Turn a Study Program Inside Out?
Last two weeks were packed with good stuff.
First, I was invited to Pitsaa & Pähkinöitä, which is the informal Athene speaker’s forum. Second, I gave the 1st year Information Networks’ students my view of what the world out there is expecting from such professionals as our program creates. More about those in another post.
Third, however, was a great workshop about the mental well-being of Information Networks’ students. We went over the Aalto AllWell results for bachelor level students, and we had a really good discussion about reality as well. Also, Mikko Jääskeläinen from “Tuta” gave an overview of their experiences about improving students’ mental health.
I wrote four pages of notes during the meeting. That’s a lot for me. However, to keep this short, I’ll share just one major thought with you.
What if a whole study program was turned inside out, when it comes to the well-being of the students?
The Study Tunnel Viewpoint
Typically we think of a study program as a tunnel the young adult (student) enters and comes out of the other end with new knowledge, skills, and a diploma. To help the student pass the tunnel and remain motivated and healthy, we build supportive functions and actions: coaching, mentors, mental help, guidelines, talks, events and so on.
In other words, the focus is on teaching the skills and producing the knowledge. The well-being is like an exception in programming: to be caught if the student strays from the prescribed path.
The Identity Building Viewpoint
To turn that model inside out is what got me thinking. What if the study program is first and foremost about the mental well-being of the student?
It starts with the premise that often the young adult does not have a clear professional identity and s/he is eager to build one. A clean slate in good and bad.
In this viewpoint, the studies are like bumpers in a pinball machine that shape the person’s perceptions, presumptions, expectations, visions, and experience… all this intentionally and un-intentionally crafting the person’s identity.
Looking back at my own studies, I can see my whole student life as one long journey of finding the answer to the question what am I good at? In other words, what is my professional identity, and what I want to do for a living.
As professional identity blends with our personal identity (is that a good thing?), the years spent at university are hugely important in shaping the self-esteem, confidence, and future mental well-being of a young adult.
Info Smørgåsbord and Identity
The craving for an identity gets a special spin here at Information Networks. The study program is all about blending different skills and disciplines into one. The strength, and the weakness, of the program is in being like a buffet table in a restaurant: here are many options for you to choose, and you can become almost anything you can imagine, just pick-and-mix your own identity.
This approach can be very empowering because it leaves room to personalize one’s studies and truly find one’s own path to a professional identity.
However, this approach can be very paralysing as well. With too many options and high expectations, it can be a very taunting task to get even started.
Coaching an Artist
I have no idea how they deal with the mental well-being of, say, musicians studying to become professionals. I need to find out (any pointers are welcome).
However, I imagine that the point is to help the artist to find her/his own “thing”, and the personal style, identity, and own “voice” are at the core.
For us at Information Networks this approach means few obvious things (this is not a comprehensive list, but hopefully a beginning for a one):
- Clarifying the rationale and intentions behind the bachelor studies and each of the master’s studies tracks. Especially viewing them as broad paths to give structure and support in finding one’s own “thing” among the many options.
- Analysing and planning courses as touch points where the students gets tools, ideas, and information about her/his own professional identity.
- Creating a psychological safety net (a culture and an atmosphere) to encourage people to try out things, to slow down or speed up, to reflect and learn, and to take care of one’s self and each other.
- Viewing internships and work as key touch points for a student to further understand and reflect their studies in contrast to work life skills.
Together with Athene and the Koulutusneuvosto (and I’m sure we can get Info alumni to chip in as well) we have now started actions to bring mental well-being into the core of what Information Networks is all about. It is both responsible and ethical, but also very practical: in a world where technology, business, politics, climate etc. seem to change at a rapid pace, we need highly skilled professionals who are at home in constant change and continuous learning. That means professionals with a solid mental health and the skills to remain healthy.
