Paulina Ludwina Frederika Sedney
Recently, I became a PhD student. In this PhD study I focus on (ex) psychiatric patients and the way they (can) use their knowledge of and experiences with their mental illness and the care they receive(d) to support (the recovery of) other psychiatric patients. The experiences of all involved are essential in this research: patients, (ex) patients who work as ‘experts by experience’, the professionals involved like psychiatrists and social workers and their managers. Together they make their own story. Hereby I aim to uncover the way they make sense of the world of psychiatry and the changes that occurred in the last decade. Therefore I will also relate these outcomes to the historical and cultural context concerning psychiatry and patient movements. For my research I use the Learning history as research methodology and the narrative method to analyze data. In order to comprehend the processes of sense making of all involved, more knowledge about and debate over the cultural-historical psychology is highly appreciated.
Furthermore, also my background signifies my interest for the summer school. In 2005 I graduated as a social worker at the University of Applied Sciences in Amsterdam. After this I became a ‘researcher in education’ for the same University. I became part of the research circle ‘Outreaching work, Prevention and Rehabilitation’. In this function, I completed a Masters Sociology in 2008. Recently, our research circle is active in the research program ‘Changes due to the Social Support Act’. We try to uncover processes in which clients and professionals make sense of the way they use and provide care, deal with vulnerability and governance issues which (presumably) changed due to the in 2007 implemented Social Support Act. Our research circle uses the ‘Learning History’ as methodology and the Engeström theory of learning by expending to analyze our data.
To conclude, the ISCAR Summer University would be incredibly interesting for me. Firstly, it gives me the opportunity to learn more about cultural-historical tradition and the activity theory. And secondly, it gives me the chance to exchange knowledge about my own findings and experiences with the use of Engeström and the Learning History.
Hopefully my motivation for attending the Summer University is explained in this letter, if not I will be more then willing to elaborate.