The SAGE Handbook of Learning and Work

Margaret Malloch, Len Cairns, Karen Evans, Bridget N. O′Connor, Margaret Malloch, Len Cairns, Karen Evans, Bridget N. O?Connor, Bridget N. O?Connor, Bridget N. O?Connor, Bridget N. O?Connor, Bridget N. O?Connor, Bridget N. O?Connor

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781529762051
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The first two decades of the 21 st century have contributed a growing body of research, theorisation and empirical studies on learning and work. This Handbook takes the consideration of this topic into a new realm, moving beyond the singular linking of identity, learning and work to embrace a more holistic appreciation of learners and their life-long learning.

Across 40 chapters, learners, learning and work are situated within educational, organisational, social, economic and political contexts. Taken together, these contributions paint a picture of evolving perspectives of how scholars from around the world view developments in both theory and practice, and mapthe shifts in learning and work over the past two decades.

Part 1: Theoretical perspectives of learning and work

Part 2: Intersections of learning and work in organisations and beyond

Part 3: Learning throughout working lives and beyond

Part 4: Issues and challenges to learning and work

Part I Theoretical Perspectives of Learning and Work

Len Cairns

Introduction

The first section of the Handbook of Learning and Work presents 10 chapters each examining aspects of where the two foci of this Handbook, Learning and Work, are placed within different theory and research perspectives and how they intersect.

In the first chapter Len Cairns presents the historical, philosophical and cultural perspectives on learning and work and examines how the roles of learners and workers have changed and impacted societies over the past decades. The chapter also critiques how simple binaries and metaphors have tended to dominate the way thinking about learning and work has been seen and discussed in the past. The case that there are different views in ‘non-western’ perspectives and that there are emerging trends in the third decade of the 21st century amid the ‘liquid times’ of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0 and Work 4.0) underpins the chapter.

In the second chapter, Stephen Billett argues that it is essential to align workplace innovation and workers’ learning for effective adaptive workplaces and workers’ development. He further emphasises that most innovations in workplaces have not been ‘de novo’ (novel) but have been the product of workers’ innovation and learning. Billett proposes that, ultimately, the prospects for workers’ employability and workplace viability are richly intertwined and remain localised processes of worker engagement and workplace support that initiate, secure and sustain both learning and innovation.

Terry Hyland in Chapter 3, initially critiques the rise of the inappropriate use of mindfulness elements in short-term programmes of professional and vocational education and training in a manner described as ‘McMindfulness'. He then turns to offering some positive suggestions for utilising the potential of contemplative approaches for and in workplace learning. Hyland suggests that the matters of embodied and holistic learning where mindfulness, as a form of education, is essentially ethical and transformative can be seen as work over time, which provides a guiding principle for its involvement at work and in preparation for work.

Chapter 4, from Päivi Tynjälä, Hannu Heikkinen and Eeva Kallio, offers a theoretical discussion of how work and learning can be integrated in Higher Education and VET. The chapter presents a revised version of an Integrative Pedagogy model which suggests that as high-level competence involves a ‘tightly integrated and fused’ set of elements of expertise, conceptual, practical, self-regulative and socio-cultural knowledge, this requires educational practices that support making connections and the necessity for authentic and practical work experience and self-reflection in learning activities. The approach is situated within discussion of the 3P model of Workplace Learning.

In the fifth chapter, Stewart Hase and Lisa Marie Blaschke advance their development of the innovative concept and theorisation of heutagogy or self-determined learning. The chapter describes the origins and applications of self-determined learning, including its application in work environments across a variety of disciplines and the role of the learning leader in realising a heutagogic approach.

In Chapter 6, Hanna Toivianen tackles the significant aspects and impacts of work-life networks on learning and the extent to which the theory of organisational learning and development has not been able to handle the cross-organisational and multi-layered nature of this network learning. Toivianen offers an approach based on expansive learning theory and development work research (DWR) to suggest a better starting point to address the work-life network learning, utilising work in Nordic work-life practices and research. The Chapter combines theory and empirical research examples to propose models to use in the analysis of learning in networks.

In Chapter 7 Loek Nieuwenhuis, Lia Fluit and Wietske Kuijer-Siebelink offer an examination of the adaptive needs of professions and how they can learn strategies in and for the workplace. They suggest that for the development of adaptive expertise, a promising approach is the design of work-based learning in the form of challenge-based education in which students, professionals and teachers cooperate to resolve open-ended problems in professional practice. In an innovative conceptualisation, the authors present, through a lens of a knowledge-creating metaphor of learning, how the traditional novice-expert model is combined with more open and ‘ill-structured’ workplace problems so as to enhance adaptive skills and expertise development. (Ill-structured problems are, to some extent, the opposite of ‘well-structured problems', and represent the unpredictable and real issues faced in professional workplaces).

The importance of the emerging ideas around moving from learning organisation theories and understandings to a ‘landscape of ecosystems’ is presented in Chapter 8 by Maarit Virolainen, Hannu Heikkinen, Sirpa Laitinen-Väänänen and Juhani Rautopuro. The transformation towards the new ‘ecosystem’ discussion is related to the adoption of new technologies for information sharing, exchange and communication as a result of industrial revolutions, the latest being ‘Industrial Revolution 4.0'. The adoption of new technologies has coincided with the shift from the classic bureaucratic organisation towards a landscape of ecosystems.

In Chapter 9, Elina Maslo takes a participatory ethnographic approach to examine learners and how learning at work in spaces and places leads to different perspectives on what the learning is and how it relates to each learner's perception and reflection while they are working. The role of reflection and language in the study of learning at work is a key element of this discussion. In this case, all three participants in the conversation had their own understanding of the phenomenon ‘learning at work'. The chapter then provides a short state of the art on the phenomenon ‘workplaces as learning spaces'. Then, the chapter addresses the question of ‘Why learning spaces at work are difficult to study', based on the theory of language and learning and the necessity of studying learning spaces at work together with persons who learn and work, and of applying a more reflexive and dialogic approach. Finally, the chapter provides an overview of numerous reflection levels in a study process which are usually not explicit and discuss the role of language in the research process.

In Chapter 10 Terri Seddon takes us through a personal narrative essay that examines the significance of learning in ‘liquid times’ and puts a case for critiquing ‘situatedness'. This chapter draws on comparative historical sociologies of education to trouble the idea of ‘situatedness'. It questions what it means to be ‘located', ‘here’ and ‘uncertain’ by using four autobiographical vignettes and contextualising commentaries to interrogate the ‘lived-in-world', where learning that is both objective and subjective unfolds iteratively, as both resource and effects, through relational spaces and times. It is argued that learning is not ‘situated’ in a simple here and now, but also melts and morphs the lived-in-world moment by moment.

1 Learning and Work: Theories and Developments

Len Cairns

Introduction: Learning and Work Overview

The theme of this introductory chapter is that Learning and Work, in the last years of the 20th century and into the first three decades of the 21st century, have been through a series of conceptual and theoretical changes, from depictions of society as ‘mankind’ with learning being theorised and studied mostly as a male enterprise, and work being seen as ‘labour’ in an employed relationship. The western tradition in this time has been transitioning from a dominance for centuries of the Cartesian ‘mind/body’ dichotomy and other binary thinking through extensive use of metaphors to describe both learning and work, to more broadly defined ideas of learning and work where these two central aspects of human life intersect.

Learning is an aspect of human life that is hard-wired into us all. We attempt to make sense of all that we see, feel and engage with across our entire lifespan. Over centuries, theorists, philosophers, clergy, and scholars from many disciplines have tried to understand just what human learning is and to develop theories about the function. In more recent years, the examination and discussion of Learning has included extensions into ‘group learning', ‘organisational learning', ‘learning societies', ‘learning cities’ and learning in ‘communities of practice', as theoretical developments and research have broadened the idea and coverage. In addition, with the advent of major changes and advances in electronic technological applications in life, education and workplaces, there has been much development in what has become known as ‘elearning’ and more recently ‘mlearning'. There are even explorations into artificial intelligence, ‘machine learning’ and examinations of applications in robot learning.

This chapter examines many of the major ideas about what human learning is and how we undertake it in life, and especially its relationship with what we call ‘work'.

There has been considerable development in the late 20th century and into this 21st century in research and evidence about how the human brain, and body figure in any understanding of Human Learning (Gibbs, 2005; Taylor and Marienau, 2016; Clark and Martin, 2018). The idea of an ‘embodied brain’ and holistic learning (Miller et al., 2018, has opened up new and broader considerations of how, what, why and where learning occurs, including work (O'Loughlin, 2006).

Work, working, and the ideas about what this word means for life, engagement and the purpose of human development is another concern that is complex and significant in this 21st century. Most people will nod in some form of understanding of the word (and world) of work, yet there has been serious discussion of the need to broaden both the definition of ‘work’ and the understanding of the many facets of what is carried out in the name of ‘work’ as we progress into the middle of this 21st century with all the changes and challenges that are emerging with each passing year. (Cairns, Malloch and Burns, 2006; Cairns and Malloch, 2009; Cairns and Malloch, 2011; Malloch, Cairns, Evans and O'Connor, 2011; Chisholm et al., 2012).

The discussion of aspects such as broadening the definition of work beyond simple common understandings by use of terms such as jobs, employment and labour, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Editorial Board
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Illustration List
• List of Tables
• Notes on the Editors and Contributors
• Introduction
• Part I Theoretical Perspectives of Learning and Work
• 1 Learning and Work: Theories and Developments
• 2 The Co-Occurrence of Work, Learning, and Innovation: Advancing Workers’ Learning and Work Practices
• 3 Learning, Work and Mindfulness: Exploring the Potential of Contemplative Practices in Vocational Education and Training
• 4 Integrating Work and Learning in Higher Education and VET: A Theoretical Point of View
• 5 Heutagogy, Work and Lifelong Learning
• 6 Multi-Level Expansive Learning in Work-Life Networks: Developmental Work Research Perspective
• 7 Adaptivity between Professional Learning and Education: The Development of Flexible Expertise in Work-Based Settings
• 8 The Transformation of Learning: From Learning Organizations to a Landscape of Ecosystems
• 9 Studying Diverse Learning Spaces at Work Together with People who Learn and Work: Multiple Levels of Reflection
• 10 Liquid Learning: Re-Conceiving the Lived-in-World
• Part II Intersections of Learning and Work in Organizations and Beyond
• 11 From Work-based Learning to Learning-based Work: Exploring the Changing Relationship between Learning and Work
• 12 A Dialectical Perspective on Mind, Culture and Occupation as Illustrated by the Case of Nursing in Canada
• 13 The Future is in the Present: Learning and Organizing in the Field of Organizational Learning
• 14 The Development and Impact of Professional Doctorates
• 15 Critical Reflection, Leadership, and the Public Good: A Chief Learning Officer Perspective
• 16 Trends and Directions in Organizational Human Capital Development: Building an Engaging Culture that Supports Learning and Talent Development
• 17 Motivating the Millennials to Learn and Thrive at Work: How can Mentoring Help?
• 18 Executive Coaching as a Learning Strategy
• 19 Digital Learning in Healthcare: Where We Are and Where We Are Going
• 20 Digitalization of Work: Challenges for Workplace Learning
• Part III Learning Throughout Working Lives and Beyond
• 21 What's New about Lifelong Learning, and What Does it Mean for Working Lives?
• 22 Biographical Learning and Midlife Career Transitions
• 23 Smart Learning Cities Promoting Lifelong Learning through Working Lives
• 24 Investigating Generations and Knowledge in Workplaces: A Cultural-Historical Approach
• 25 Working at the Boundaries: Learning and Development of Non-Permanent Workers
• 26 Professional Education, Professional Work, and their Connections: A Conversation
• 27 Rethinking International Development, Lifelong Learning, and Work
• 28 Challenges Migrant Students Face in Vocational Education and Training: Examples from a Health Care Programme
• 29 Use of Intelligent Virtual Assistants in Lifelong Learning for Persons with Visual Impairments
• 30 Enhancing the Life Chances and Social Participation of Young Adults through Workplace Learning
• Part IV Issues and Challenges to Learning and Work
• 31 Thinking about the Future: The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Capitalism, Waged Labour and Anti-Work
• 32 Learning, Work and Education for Sustainability
• 33 Technology: Challenges and Issues for Learning and Work
• 34 Social Media, Learning and Work
• 35 Approaches to International Comparative Research in Learning and Work
• 36 Vocational Education and Training in Cuba: A Process of Changes Towards Learning in the Workplace
• 37 Redefining Education and Work Relations: VET Overcoming the Financial Crisis in Spain
• 38 Vocational Education and Training in Australia: A Shifting Landscape
• 39 Where did the Learning Go? Artificial Intelligence, ‘Use Sovereignty’ and ‘Pixarfication’ in Factories of the Future
• 40 Education 4.0: Is Characterising and Harmonising Intelligences a Way of Thinking about a Pedagogy 4.0 for Higher Education?
• Index