First level analysis framework

First and second level analyses are my strategy to build up a set of meanings and

understandings of what the Critical Temporalities are for working students. The first level analysis unpacks all the categories, and elements, that will be needed for further analysis. The strategy for this thesis is to identify the dimensions of time, contradictions, timing of studies, identifying the basic notions of lifelong learning in the data collected.

4.3.1 Identifying the dimensions of time present in the lives of the

research participants

The dimension of time forming the analytical framework here are separation, scheduling, precision, pace, present time perspective, future time perspective, flexibility, linearity, scarcity, and urgency. These form the construals and enactments of the dimensions of time experienced by working students (Ballard & Seibold 2004a).

Dimensions of time consist of construals of time and enactments of time. A construal is the way that the research participant thinks about time that they have at their disposal at work. And an enactment of time means how they act out, or act on, these construals during the working day.

Listed here in summary are the seven Enactments of time – the way working students decide to experience or negotiate their daily tasks and duties. Flexibility is the enactment of time regarding the notion of “rigidity” are task completion plans. Linearity is

associated with actual task execution. Pace is perceived by the worker as fast or slow, depending on their inputs and stimuli. Punctuality is about the precision of matching the completion of a task to a negotiated time. Delay is about the level of tardiness related to work processes or tasks. Scheduling concerns the extent to which how precisely plans, activities, and events are formalized against an external calendar or clock. And finally, Separation indexes the degree to which “extraneous factors are eliminated or engaged during task completion”.

In addition, listed here in summary are the four Construals of time that working students might have which affects how they perceive time and think about time in their daily working lives. The construal named Scarcity is about thinking of time as a “limited and exhaustible resource”. Urgency is the construal of time when the worker finds that there is a pressure and prioritisations of time needed for deadlines. Having a Present

perspective is a construal of time where the worker is “addressing a range of emergent problems”. And having a Future perspective is when the worker is involved with future or long term planning.

The initial analysis proceeds by identifying the dimensions of each of the construals and enactments that are particular to each research participant. This provides a framework that is not psychological, but is based in educational and organizational ways of being.

Chapter 2 goes deeper into the theory and history of these dimensions of time. Chapter 5 provides greater insights into the major dimensions of time experienced by the research participants and what this says about the nature Critical Temporalities they have.

4.3.2 Identifying the levels of contradictions in the lives of the

research participants

Contradictions are historically accumulating structural tensions within and between activity systems. The four levels of contradictions are termed primary, secondary, tertiary ad quaternary contradictions. Primary contradictions are fundamentally systemic, and secondary, tertiary, and quarternary contradictions underscore the processes of expansive learning cycles. Chapter 2 goes into greater detail, but here follows a reminder of what will be highlighted in the analysis below.

It is noted that the primary contradiction of all activities in capitalist socio-economic formations is that between the exchange value and the use value within each element of the activity system. Primary, fundamental and system wide contradiction, between the exchange value of the BLIS degree and the use value of the BLIS degree will be identified and analysed. Problems of (1) self-development, and (2) professional advancement amongst peers, and (3) remuneration and (4) promotion opportunities fall into the set of primary contradictions.

Secondary contradictions arise when the actor is different to what the activity expects under regular or historical conditions. In this case, I will translate the example of working BLIS students and their study problems where the conflicts emerge between their

complexities and the traditional university environment not being able to respond to their educational needs – not in terms of curriculum content, but in terms of the surrounding enabling affordances and barriers to their obtaining access to the curriculum. This contradiction takes a huge toll on both the students and the academics involved, and is one of the major issues and lamentations found in the baseline and collected set of semi- structured interviews. To theorise this conundrum is a major part of this thesis. It starts out as an academic’s complaint about the structure of the calendar and her available tutoring times which do not coincide with the working students’ availability. This means that her day is stretched or that the After Hours academics have to carry the load. And it ends up with students either coping with massive accelerated lives during studies, or they cannot cope and either become disillusioned or drop out. The university finds it difficult to change as they see their main clients as the full-time students attending lectures during the day. The workplace is equally tied up in notions of giving working students the minimum amount of days for studies which would cover a conference or short course or workshop, but does not give working students of the BLIS degree a fighting chance. In fact those who succeed are the survivors of the system, who beat the system in some ways. While fairness in the workplace is a consideration, there are recommendations for all stakeholders (individuals, university and workplace) for overcoming this secondary contradiction in chapter 6.

A secondary contradiction can be identified when a student’s problems do not comply with the current educational provision. One of the issues is chronic insufficiency of time for these students to complete their classes and assignments and exams successfully. For individual narratives summarised here, in the initial analysis, I will focus on identifying secondary contradictions for the individual students and academics. So while there are four levels of contradictions discussed in this section – many times only the secondary level contradiction will be identified and related to acceleration experienced as a result of professional development studies and the resultant coping mechanisms will be noted in the initial analyses.

A level three contradiction is about internal resistance to change. There were no overt resistances found in the any of the data collected. What was a problem found in one

instance was the line manager’s resistance to facilitating the professional development of their staff. And the problem of lack of time for studies itself was a hidden third level contradiction.

I did not find any fourth level contradictions. This is because the university, professional body and the workplace are in some ways are already integrated, and so teaching of new professional skills proceeds according to the feedback from the workplace. There are regular meetings, consultations, conferences and enough publications to be satisfied that fourth level contradictions would not easily appear in the South African system of libraries and librarianship.

What can be commented on at the fourth level of contradictions is the disjuncture between rhetoric and action in the system. So the system is adopting a holistic and integrated approach, but the people development policy is at times lagging behind. This high level contradiction will be discussed further in chapter 5.

4.3.3. Identifying personal communicative agency

Who, what, when, and how discussions with colleagues, family or study buddies took place is what I will be looking for.

4.3.4 Timing of the professional degree studies

This takes the form of a statement of when in the life of the student stated they are studying and why.

4.3.5 Paragraph identifying the initial analysis sections

At the beginning of each interview’s analysis section, the following text will appear as a reminder to the reader of what is to come: The initial analysis states the nature of the enactments and construals of the dimensions of time experienced in the workplace, the

nature of the primary or secondary contradiction experienced by the individual, any evidence of personal communicative agency, and when in the life of the student are they studying and why. This is easier to keep the flow of the text than to break it up with an artificial numbering system. The idea is for the student narratives to begin to take shape, and to get a feel for their stories, and then to shape their interviews around 4 key areas in time management, contradictions, relationships and timing of studies.