Abstract:

Disruptive technologies, business model innovations, digitalization, globalization, and now COVID-19 are reshaping how people work. It also initiates and supports new trends challenging existing study program curricula in higher education.

Emerging trends include strengthening partnerships with industry and public services, increasing dependency of technologies like flipped classroom and webinars, and sharing equipment, ideas, and knowledge both within and between individuals and groups. These trends both emphasize digitalization of higher education and the assembly of heterogenous learning communities and learning networks, embracing cross-disciplinary teams, where different professions, positions, perspectives and work practices meet. Many of the pillars of academia are being challenged causing a disruption of status quo.

Existing literature points out that while these emerging trends challenge more traditional approaches to organizing work and study program curricula, we know little about operation and consequences. Do they empower students? Do they support or inhibit learning or some types of learning? What are the effects of demographic factors related to digital literacy, economy, childcare options, internet access and living? There are many questions without good answers.

How do we learn from experiencing emerging trends? Or more specific, how do we research emerging trends as a contemporary and ongoing phenomenon?

The characteristics of emerging trends described so far include:
- Contextual, embedded and tacit knowledge
- Systemic perspective
- Cross-disciplinary teams
- Contemporary and unfolding now
- Real-life context

The problem statement points to a case study approach and empirical investigation of contemporary and ongoing phenomena within a real-life context, producing contextual knowledge, discussing trends as innovation processes and encouraging theoretical ideas generation.

This article suggests researching emerging trends through the lens of organizational development using the Learning history methodology. It discusses the theoretical position and methodology, walks the reader through the practical steps of using the Learning history method, and analyses an example case from a one-week cross-disciplinary project on social innovation. Finally, it discusses the Learning history methodology for researching emerging trends in higher education. In doing so it also lays out potential questions for future research on the topic.

Keywords:

Emerging trends, learning history methodology, organizational development.