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The provision of vocational education and training (VET) is currently being focused on demand-side needs on order to enhance relevance, quality and efficiency. Until recently, the demand-side was seen to comprise 'industry', the bi-partite spokespersons for enterprises and workers. Now enterprises have become the focus of demand-side needs. However, individual and regional interests also comprise the demand-side and have legitimate needs and interests. The research found some areas of commonality among all clients, areas of commonality between two groups and areas of difference.

Proposed here is a model for determining the need for and the implementation of VET that seeks to reconcile differences and achieve mutuality of interests. An overview of the project is given, the research design and methodology are described, and the findings of the project are presented. Case studies from a provincial centre, a rural region and a metropolitan region are presented in an appendix.

A brief overview of this project and report may be found at TD/TNC 61.11. Show less

Preparing medical students to be agentic learners is held to be increasingly important. This is because beyond sequencing, enhancing and varying of experiences across university and health care settings, medical students require epistemological agency to optimize their learning. The positioning of students in these settings, and their engagement with these is central to effective medical education. Consequently, when considering both the processes and outcomes of individuals' learning to become a doctor, it is helpful to account for the interrelated pedagogical factors of affordance, guidance, and engagement. This paper focuses on the last set of concerns - the student's engagement - with particular consideration to how they shape the relations between what experiences are afforded through the medical program and how they elect to engage with them. Evidence from a qualitative study is used to present five salient factors that are central to assist medical students prepare as agentic learners.

Published abstract. Show less

This paper proposes bases for conceptualising a workplace pedagogy. Its central elements include three levels of guided participation at work comprising: everyday participation at work; guided learning for work; and guided learning for transfer. Together, these levels of guidance and the sequenced access to workplace activities represent the superstructure of this pedagogy. However, its foundations are located in the access to activities and guidance the workplace affords. The prospects for learning through guided participation are formed by the support and sponsorship afforded by the workplace, and how workers decide to engage with the workplace. Consequently, the bases of a workplace pedagogy cannot be restricted to the intentional and unintended experiences that learners are afforded through guided learning. It also needs to account for how workplaces invite access to activities and guidance, and also how individuals participate in activities and engage with the guidance that workplaces afford. Together, these bases for learning through work edge us closer to a comprehensive workplace pedagogy.

Published abstract.

The volumes of collected papers are indexed at TD/TNC 64.287, and individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 64.288 to TD/TNC 64.354. Show less

This article is part of a volume, edited by Tara Fenwick, which provides an overview of, and introduction to, the current themes within research into the sociocultural understandings of work-based learning and working knowledge. These perspectives examine how learning is interrelated with the systems in which people work. The articles range from broader analyses of the contexts and purposes of learning to more specific learning theories. The pedagogical roles and approaches for adult educators practising in the workplace are discussed. Articles are indexed from TD/TNC 70.197 to TD/TNC 70.204.

The article presents a model of guided learning based on a situative theory of co-participation in workplace learning and shows ways that educators can engage people in work activity to increase meaningful, equitable learning and even critical thinking. The author suggests that bases for a workplace pedagogy need to go beyond models of guided learning to include factors that account for participation at work.

Published summary with additional information reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

Understanding how best learning for and in small business should proceed constitutes a worthwhile, yet challenging pedagogic project. Small businesses seem not attracted to, nor do they value taught courses that are often viewed as irrelevant, inappropriate or inaccessible to small business workers. However, given that small businesses need to respond to new demands it is worthwhile understanding the kinds of pedagogic practices they adopt when learning to make changes. This paper reports the initial findings of a study of how 30 small businesses learnt to implement the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Interviews were used to understand the pedagogic practices that these businesses adopted when implementing the GST. In most cases, contributions to learning were identified in a movement from an initial reliance upon external contributions to a greater independence within the small business. The core of the learning process was most commonly reported as being mediated by localised support and expertise (for example, experts, information, accountants, consultants) as the small businesses engaged with the task. Local contributions of different kinds played an important role in mediating the learning. From these findings, a model of learning in small business was generated whose wider applicability will be appraised through a second round of interviews with small business.

Published abstract used with permission of the copyright holder.

The three volumes of conference proceedings are indexed from TD/TNC 72.49 to TD/TNC 72.51; selected papers are indexed from TD/TNC 72.08 to TD/TNC 72.11 and TD/TNC 72.52 to TD/TNC 72.100. Show less

This book, which comprises a series of chapters, provides ‘contemporary, international perspectives on the role of subjectivity in securing effective work practices and learning for work and throughout working life’. The chapters are: Work, subjectivity and learning / Stephen Billett (pp.1-20); Escaping/becoming subjects: learning to work the boundaries in boundaryless work / Tara Fenwick (pp.21-36); Subjected bodies, or embodied subjects: subjectivity and learning safety at work / Margaret Somerville (pp.37-52); Learning and experience / Henning Salling Olesen (pp.53-67); Dressing corporate subjectivities: learning what to wear to the bank / Kathryn Church with Catherine Frazee, Teresa Luciani, Melanie Panitch and Patricia Seeley (pp.69-85); The moving subject: shifting work(ers) across and beyond organisational boundaries / Hermine Scheeres and Nicky Solomon (pp.87-104); Exploring construction of gendered identities at work / Lena Abrahamsson (pp.105-121); Epistemological beliefs and their impact on work, subjectivity and learning / Christian Harteis, Hans Gruber and Franz Lehner (pp.123-140); Personal agency and epistimology at work / Stephen Billet and Ray Smith (pp.141-156); Developing subjective identities through collective participation / Anneli Etelapelto and Jaana Saarinen (pp.157-177); Action at a distance: governmentality, subjectivity and workplace learning / Richard Edwards and Katherine Nicoll (pp.179-193); Integrating life, work and identity: farm women transferring ‘self’ through personal struggle and conflict / Jan Allan (pp.195-211); Work, subjectivity and learning in the diaspora: immigrant women of colour in white academe / Mary V. Alfred (pp.213-227); Workers, subjectivity and decent work / Catherine Casey (pp.229-245); Work, subjectivity and learning: prospects and issues / Tara Fenwick and Margaret Somerville (pp.247-265). Show less