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 map the shifts in learning and work over the past two decades.

Work-based learning is Joe Raelin’s unique way of incorporating a number of action strategies—such as action learning, action science, and communities of practice—into a comprehensive framework to help people learn collectively with others. In this thoroughly updated and revised edition, he demonstrates how to engage our reflective powers to challenge those taken-for-granted assumptions that unwittingly hold us back from questioning standard ways of operating. A well-known popular author, Joe is an avid student of the many traditions that support work-based learning, so he presents an inclusive model that has wide appeal across disciplines and occupations. He provides readers with the most recent updates in the field, such as his coverage of virtual team learning, portfolios, multisource feedback, critical and global action learning, and changes in educational policy. Whether you're an organizational or college educator, this book will help you make learning accessible to everyone—and even contagious within your organization!

Work-related learning can be broadly seen to be concerned with all forms of education and training closely related to the daily work of (new) employees, and is increasingly playing a central role in the lives of individuals, groups or teams and the agenda’s of organizations. However, as this area of study becomes more prominent, debates have opened about the nature of the field, as well as about its configurations and effects. For example, some authors have a broad definition of WRL and define it as learning for work, at work and through work, ranging from formal, through semi-structured to informal learning. Others prefer to use the concept of WRL mainly in connection to informal, incidental learning processes during work, leading to competent workplace learners. Formal and informal learning are distinguished from each other with respect to the level of intention (implicit/non-intentional/incidental versus deliberative/intentional/structured). Another point of discussion originates from the different ‘theoretical backgrounds’ of the authors: the ‘learning theorists’ versus the ‘organizational theorists’. The first group is mainly interested in the question of how learning comes about; the second group is predominantly interested in the search for factors affecting learning.

This book takes a unique, practical, hands-on approach to the everyday activity of work integrated learning, addressing the topic through both direct instruction and case studies derived from actual experience.

This book is about sharing knowledge and practice. It arose from a conference that was hosted by the Work Based Learning and Accreditation Unit of the School of Health and Social Sciences at Middlesex University. We believed that as a Unit and within the University we have the expertise and experience to make a significant contribution to the debates surrounding the development and implementation of work based learning in health care. However, we were also aware that we are by no means alone in this and that excellent work is being developed and practised in many other universities and organisations: and so the idea of the conference as a platform from which to share knowledge and practice was born. Whilst this book doesn't provide a 'how to' guide, it addresses a topic that has become increasingly important in government, business and edu- cation: the role of the workplace in the generation of knowledge in a complex and changing society. The book presents a range of ideas and practice that cross many of the debates in work based learning including the student experience, the organisational experience of accreditation and professional impact as well as academic and policy reviews. As such, we believe that those who are experienced in work based learning and those who are just beginning to think about it will find something here to stimulate thinking and the development of new ideas.

Work-Based Learning

This up-to-date reference work explores theories, methods and practices of social work management education in higher education. It includes contributions from more than 30 scholars and researchers in the field of social work management education from more than 10 countries and 4 continents. The work is unique as it overcomes current barriers between the different sub-disciplines of social work didactics and management education, and takes into consideration the development of a discipline-specific Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The integrated and transdisciplinary approach to social work management education presented in this edited volume is of paramount importance to international scholars, teachers, practitioners, students and all other audiences interested in the field of education. The work provides an overview of the theoretical principles on how social work management can be taught and learned, and analyzes curricula, pedagogical approaches, actors, and socio-economic and institutional contexts of social work management at higher education institutions

Drawing on the field of cultural historical psychology and the sociologies of skill and labour process, Contested Learning in Welfare Work offers a detailed account of the learning lives of state welfare workers in Canada as they cope, accommodate, resist and flounder in times of heightened austerity. Documented through in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis, Peter Sawchuk shows how the labour process changes workers, and how workers change the labour process, under the pressures of intensified economic conditions, new technologies, changing relations of space and time, and a high-tech version of Taylorism. Sawchuk traces these experiences over a seven-year period that includes major work reorganisation and the recent economic downturn. His analysis examines the dynamics between notions of de-skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling, as workers negotiate occupational learning and changing identities.