Time Travel through the Polytechnic to University Nexus: From Heartfelt Difficulties to New Possibilities

In this research, we begin with the problems academics experience as they navigate their way towards new ways of working associated with the recently emerged University of Technology sector. Using change laboratories’ methodology, academics are taken through successive problem solving and solution developing workshops. This involves them, firstly, reflecting on past and current problematic experiences and issues in their daily lives. These experiences are then mediated through the application of Activity Theory principles so that problems are understood in a more systematic and related manner. In so doing, the academics collaboratively come to understand the contradictions which underpin current problems in working life and attempt to open up possibilities for future changes and improvements in the structure and purpose of the university. Even though a number of problems and potential resolutions are discussed in this research, this is not the focus of the article, and there are no grand claims being made about problems and their possible future solutions. Rather, the article aims to highlight how a change laboratory methodology can help academic staff develop more systematic understandings of problems emerging in universities in times of change. The focus is thus more on the learning opportunities afforded participants within the laboratory, both now and for the future.