Browsing by Person "Powell, Mandy"

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Accessing PR expertise: methodological considerations
(Queen Margaret University, 2013) L'Etang, Jacquie; Powell, Mandy
The nature of public relations expertise and knowledge has been rather under-researched. In particular, practitioners' perspectives and, more to the point, their voices, have been given little attention. Consequently, we have begun to redress this lack through a twelve month funded project . The study was originally designed from the perspective that academic research could identify conceptual or knowledge gaps in practice that could be filled through the transmission of useful knowledge/cognitive skills, an assumption that has dominated much of the literature. During the progress of this research we came to appreciate that a deeper and more complex challenge existed in understanding how practitioners learn. Consequently, our study evolved from a deficit model of professional development into a series of iterative interventions. These took place during a longer term research relationship aiming to elicit practitioners' ideas about their daily work and the underpinning expertise and knowledges accumulated through learning and over time. We were particularly interested in the work of experienced practitioners who were recognised as such by their professional peer group and identified as 'senior'. In this article we provide a brief synopsis of relevant literature and outline the rationale and approach taken to our empirical work, foregrounding the methodological challenges entailed in accessing the ideas of practitioners about the nature of their expertise, knowledge and learning. We begin with a discussion of insights from the public relations literature and then proceed to draw on sociological, cultural studies and educational theory to indicate useful lines of analysis and future inquiry
Media concepts and cultures: progressing learning from and for everyday life
(Routledge, 2014-01-31) Powell, Mandy; Benson, P.; Chik, A.; ESRC
This chapter draws on data from a three-year ESRC funded research project based at the Institute of Education, University of London, titled Developing Media Literacy: Towards a model of learning progression (2009-2012) and led by Professors David Buckingham and Andrew Burn. The two researchers on the project were Dr Mandy Powell and Dr Becky Parry. Working with learners from the ages of 5 to 16 in locations with contrasting socio-economic and geographic profiles in the UK, the project brought learners' and teachers' media cultures into dialogue with formal media and cultural studies concepts to develop media literacies. The project drew upon Bruner's idea of a spiral curriculum and mapped learning cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Such an approach raised questions about the organisation of learning in ages and stages. More significantly, perhaps, teaching for conceptual understanding enabled a dialectic between learners' popular media cultures and the formal curriculum to develop. The research findings suggest that the cultural, creative and critical challenge generated by the dialectic has the potential to progress the intellectual development of all learners n the context of formal schooling. When teachers focus on disciplinary concepts and the relationship between them rather than facts, learners can be located more centrally in the topic and identify what counts as meaningful progress for each learner. However, this may not always correspond with what counts for teachers but by maintaining a pedagogy of inquiry teachers and learners can navigate social, cultural and educational orthodoxies and challenge received wisdoms. The research findings suggest than an explicit and visible focus on locating a desirable exchange value in both out-of-school and in-school practices and experiences is a complex and contentious process but crucial to the progression of meaningful learning for all.
'Nothing Similar in England': the Scottish Film Council, The Scottish Education Department and the utility of 'educational film' to Scotland
(Palgrave MacMillan, 2015) Powell, Mandy; Chignell, Hugh; Franklin, Ieuan; Skoog, K.
Nothing Similar in England': the Scottish Film Council, the Scottish Education Department and the utility of 'educational film' to Scotland analyses the work educational film performed for Scotland from the 1930s to the 1950s. The Scottish Film Council (SFC) was constituted in 1934 as both a cultural and an educational institution. Using a binocular lens that links media and education policy in Scotland, therefore, the chapter explores the double utility of educational film as a cultural practice and process enacted in the everyday politics of space and place. Scottish institutional advocacy for the educational work of film helped sustain a precarious filmmaking community in Scotland and the production of educational film promoted the distinctiveness of Scottish civic identity and a cultural rationale for devolution thus.
Time to Shine: Scotland's Youth Arts Strategy For Ages 0-25
(Taylor & Francis, 2015-07) Powell, Mandy
Creative Scotland's ten-year plan for youth arts, Time to Shine (2013), was funded to the tune of 5m by the Scottish Government's Young Scots Fund. When Creative Scotland was formed in 2009, a Concordant of Intent- was submitted to the new Scottish National Party's minority government. Produced by four national youth performing arts companies (NYPAC), the National Youth Choir of Scotland, The National Youth Orchestras of Scotland, the Scottish Youth Theatre and YDance (Scottish Youth Dance), the document provided a catalyst for a national discussion on the youth arts- involving nearly two thousand stakeholders- (p5). Time to Shine is the product of that national discussion and the object of this review.
Understanding learning in senior public relations practices: From boundary spanning to boundary dwelling
(Emerald, 2016-08-13) Powell, Mandy; Pieczka, Magda
Over the last 50 years, the social legitimacy of public relations has improved through standardising and monitoring the education and training of its practitioners. This article argues however that while successful in developing a professional development trajectory from novice to competent practitioner, the profession has struggled to fully understand the development trajectory of senior public relations practices. The diversity of occupational contexts in which public relations is practised, the condition of professional seniority and the knowledges and tools required for working at occupational boundaries is challenging for senior public relations practitioners. It is also a challenge therefore, for the profession to develop and support the learning required for senior practice beyond competency frameworks. This article suggests that socio-cultural learning theory offers a potentially fruitful way of understanding what and how senior professionals learn that requires public relations to develop a clearer conceptual understanding of the relationship between knowledge and practice. 'Communities of practice' has been influential in the fields of management and organisations (Bolisani and Scarso, 2014) but this article employs the idea of a learning process that takes place in 'constellations of practices' (Wenger, 1998) to offer a view of senior practice as boundary dwelling (Engestrom, 2009) rather than boundary spanning. Senior practitioner learning therefore, is 'situated' (Lave and Wenger, 1991) in the liminal spaces those boundaries provide and should be understood as inherently uncertain and always becoming. The article argues in consequence, there is a pressing need for senior practitioner learning to be more effectively supported by the professional group.
Wanted: A Community of Practice for Senior Public Relations Practitioners
(International Public Relations Association, 2013-12) L'Etang, Jacquie; Powell, Mandy
The gap between PR theory and practice is not always easily bridged. How self-aware are senior practitioners and how much do they interrogate their thinking when making decisions? Beyond Competence: Concepts, criticality and expertise In a previous Thought Leadership article (Gorpe, S, February 2013), Dr Serra Gorpe, Professor of Communications at Istanbul University wrote 'I still have a hard time explaining to students and people from the general public what exactly we do'. She is not the first academic or practitioner to articulate this challenge. The interesting question is 'Why?' And this is where our recent work at Queen Margaret University in Scotland has focused.
Youth cultures, media practices and citizenship: really useful knowledge?
(Taylor & Francis, 2015-06-29) Powell, Mandy