaborated, “[Capability] depends much more on our confidence that we can effectively use and develop our skills in complex and changing circumstances than on our mere possession
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