This article explores the discursive work done by different notions of professional development in adult education. In particular we outline the ways in which the discourses of technical expertise, competence and reflective practice are deployed to mobilise professional practices and identities in particular ways and position certain practices and…

This paper explores the potential of a poststructuralist and rhetorical analysis in appreciating more fully the discursive work of assessment tasks as mechanisms of power/knowledge within discourses of professional development. It is argued that such analysis may reveal detail in the way in which assessments work as material elements within a body…

Drawing on the work of Foucault, and to a lesser extent actor-network theory, this article examines some of their methodological and theoretical implications for conceptions of workplace learning. We suggest that workplaces need to be examined for the spatio-temporal ordering of practices and the actors drawn into them in order to move beyond the…

Suggests that analyses of government policies that focused on sectoral analysis are no longer adequate. Compares flexible learning policy in higher education and vocational education, suggesting that sectoral boundaries have broken down. Describes implications for social and economic policy agendas. Contains 37 references. (SK)

Explores the significance of the trend toward flexible learning in education and training. Argues that it may have the potential to change both the identities of learners and teachers and knowledge itself and that it may function as a form of social control. (SK)