Professional Internships as a Series of Activity Systems: A Cultural-Historical and Rhetorical Reading of the UAMVZ–UAZ Regulations
Keywords:
Activity theory, Cultural-historical theory, Internships, Persuasive tools, Veterinary educationAbstract
Professional internships in Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry are often treated as a requirement to “apply knowledge” in real-world contexts. This article advances a stronger thesis: internships can be designed and evaluated as a sequence of activity systems that jointly develop (a) students, (b) mediational means, (c) communities of practice, and (d) host institutions, rather than merely producing a project deliverable. Drawing on Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), it analyzes the Regulations for Professional Internships I–II at UAMVZ–UAZ as an institutional script of interwoven activities. It proposes a modification of the classic activity-system triangle: the “rules” component is specified as an evolving repertoire of persuasion tools (discursive, documentary, and interactional media) through which alignment, accountability, and ethical conduct are achieved. Finally, it derives design implications for supervision, reporting, assessment, and institutional learning loops, emphasizing CHAT’s principle of development across all elements of the system.
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