Learning in earlycareer police: Coming into the workplace

1
Learning in early-career police Coming into the
workplace

• Matthew Campbell
• School of Education (NSW)
• ACU National
• matthew.campbell_at_acu.edu.au

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Research Question

• How do police officers change within the
  community of practice of policing throughout
  their early career?

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Map of the study
Focus
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Framework

• Community of Practice (Lave Wenger, 1991
  Wenger, 1998)
• Learning is a socially mediated activity
• Expert-novice relationship
• Understood within a policing culture
• Camaraderie trust (Reiner, 2000)
• Cynicism, isolation, solidarity, machismo,
  prejudice
• Many groups e.g. management vs street-cop
• (Reuss-Ianni, 1984)

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Methodology

• Qualitative case studies (Stake, 2000 Yin,
  2003)
• Semi-structured interviews
• Triangulation with observations
• Deeper exploration of phenomenon
• (Marshall Rossman, 2006)
• Field-based observations
• Understanding relationships and culture
• (Van Maanen, 1978)
• Peripheral member-researcher
• (Adler Adler, 1987)

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Participants
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Findings

• Motivations to join
• Life / career change
• Challenge of the job
• A fall-back position
• Expectations of the job
• Diversity in experience
• Long term and short term aspirations
• Individual challenge

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Findings

• The key role of the Field Training Officer (FTO)
• Access to the situated curriculum and CofP
• Main determinant of learning opportunities
• Validity of learning from the College
• A necessary step
• Best practice vs the real thing
• Changing learning needs
• Formal learning vs learning on the job

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Findings

• Signs of acceptance
• Nicknames
• Order of being asked for lunch/dinner orders
• rudey-nudey comments
• Dependant upon shared experiences
• Reinforcement of rank
• Role of the Sergeant
• Help sought from next rank, not necessarily
  expert
• No relationship with ranks higher than Sergeant

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Conclusions

• A need for better management of learning
  experiences as opposed to production-line
  outputs
• Building better learning relationships between
  the field and training institution
• Workplaces / training need to capture the
  enthusiasm of the newcomer
• Training needs to build upon previous experiences
  of the newcomer (they are not a blank slate)