In this seminar, doctoral researcher Renata Matsmoto from University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and visiting student at University of Helsinki will present her research titled An Online Change Laboratory with Brazilian Inspectors: Learning and Agency Formation.
About the presentation: My research interests lie in intervention methodologies and collective learning processes. On June 6 th LECI Seminar I'm going to present some preliminary results of my thesis. I have conducted an online Change Laboratory intervention with 18 labor inspectors from the Brazilian Ministry of Labor and Employment from August 2024 to February 2025. The questions that guided the research were: 1) What are the contradictions of the current labor inspection model?; 2) how should the labor inspection organize itself, plan its actions and carry out its work to facilitate the development of the inspection activity and; 3) how to improve the existing learning spaces, both internal (for labor inspectors) and external (for the public)? In literature, agentive actions taken between sessions and the role of complementary learning spaces are unexplored. The preliminary analysis of the collected data using cultural-historical activity theory – CHAT perspective in relation to the development of the participants’ agency and expansive learning, in this multilevel study, pointed out to the importance of multiple interconnected learning spaces, such as planning meeting groups and complementary platform learning spaces, to foster agentive actions between the change lab sessions, bridging temporal and spatial gaps, and ensuring the continuity and expansion of learning beyond CL sessions. Furthermore, results suggest that these spaces facilitate the adaptation of the intervention to participants' diverse learning needs, helping to close learning gaps among them and enriching the overall process. These multiple interconnected spaces led the Change Laboratory to function as a hub
Bio: Renata Matsmoto is a PhD student at University of Sao Paulo/Brazil and visiting student at University of Helsinki. Graduated in Medicine, with specializations in Occupational Medicine, Ergonomics, Labor Economics and Syndicalism and a master’s in sciences about Breast Cancer and Occupational and Environmental exposure to solvents from the School of Public Health – FSP/University of Sao Paulo – USP. Labor Inspector at the Brazilian Ministry of Labor and Employment for 26 years, she has dedicated her career to Occupational Health and Safety in workplaces.