Who should i talk to? - informal workplace learning among teachers in police education

ABSTRACT

Previous research has shown that teachers’ informal learning in social networks is of great importance for their professional development. Participation in social networks is often characterised by knowledge exchange between employees with the aim of dealing with work-related challenges or improving the work practice. In this study, attention was focused on teachers at a Swedish police education unit and their participation in work-related social networks. The findings were based on two data collections, logbooks of social networking interactions and follow-up interviews with 23 teachers. The purpose was to explore who they talked to, for what purpose and what means of communication they used, and the analysis included mapping of their interactions in social networks and a qualitative analysis of their narratives. Overall, the study shows that the teachers’ participation in social networks was extensive and valuable for their professional development as teachers. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the teachers’ interactions in social networks are usually intentional and based on knowledge needs related to pedagogical aspects of teaching, that the composition of course content and teaching teams can affect teachers’ readiness to participate in several different networks and that the type of knowledge need affects which means of communication are used.

KEYWORDS:

• Informal workplace learning
• social networks
• police education
• teachers

Introduction

This research paper deals with a group of teachers’ work at a police education unit and their participation in social networks when they need to overcome work-related challenges. More specifically, the focus is on who they turn to for help, and why, when trying to solve different kinds of problems or when seeking advice that can support them in their work as teachers. Such activities can be defined as informal workplace learning and is described in the literature as being of great importance for professional development in a variety of practices (Billett 2004; Jeong et al. 2018; Lecat, Beausaert, and Raemdonck 2018). Although there are no clear boundaries between formal and informal learning, a distinction can be made for contrasting purposes. We define formal workplace learning as concerning organised activities which are often part of an employer’s staff development strategies, while, in contrast, informal learning is something that emerges in daily work activities (Billett 2004; Boud and Hager 2012). In the literature, informal workplace learning is characterised by its social and collaborative nature, the sharing of knowledge among colleagues and reflections on one’s actions (Boud and Rooney 2018; Kyndt et al. 2016; Tynjälä 2008). Previous research also demonstrates that a workplace consists of different formal and informal groups or networks of colleagues and that such networks are of great importance for enabling informal workplace learning (De Laat and Schreurs 2013). Against this backdrop, informal workplace learning is studied in this paper with an analytic focus on the social networks at the police education unit and the activities, connections, and motives for interaction within and between these networks.

The present study was conducted at a Swedish university that offers the Basic Police Education Programme. The programme comprises two years of academic and practical studies, followed by a six-month placement in a local police area. There are two categories of teachers at the unit. Two-thirds of the teachers are police teachers (police officers recruited from the police authority) and one-third university teachers from different academic departments. The police teachers, most of whom are employed on fixed-term contracts, have extensive professional experience but they generally have no formal pedagogical training. The university teachers, by contrast, usually hold permanent positions at the university and have broad experience in teaching academic subjects such as law, education, political science, sociology, and psychology but lack experience in police work. The work environment at the unit is characterised by many informal and formal meetings and activities where university teachers and police teachers interact within and across subject-specific and subject-integrated teaching teams.

Based on previous research, we argue for the usefulness of this study. First, although there is an extensive corpus of research on informal workplace learning, there is a demand for research on additional occupational groups (e.g. Gola 2009; Grant Wofford, Ellinger, and Watkins 2013), and our review has not identified any studies in a police education context. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to contribute to the current body of knowledge by providing insights about teachers’ informal workplace learning in a vocational programme where teachers from different professional practices work together. Our review also shows that analyses of social networks have mostly been applied to digital arenas and that, when more holistic analyses of actual workplaces have been made, they have been focused on the quantification and visualization of these networks (e.g. De Laat and Schreurs 2013). Thus, we argue that the qualitative approach of this study, which, in addition to mapping the interactions and networks, also explores the teachers’ knowledge needs and means of communication, has the potential to deepen the understanding of informal workplace learning.

Informal workplace learning

In step with increasingly rapid changes in working life and in society at large, continuous skills development is becoming ever more important. Continuous learning at work is therefore of great importance for both employers and employees at the organisational, group and individual level. Professionals learn new things in formal training activities such as workshops and courses, but it is more common that learning emerges through their informal social networks at work (Baker-Doyle and Yoon 2011). The starting point of this paper is that informal learning has a broader meaning than formal learning. It involves a process initiated by the worker himself that is often related to a challenge encountered at work which must be overcome in order to solve a particular task (Boud and Hager 2012). We theorise informal workplace learning as situated in the work practice and a part of everyday work together with colleagues and tools associated with the practice. Informal learning includes how to interpret, share, contextualise and sustain knowledge (De Laat and Schreurs 2013). Thus, informal learning is better characterised as a social practice than as a body of knowledge or entity that is acquired or transferred (Boud and Rooney 2018). Such a definition of informal workplace learning highlights the diversity of learning and its relational character, with individuals interacting with each other and with cultural and material resources and tools (Jacobs and Park 2009).

In recent years, informal workplace learning has received increasing attention in research at the organisational, group and individual levels (Lecat, Beausaert, and Raemdonck 2018; Kyndt et al. 2016; Tynjälä 2008), and in different kinds of practices (Jeong et al. 2018; Manuti et al. 2015). Further, previous research shows that informal learning activities at work can be both individual and collective (Doornbos, Simons, and Denessen 2008) and take place through interaction with material objects (Noe, Tews, and Marand 2013). It is also shown that such learning activities can be of both an intentional and an unintentional nature, where the former is characterised by the learner actively participating in the practice with the intention of improving the daily work by problem-solving (e.g. Tynjälä 2008), while the latter is more characterised by socialisation in a workplace (e.g. Eraut 2004).

Social networks

One way of understanding informal workplace learning is to explore the networking activities that take place in the workplace. Informal workplace learning often emerges in collective activities where the employees are dependent on their colleagues’ experience and knowledge. In order for professional development to occur, however, employees must get to know each other more closely and interact in their daily practice (De Laat and Schreurs 2013). Through such interactions between colleagues, social networks are built in the workplace. Haythornthwaite and De Laat (2011) describe social networks as the variations of connectivity between people who are interacting by communicating, sharing resources and working and learning together, both face-to-face and via digital technology. Participating in a social network also means that the persons involved have a set of relationships and connections which is based on personal reasons, connecting meaning to something more than just being in the same workspace (Wenger, Trayner, and De Laat 2011). Social networks are further described by Wenger, Trayner, and De Laat (2011) as a set of ties (connections) between members of the network that enables learning, including activities such as sharing of information, joint problem solving and development of knowledge. Therefore, participation in networks provides additional opportunities for informal learning (De Laat 2012).

Learning in social networks

Learning in social networks is described in the literature as a collective process of sharing and developing knowledge (Vaessen, Van Den Beemt, and De Laat 2014). The value of a social network for learning comes from the different sources or ties available to the professional. These ties can offer multiple perspectives, responses, and support, and can be initiated by the learner or by other members of the network (Wenger, Trayner, and De Laat 2011). Further, De Laat (2012) states that ties in social networks can vary in strength from weak to strong depending on the type of relationships. Strong relationships are characterised by long-lasting friendships with colleagues which are of value for the day-to-day activities of the work practice by deepening the knowledge in use and by increasing the commitment to joint activities (De Laat and Schreurs 2013). Weak relationships, held with acquaintances, have value for gaining access to new knowledge and fresh perspectives (De Laat and Schreurs 2013). This means that learning resources in a network can be consciously targeted or spontaneously picked up in the flow of different interactions without any previous intent (Wenger, Trayner, and De Laat 2011).

Studying social networks

In order to understand network patterns and the creation of social relationships, the key is to make visible how the participants develop their ability to gain access to shared recourses, ask for help and develop collaborations. Traditionally, the research focus in this field has been on on-line networks (c.f. Haythornthwaite et al. 2007). However, the focus can also be broader, including multiple forms of interactions and relations. In other words, it is a matter of understanding how people develop their abilities to create or participate in social spaces that contribute to their working and learning (De Laat 2012). In analysing social networks and their relation to learning, the focus is directed to the different types of social relationships professionals have, what strategies they use for maintaining them, and the value these relationships create for learning (De Laat and Schreurs 2013).

Previous research of social networks agrees on the benefits such work-related networks have for professional development (De Laat and Schreurs 2013). However, research is often limited to general descriptions and do not empirically study the details of what the network participants do and for what purposes (De Laat 2012). The scope of such general descriptions is often to list the indicators of a network and how information flows between participants, but they do not usually address the significance of the networking activities for workplace learning. Arguments have therefore been put forward for the of use mixed methods to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data which together can help to highlight structural features, the content being exchanged and the role of agency in networks. (De Laat 2012; De Laat and Schreurs 2013; Froehlich, Van Waes, and Schäfer 2020; Thompson et al. 2013). Further, it has also been pointed out that mapping and visualisations of a network and identification of key players can be seen as vital for supporting organisational learning that improves performance in the workplace (Pahor, Skerlavaj, and Dimovski 2008).

Previous research on teachers’ social networks and informal learning shows the value of visualising such social networks in the local practice for supporting a culture of informal day-to-day learning. One such example is De Laat and Schreurs’s (2013) case study of teachers’ informal learning networks and their significance for their professional development. It was shown that, despite limited organisational support, the teachers’ participation in the networks played an important part in their professional development. The authors call for more innovative professional development policies to enable and support informal workplace learning. Another example is Baker-Doyle and Yoon’s (2020) review and synthesis of seven empirical studies of teachers’ professional development using social network analysis. Their conclusions suggest some lessons learned about, for example, the importance of building structures that can bridge networks and thus enable teachers to connect more with others. This can also have a positive impact on students’ academic achievement. Other examples are the importance of building trust in teacher networks and encouraging peer collaboration across skill levels, which can further the exchange of instructional materials between teachers (Baker-Doyle and Yoon 2020). The authors claim that consideration of these strategies can support social networks for teachers aimed at improving agency, trust and teaching competence. An additional example is Brown, Daly, and Liou (2016), who examined teachers’ perceptions of their schools’ work with school improvement and the scientific grounding of school practice. Using a quantitative approach, they analysed the teachers’ social networks in 43 schools. Their findings show that schools that valued learning, experimentation and new ideas, and where the teachers had frequent interactions about their teaching reported a higher degree of research evidence in their work than the schools with weaker social networks. Taken together, the findings from these studies show that visualisation and analysis of social networks can contribute to an increased understanding of informal workplace learning at both general and local level. In these studies, it is also evident that the relational aspects of learning are very important for teachers’ professional development.

Against this background, the overall aim of this study is to contribute knowledge about informal workplace learning among teachers at a Swedish police education unit. More precisely, the purpose is to describe and analyse the teachers’ involvement in social networks as regards their knowledge needs, who they contact and what means of communication they use. The aim is specified in the following research questions:

1. What knowledge needs can be identified in the teachers’ informal networking activities?

2. What networking activities can be identified when the teachers need support in their daily work?

3. What means of communication can be identified in the teachers’ social networks?

The first question concerns the work-related needs leading to the teachers contacting colleagues or people outside the police education unit. In other words – what is it that triggers their participation in social networks? The second question aims at visualising the social networks in play and the interactions taking place. It involves mapping and analysis of the ties between the teachers and other persons, and identification of key persons at the workplace. The third question concerns the types of means of communication used by the teachers and whether their knowledge needs affect their choice of contact method.

Method

In this section, the study's methodological framework is described with regard to study setting, participants, data collection methods, procedures and analysis.

Study setting

The teaching staff at the police education unit is divided into teaching teams, some of which are subject-integrated and consist of both police teachers and university teachers, while others are subject-specific and made up of police teachers. Examples of subject areas are academical subjects such as law, political science and behavioural science, and police subjects such as weapons and tactics training, communication and conflict management, mental and physical preparation, car driving and police computer systems and radios. The teachers’ work at the unit consists mainly of teaching conducted in traditional classrooms, special practice rooms for scenario training, such as apartments, shops and pubs, and in premises for physical training and weapons training. Planning and follow-up of teaching is usually carried out through a combination of formal planning meetings and informal dialogues between colleagues. While theory-based lessons and seminars are normally taught by a single teacher, two or more teachers are usually responsible for the practice-oriented teaching. The teachers’ work teams are located in different buildings on campus, but they have regular contacts with colleagues from other work teams via informal and formal meetings held at the central police education unit.

Participants

The studied police education unit employs about 60 teachers, of whom 40 are police teachers and 20 university teachers. The teachers’ ages vary from about 30–65, about one-third of the teachers are women and the teachers’ teaching experience varies from one to 20 semesters. When selecting participants for the study, a representation was sought that would as far as possibly correspond to the teaching staff's actual background data. With the help of the unit's administrative staff, it was possible to achieve a satisfactory agreement regarding the participants’ background variables between the study sample and the actual teaching staff. In addition, the criteria included a requirement that the participants should be teaching at least 30% at the unit and have at least one semester of teaching experience. 45 of the 60 teachers met these criteria and 25 of these were willing to participate in the study. The total distribution was 15 police teachers and 10 university teachers (15 men and 10 women) between the ages of 31 and 62 years with a teaching experience of 1–18 semesters.

Data collection methods

The choice and design of data collection methods were based on the purpose of the study, which was to describe and analyse teachers’ social networks and informal workplace learning. Our intention was that the respondents, based on their daily activities as teachers, which mainly included planning, implementation and follow-up of teaching, would focus on their ongoing informal learning processes in terms of triggers for getting involved in network activities (what), interacting participants (who) and performance of activities (how). With these intentions in mind, digital logbooks and semi-structured interviews were chosen as data collection methods. The purpose of the digital logbook was to capture the teachers’ daily observations of the above-mentioned aspects. They were asked to document during one month what additional knowledge and information they needed in order to be able to carry on with the work at hand, whom they contacted for support and why and in what ways they contacted them. To further enrich and nuance the results obtained from the digital logbooks, it was decided that semi-structured interviews with the respondents should be used, which would provide the teachers with the opportunity to make supplementary comments and reflect on their informal learning processes in the workplace.

Procedure

Initially, oral information about the content and design of the study was given to all teachers at the police education unit. After a check of the teachers’ terms of employment, work duties and teaching experience, a covering letter was sent to the 45 respondents who met the criteria set for the study. It included descriptions of the study's purpose and research questions, selection criteria, explanations of key concepts such as informal workplace learning and social networks, the themes that would be highlighted in the digital logbooks and the interviews, and the study's ethical aspects.

The first part of the study was focused on the digital logbooks which the respondents had kept for one month. The number of entries per respondent ranged from 15 to 90 and the scope of the entries varied from short notes to long and detailed comments. One month later, the second part of the study, consisting of interviews with 23 of the 25 respondents (two respondents were not available during this period), was carried out. The interviews, which were conducted at the police education unit lasted between 55 and 90 min and were taped using a digital recorder.

Data analysis

After retrieval of the data from the digital logbooks and transcription, reading and rereading of the interviews, the collected data material was analysed according to the theory-generated themes ‘what / why’, ‘who’ and ‘how’. The question ‘what / why’ concerned the respondents’ identified needs for new or supplementary knowledge and information they perceived as necessary for them to be able to carry on with the work at hand. These identified needs for knowledge can thus be considered to be triggers for further workplace learning. The second question, ‘who’, was about which persons the respondents turned to for support or help when they needed additional knowledge. Finally, the third question, ´how’, concerned how the respondents proceeded to get in touch with persons they assumed would be able to provide the support they needed. The analysis comprised the following steps:

(1a) The number of postings in the digital logbook was counted to get a quantitative measure of the informal work-related interactions.

(1b) The respondents’ entries on ‘who’ they approached for support at work formed the basis for a social network analysis (SNA) (cf. De Laat and Schreurs 2013) where the teachers and their interactions internally in the workplace and externally with people outside the workplace were visualised by means of nodes (squares) and ties (arrows) in a figure. To make the directions in the teachers’ ties visible, single arrows and double arrows were used, and to visualise stronger ties with certain persons, broader arrows were used. Steps 1a and 1b in the analysis contributed to the identification of social networks and key persons in the studied workplace.

(1c) The respondents’ entries about their means of communication (‘how’) were quantified and categorised in categories such as face-to-face, phone and e-mail contacts.

(2) Subsequently, the teachers’ entries in the logbooks and their comments in the interviews regarding what triggered their participation in social networks (‘what / why’) were analysed in several steps with inspiration from Kvale and Brinkmann (2009) and Braun and Clark (2006). (2a) All statements were initially marked with codes, which were inserted into a category map (2b) (Braun and Clark 2006). By means of this map, several similar categories were identified that could be merged and thus the number of categories was reduced. The analysis work continued until no new codes could be identified in the material (Kvale and Brinkmann 2009). In the subsequent analysis (2c), these categories could be reduced and merged into themes, as many of them had a similar content. Examples of themes related to the teachers’ knowledge needs (Question 1) were ‘pedagogical issues’, ‘technology issues’ and ‘subject issues’. Finally, the study's theoretical framework with concepts such as informal learning activities and informal workplace learning was used in order to increase the understanding of the teachers’ informal learning. In this part, the material was analysed with a special focus on the social, relational, practice-oriented and problem-solving aspects of their informal learning (cf. Boud and Rooney 2018; Tynjälä 2008).

Findings and analysis

This section presents the results and analysis of the study, structured according to the study’s questions about knowledge needs that triggered the teachers’ participation in network learning activities (what/why), the individuals and groups taking part in the networks (who) and the means of communication used (how).

Knowledge needs

Five themes were identified on the basis of the teachers’ entries in the digital logbooks and their comments in the interviews regarding the knowledge needs that triggered their participation in social networks. These themes are presented quantitatively and qualitatively and supplemented with descriptions and quotes from the interviews. Table 1 shows the identified themes, as well as their percentage of the total number of entries in the logbooks.

Table 1. Identified knowledge needs triggering the teachers’ participation in social networks.

Knowledge needs triggering the teachers’ participation in social networks (what/why)	Percentage of interactions (%) (N = 301)
1) Pedagogical issues Knowledge of teaching planning, implementation, assessment and the education practice, needed for quality improvement and digitalisation of the teaching	50
2) Technology issues Use of digital tools in teaching and police digital equipment needed for increased flexibility and digital skills in teaching	18
3) Subject issues Knowledge of police methods and routines, legal grounds for police work, healthcare, communication skills, needed for in-depth knowledge of teaching and to facilitate subject integration	14
4) Administrative issues Knowledge of staffing plans and teaching schedules, and guidelines for teaching, needed for planning and implementation of teaching	13
5) Educational issues Knowledge of national guidelines, policies, goals and approaches, needed for reviews of the programme and internal and external collaboration	5

As shown in Table 1, the most common reason for seeking support in the social networks involves pedagogical issues. For the less experienced teachers, most of them relatively newly recruited police teachers, it is a matter of seeking the support of experienced teachers, both university and police teachers, to develop their knowledge and skills as regards existing teaching methods and the assessment procedures employed at the unit. In addition, they ask for concrete teaching tips and how they can use the digital tools in a more flexible and varied way to support the students’ learning. A police teacher describes his dialogue with a more experienced colleague and the support he got from him as follows:

I have often turned to one specific person for feedback and help with my teaching. For example, he told me ‘You did not get the attention of the whole group before starting your lesson and what was the consequence of that?’ I answered him ‘I know, but they did not listen, I had to start all over again’. And then he said ‘Yes, but next time, wait until everyone has settled down before giving them the instructions’.

More experienced teachers, usually university teachers, who are involved in the design of distance education and digitalisation of on-campus teaching to a greater extent than other teachers, more often seek support relating to the development of existing teaching and examination practices. Such development work includes both reflection on strengths and shortcomings in existing teaching practices and identification and design of teaching elements that can strengthen students’ learning regardless of teaching mode. A university teacher describes how teaching-related issues come up in work-related dialogues in different ways:

What comes up in the daily work is usually subject-related questions, but we also discuss a lot of pedagogical questions about how we should design lessons or parts of our courses. Sometimes we set aside time to discuss pedagogical issues, but we also have such discussions in the office corridors, for example ‘I just taught this seminar, but I think it was difficult to assess the students’ performance. What do you think?’.

In their teaching in the distance mode as well in the on-campus mode, the teachers strive to expand their teaching repertoire and their pedagogical digital competence, i.e. based on the content of the courses and their pedagogical intentions, they explore and try out digital technologies that can be a support for students’ learning.

The second kind of knowledge need, identified in 18% of the total number of postings, is the teachers’ need to increase their digital teaching skills. Their use of digital technology can be divided into two categories, namely technology use in teaching and technology use in police work. The less experienced teachers, most of whom are recruited from the police authority, usually have up-to-date and relevant knowledge of police-oriented technology but lack experience and skills in teaching-related technology. Therefore, they seek support to learn more about, for example, the design and use of learning platforms, recording of lectures, video recording of exercises and how the education's digital system can be used for the administration of teaching. A police teacher describes that he improves his digital skills in the following way:

I often call a colleague in my teaching team, for example when I encounter problems with the course platform, for example when I have forgotten how to set deadlines for the submission of a course assignment.

Among the more experienced teachers, the university teachers involved in the teaching of subject-integrated courses are more likely to seek advice on police technology, while the police teachers seek support to keep up to date with the latest digital teaching tools.

The third kind of knowledge need, identified in 14% of the total number of entries, deals with the teachers’ need for extended subject knowledge which they feel they need to plan and implement their teaching. As for the university teachers, their needs are mainly related to developing or updating their knowledge of the police profession and police practices, e.g. regarding current profession-specific guidelines and work methods, strategies and routines, with the help of police teachers. Knowledge of these aspects means that the university teachers can deepen their teaching practice through the integration of academic and police knowledge. Such knowledge is also seen as important for building their credibility as teachers in the police education programme. For similar reasons, both inexperienced and experienced university and police teachers seek support from subject-skilled colleagues and also external experts in subject areas such as law, healthcare, and communication. An example of support provided by subject-skilled colleagues can be found in a quote from the logbook of a police teacher which illustrates the ambition of many teachers to update and improve the content of their courses and lessons:

[…] the daily dialogues with colleagues concerning the teaching of our subjects are often linked to our need to update each other on how certain techniques should be performed. For example, how to perform different kinds of holds in defensive techniques which I haven’t fully mastered or which I feel uncomfortable with, but which I must be able to teach to the police students.

At a general level, however, the teachers’ need for increased subject competencies seems to be clearly connected to their efforts to deepen and broaden their teaching through increased subject integration. This greatly contributes to them actively seeking knowledge from colleagues, both in their own and other teaching teams. A quote that illustrates this comes from a university teacher who describes the benefits of discussing situations often encountered in the police practice with police colleagues:

[…] it's so rewarding to have the opportunity to listen to police teacher colleagues who say that - ‘Well, when we work (as police officers), these are the approaches and methods we usually use in such a situation’. They point out the great challenges, which has given me an increased understanding of what dealing with different policing situations entails. I take this knowledge with me and try to integrate it into my own teaching.

The fourth kind of knowledge need, found in 13% of the total number of entries and which is highly intentional in nature, concerns teachers’ need for knowledge about the administration of teaching, for example regarding staffing and teaching schedules, access to premises and equipment and guidelines for teachers. The police teachers, who, compared to the university teachers, teach in more complex and equipment-rich learning environments, are the group that primarily seeks support in this area in order to be able to carry out their teaching. A quote that captures the police teachers’ need to grasp the overall structure of the programme courses comes from a police teacher teaching a practically-oriented subject that runs throughout the programme:

I am relatively new as a teacher, and in the beginning I asked my colleagues a lot of questions about the structure in terms of how the subject content was distributed over the semesters and how it was structured in courses and lessons. We have a continuous discussion in our teaching team about how to carry out lessons and whether there is something we should change in the lesson plans.

The fifth and final knowledge need, identified in 5% of the entries, is largely spontaneous and related to the previously mentioned subject integration intentions of many of the teachers. In this category, however, it is a matter of teachers collectively reflecting on more general ideas and proposals that affect the entire programme, such as the need for common approaches and guidelines, increased cooperation both internally and externally and the need for reflection and consensus on educational policies and goals. These conversations often arise spontaneously in mixed teacher groups during lunches and coffee breaks and are considered important for the teachers’ professional identity and cohesion, as well as for development work involving the entire programme.

Teachers’ involvement in social networks for work-related support

In the social network analysis of the digital logbooks, four categories of persons in different positions to whom the teachers turned for support were identified, namely 1) Key persons: colleagues with specific competencies, 2) Colleagues in teaching teams: colleagues in their own teaching team and in other teaching teams, 3) Programme management and administration: programme management staff and persons with support functions, and 4) External persons: persons outside the programme. Figure 1 shows the results of the SNA analysis.

Figure 1. Analysis of interactions and social networks at the Police Education.

A few individuals at the workplace could be identified as key persons with specific competencies. The analysis shows that they were involved in 32% of the teachers’ interactions. In Figure 1 they are made visible by the large number of arrows pointing at them. In the supplementary interviews, it emerged that these key persons are considered to possess important subject knowledge, for example, of law and education, and skills such as digitalisation of teaching or administrative knowledge of teaching guidelines and routines. These persons are described as important informal experts who many teachers, based on their experience, know can provide them with the information, confirmation or advice they need when planning and implementing teaching. One example that illustrates this is provided by a police teacher who often turns to a very experienced key person with extensive knowledge of legal matters for advice:

I often turn to xx, who is a very competent lawyer with long experience as a prosecutor. She is probably the only one in our programme who can give me reliable answers within the legal field. Very knowledgeable.

At the teaching team level, the analysis shows that 43% of the teachers’ interactions involved colleagues in their own teaching teams, which indicates that these formally structured groups are the most important ones when it comes to providing support for the teachers. Furthermore, it appears that teachers in subject-integrated teaching teams, those to the right in Figure 1, which include both police teachers and university teachers, turn to colleagues outside their own teams to a greater extent than police teachers in the teaching teams responsible for specific subjects, seen to the left in Figure 1. This indicates that teachers in teaching teams with responsibility for courses with a subject-integrated and broader content are more likely to seek support from colleagues throughout the programme. In addition, it also appears that inexperienced teachers, usually newly recruited police teachers, usually turn to experienced colleagues in their own teaching team for support. A police teacher describes such contacts as follows:

[…] then you ask someone who has worked here for a long time and who teaches the same subject as yours. For example, I may ask, ‘What do you think about this specific content? Which part should I start with?’ It is often a matter of getting an understanding of how the subject content is to be structured.

The analysis further shows that teachers seek support from programme management staff (the positions at the top of Figure 1) and from internal formal experts (the positions to the right in Figure 1) to a relatively low degree, 10% and 3% of the entries respectively. The reason why the number of interactions with the management is low is probably linked to the teachers’ knowledge needs, which to a large extent are about pedagogical, technological and subject issues. The low number of interactions with internal formal experts, such as IT support people, also shows that such issues are primarily handled by the teachers within the teaching teams or with the support of key persons with experience in digital teaching. The answer given by a police teacher to the question ‘Who do you contact when you encounter IT-related problems?’ illustrates that contacts with colleagues are often preferred to contacts with experts:

I usually contact someone in my office corridor who has worked on the programme for a long time. It is no use asking someone who is as inexperienced as I am, because those of us who are new teachers are just as unfamiliar with IT as I am. So, if I get hold of someone who has been around for a while, I ask that person to come and have a look at my problem.

At the external level, finally, it is shown that 13% of the teachers’ interactions involve people outside the programme (the positions at the bottom of Figure 1). However, those who seek these contacts are often teachers involved in updating programme guidelines and coordinating programme activities with other stakeholders. Examples of such contacts are interactions with representatives of other police education units concerning collaboration and coordination, with police authority officials regarding new developments in policing and with representatives of civil society about study visits and collaboration in programme activities.

Means of communication in the social networks

Several means of communication were identified in the analysis of the teachers’ logbooks. Table 2 presents these means of communication and their percentage distribution.

Table 2. Means of communication used in the teachers’ social networks

Means of communication	Percentage of the total number of interactions, N = 301
Face-to-face, intentional	45
Face-to-face, spontaneous	16
E-mail	24
Telephone	14
Other	1

As shown in Table 2, the teachers’ interactions take place primarily face-to-face. In most cases, such interactions are intentional, i.e. they are initiated by teachers who contact someone they know, or believe, can answer their questions or give advice on how something should be done or understood. However, sometimes the interactions are spontaneous, for example, when different topics are discussed during coffee breaks and lunches and teachers take the opportunity to ask questions or to discuss a problem they have encountered. One quarter of the interactions, or 24%, take place via e-mail and seem to be largely linked to the teachers’ need to receive information and answers in writing. Finally, the teachers use the telephone in 14% of interactions, especially when they know that the person they want to speak to is not present at the workplace.

Furthermore, Table 3 shows that the teachers’ choice of means of communication is linked to their knowledge needs. i.e. their need for additional knowledge to be able to carry on with the work at hand.

Table 3. Teachers’ use of means of communication linked to their knowledge needs.

Knowledge needs and number of interactions in parentheses	Means of communication, in percent
Pedagogical issues (150)	Face-to-face, intentional Face-to-face, spontaneous Face-to-face, external E-mail Telephone	48 21 5 15 11
Technology issues (55)	Face-to-face, intentional Face-to-face, spontaneous E-mail Telephone Video	20 11 40 24 5
Subject issues (43)	Face-to-face, intentional Face-to-face, spontaneous E-mail Telephone	77 9 5 9
Administrative issues (38)	Face-to-face, intentional Face-to-face, spontaneous E-mail Telephone	13 21 53 13
Educational issues (15)	Face-to-face Face-to-face, external E-mail Telephone Chat	33 20 27 13 7

As shown in Table 3, the teachers’ knowledge needs seem to have an influence on their choice of means of communication. For example, the results show that the teachers prefer to ask for advice and discuss pedagogical and subject issues face-to-face, especially when the contact is intentional. When it comes to other knowledge needs, the teachers’ use of means of communication is more evenly distributed. However, there seems to be a certain predominance of e-mail communication in cases involving knowledge needs related to administrative and technological issues.

Discussion and conclusion

Compared to many other higher education units offering professional programmes, the police education unit is a relatively young educational practice with both a profession-specific content and an academic content. The ambition to integrate these two kinds of content is shown by the many subject-integrated courses and teaching teams, the teachers’ shared responsibility for both on-campus and distance education and the fact that they are co-located in the same buildings on campus. The results also show that this ambition seems to be widespread among the teachers and realised in their social networks, regardless of the teachers’ previous professional background. Furthermore, the teaching staff can be described as diversified in terms of their subject knowledge, pedagogical skills and teaching experiences. The findings seem to show that the teachers’ different backgrounds and professional knowledge and skills are a valuable basis for professional development in this educational practice, where the teachers continuous exchange of knowledge contribute to the development of the police education programme.

The analysis shows that there are pedagogical, subject-related, digital and administrative challenges in this multifaceted teaching practice (c.f. Boud and Rooney 2018), which most teachers deal with by actively establishing and participating in work-related social networks (c.f. Haythornthwaite and De Laat 2011). In these networks, the teachers share teaching materials, help each other to solve problems that arise in the daily work, share advice and tips regarding teaching methods and digital tools and inform each other about administrative routines and guidelines. In other words, the relational and collective aspects of their informal learning are highly prominent (c.f. Jacobs and Park 2009; Vaessen, Van Den Beemt, and De Laat 2014).

For the most part, the teachers’ participation in the networks appear to be intentional, which is shown by the fact that their interactions with colleagues and other people are preceded by triggering knowledge needs which concern everyday problems and knowledge gaps (c.f. Tynjälä 2008). Their knowledge needs are related to pedagogical, technological, subject and administrative issues and have a clear connection to their implementation of teaching (c.f. Kyndt et al. 2016).

Pedagogical issues make up almost half of the identified knowledge needs, which should be seen in the light of the ongoing digitalisation of the programme, the recruitment of police teachers with a lack of teaching experience and the clearly stated wish by many of the police and university teachers to develop their teaching methods and their use of material resources to support the police students’ learning (c.f. Boud and Hager 2012). The analysis also shows that other knowledge needs linked to digital technology, subject and administration issues are clearly related to the teachers’ pedagogical ambitions. For example, it appears that many teachers seek support to develop their digital skills in order to be able to vary their teaching, that university teachers seek additional knowledge from police teachers about police work in order to integrate and broaden the content of courses, and that less experienced police teachers often seek support from more experienced teachers of both teachers’ categories to strengthen the administrative parts of their teaching. The respective knowledge and skills of the different teacher groups thus complement each other, which means that the teachers, through their participation in cross-team social networks and/or with support from key persons, can integrate the teaching content with teaching methods and thereby develop their teaching competence (c.f. De Laat and Schreurs 2013).

Furthermore, the analysis reveals that the teachers primarily seek teaching-related support from colleagues in their own teaching teams. These teams can thus be regarded as their basic networks, where the ties between the members are strong and based on personal relationships and knowledge of each other's experience and competencies (c.f. De Laat and Schreurs 2013; Wenger, Trayner, and De Laat 2011). Such support involves, for example, help from more experienced and knowledgeable colleagues when it comes to specific subject knowledge, pedagogical methods, and administrative matters. This kind of support is seen as important, not least by the less experienced police teachers. The analysis further identifies differences between subject-specific and subject-integrated teaching teams as regards the extent of their cross-team interactions. The fact that subject-integrated teaching teams have significantly more interactions with teachers in other teams indicates that the composition of course content and the teaching teams can affect the teachers’ readiness to establish new ties and participate in multiple networks. In Figure 1, this is shown by the fact that the teaching teams to the left in the figure, who are responsible for subject-specific content, seem to interact sparsely with other networks and /or key persons compared to the subject-integrated teaching teams, placed centrally in the figure. Other aspects reflected in the interviews which seem to influence teachers’ readiness to extend their participation to additional networks, are their perceptions that some teaching teams appear to be less willing to collaborate with colleagues in other networks and people outside the programme. As shown in the centre of Figure 1, a few key persons to whom many teachers turn regarding subject-specific issues, such as police methods and pedagogical and technical issues related to digital teaching, can also be identified. The teachers’ knowledge of these key persons and their competences seems to be widespread, which shows that this type of knowledge constitutes an important part of the teachers’ informal learning about their work practice (c.f. Boud and Rooney 2018; Jacobs and Park 2009).

Finally, the analysis shows that the teachers’ knowledge needs can to some extent be linked to their choice of means of communication. If the needs are about pedagogical, subject or educational issues, which can be considered as being qualitative and understanding-oriented in nature, the teachers seem to primarily discuss such issues face-to-face, probably because this form of communication allows for longer dialogues and follow-up questions. However, it should be added that factors such as the physical distance between the caller/sender and the receiver(s), and teachers’ work schedules may influence their choice of contact method. When it comes to knowledge needs involving administrative and technical issues, which can be considered to be more fact-oriented, interactions often take place via e-mail. This means of communication is not dependent on factors such as physical proximity and time and is usually used for questions that can be answered briefly and precisely. In some cases, email interactions can also be starting points for longer dialogues that develop into face-to-face interactions.

The contribution of this study can be summarised in three points which complement previous research on teachers’ social networks and informal workplace learning: 1) The study's focus on teachers in police education means that knowledge from an additional professional arena can be added to the body of knowledge in this field. 2) The focus on knowledge needs which can be said to be triggers for teachers’ involvement in social networks and informal workplace learning helps to identify important motives for the teachers’ involvement in social networks at work. 3) The study also includes a detailed analysis of the teachers’ social networks and the interactions that take place in terms of the development of ties between network participants and between networks, and the means of communication used. The following conclusions can be drawn from this study:

• The teachers’ participation in social networks is for the most part intentional and based on knowledge needs such as pedagogical, technological, subject-oriented and administrative aspects of teaching.

• The teachers seek support in teaching-related issues primarily from their own teaching teams, which thus constitute their basic social network. However, the composition of the course content and the teaching teams seems to affect the teachers’ readiness to establish and participate in multiple social networks in the workplace.

• The teachers’ knowledge needs seem to influence the choice of means of communication to some extent. Matters arising from qualitative and understanding-oriented knowledge needs involving pedagogical, subject and programme issues are primarily communicated face-to-face, while those relating to fact-oriented knowledge needs concerning administration and digital technology issues are usually communicated in writing.

In this study, several important issues are addressed concerning social networks and informal workplace learning in educational organisations. As shown in the analysis, teachers’ participation in social networks constitutes a very important basis for their professional development as teachers. In order to facilitate and support teachers’ informal learning processes and professional development, it is therefore necessary to increase the awareness at the organisational and management levels of the importance of social networks for workplace learning and the need to strategically promote this form of learning. For example, this may involve strategies for increasing the time for joint planning and reflection within regular working hours, the design of premises that promote collaboration, the composition of the course content and teaching teams that promotes subject integration and the exchange of experiences and knowledge, and the development of dissemination mechanisms that are conducive to learning in the entire organisation.

In the light of the results of this study, we call for further research to increase the understanding of the informal workplace learning of teachers in vocational education. There is a need for observations of their daily work with a view to increasing the knowledge and understanding of spontaneous interactions within and between social networks in the workplace. In view of the increased digitalisation that is taking place in higher education and vocational education, it also seems important that such studies be carried out with a specific focus on teachers’ development of their pedagogical digital competences through participation and learning in social networks.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).