As policy makers increasingly focus on workplace learning as a way of improving organizational performance, the debate about the learning organization has grown. Counterbalancing the often over-optimistic assumptions made about the future of work and learning, this book argues that without a contextualized analysis of the field, our understanding of the learning environment is limited. It reconsiders the true role and nature of workplace learning in context. Grounded in original research, the book features case studies which illuminate how the workplace environment can provide both barriers to and opportunities for learning. It explores learning in different organizational contexts and different countries, sectors, types of public and private sector organization, and by different occupational groups. This multi-disciplinary approach provides a coherent perspective of the institutional, organizational and pedagogical contexts of workplace learning, and as a result, policy-makers, trainers, trade unionists and educators alike will welcome this groundbreaking text, as it gives the intellectual tools required to understand how learning in the workplace can be improved.

Combining a critical analysis of the organizational and employment context of workplace learning with an understanding of theories of learning, this text focuses on new ideas and on understanding the social context of the workplace.

This book explores teacher workplace learning from four different perspectives: social policy, international comparators, multi-professional stances/perspectives and socio-cultural theory. First, it considers the policy and practice context of professional learning in teacher education in England, and the rest of the UK, with particular reference to professional masters level provision. The importance of teachers’ and schools’ perceptions of improvement, development and learning, and the inherent tensions between individual, school and government priorities is explored. Second, the book considers models of teacher workplace learning to be found in international research and practice to explore what perspective they can bring to understanding policy and practice relating to workplace learning in the UK. Third, it draws on cross-professional analysis to get an intellectual and theoretical purchase on workplace learning by examining how insights from across the professions can provide us with useful perspectives on policy and practice. The analysis draws particularly on insights from medicine and educational psychology. Fourth, the book cross-fertilises research and practice across the field of education by drawing on insights from perspectives such as socio-cultural and activity theory and situated learning/cognition to discover what they can offer in analysing the theoretical and pedagogic underpinnings of teacher workplace learning. In short, the book offers a number of contexts for exploring how best to conceptualise and theorise learning in the workplace in order to generate evidence to inform policy and practice and facilitates the development of a more theoretically informed and robust model of workplace learning and teaching.

Social Justice, Transformation and Knowledge: Policy, Workplace Learning and Skills examines the policy contexts in which lifelong learning, vocational education and training and skill development is set. It provides a critique of neo-liberalism and its impact on vocational education and training and lifelong learning. It interrogates potentially progressive policy interventions that take for granted capitalist relations as these can become a form of ‘comfort radicalism’ that whilst calling for structural change remain lodged within capitalism. Such analyses are limited, particularly in austere conditions of worklessness with increasing numbers of workers surplus to the requirements of capital. Offering detailed discussions within UK, European and global contexts, this book proves an insightful and critical text which illustrates Professor Avis’ extensive experience and knowledge of the field. Adopting a substantive focus on debates and analysis with significance that extends beyond the particular policy context of England, the book offers: an exploration of arguments that suggest workplace learning carries with it progressive possibilities an examination of models of class implicit within education policy and documents consideration of forms of governance and professionalism and their articulation to the pursuit of social justice an insight into discussions concerned with social justice, knowledge as well as the current conditions of austerity in which education and social policy are emphasised Social Justice, Transformation and Knowledge is a significant addition to the field. It is an insightful and thought-provoking book from which students, lecturers and researchers with an interest in education studies, education policy, and social justice will greatly benefit from reading.

This edited volume aims to evaluate the promises of workplace learning by addressing the following related questions: What are current developments in theory that informs workplace learning research? How can learning in the workplace be measured? What is the impact of various organizational settings (e.g., team-based work and call centres) on workplace learning? Which are the promising new avenues for research? And which research-based recommendations can be made to boost learning opportunities in various work contexts? The topic is conceptualized as an interaction between the individual and the work context, as a combination of individual and collective processes, as a link between cognition and action, and as a political process. With a wide array of contributions from academics such as Stephen Billet, Tara Fenwick and Victoria Marsick, this volume will be an important research and reference tool with all those academics and practitioners who are interested in the field of human resource development. Targeted at researchers, (post) graduate students, and reflective practitioners and managers interested in the area, "Workplace Learning" provides must-read material for anyone wanting to advance the theory, research, and/or practice of learning in the workplace.

Authoritative, accessible, and appealing, this book presents key findings on work-based learning, bringing together conclusions and investigating a variety of workplace contexts to show how such learning can be improved.

Published Under the Garamond Imprint This innovative book is concerned with the power relations, complexities, and contradictions in the paid workplace. Workplace learning is not value-free or politically neutral, and cannot be studied independently of the political economy of work. Workplace Learning is part of a growing body of work that offers an alternative to mainstream approaches to workplace learning, recognizing that power relations, politics and conflicts of interest all shape learning. The authors emphasize the lived experiences of working people, avoiding prescriptive accounts and uncritical Human Resource Development views. Comments: "Here is a map through contested and largely uncharted terrain..." - from the foreword by D'Arcy Martin