The question addressed in this paper is: what does a knowledge claim consist of in the context of the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)? The research comprises a case study of RPL applicants' entry into a postgraduate diploma (a fourth-year programme) in project management. The focus is on the knowledge claims made as part of the RPL…

The aim of this study is to understand the different ways that university students conceptualise quality in learning by drawing on a phenomenographic approach. A total of 20 students in higher education in Rwanda were interviewed and analysis of the interviews generated an outcome space of conceptions of quality in learning as transformation,…

This article presents one approach to assessing the impact of an online professional practice doctorate in education on participants' work environments. It is unique in that it explored impact during the doctoral program, before participants began their dissertation research, and it focused on how participants apply learning from the program…

In this paper I develop a response to a continuing problem in work-learning research, the connections between education, learning and work. These connections are commonly conceived in terms of the concept of transfer, integration or boundary crossing. Thinking these connections in this way, I claim, serves to consolidate a unitary, stable and…

This qualitative and longitudinal study focuses on graduate employment and the development of graduate employment paths. The aim of this article is to explore the present professional trajectory from higher education to working life, with particular reference to graduates from two different study programmes at Linkoping University in Sweden:…

Much had been written over the past few years on the intersections of work and learning. This article suggests that the analysis of the intersections of work and learning can benefit greatly from understanding the ways in which governing workers as individuals and populations has changed in Western liberal democracies in the latter part of the…

This paper is concerned with the relationship between trade unions and learning in the workplace, particularly in relation to the enhancement of worker employability profiles. With the restructuring and modernising of the European steel industry as its context, this paper argues that the organisational and structural features of a sector have a…

In Canada, current federal learning-and-work policy is focused on individual learner-worker development using an iteration of lifelong learning as cyclical. This policy aims to enhance the social as an effect of enhancing the economic. In this neoliberal milieu, cyclical lifelong learning has become not only a norm but also a culture and an…

E-learning is commonly thought of as a means of overcoming the constraints of time and space: offering the possibilities of "anytime, anywhere" learning. The argument in this paper is not intended to debunk this as a myth, but to examine some of the ways in which time and space are understood in relation to learning and e-learning. In the context…

Recent research on learning in work situations has focused on concepts such as 'productive learning' and 'pedagogy of vocational learning'. In investigating what makes learning productive and what pedagogies enhance this, there is a tendency to take the notion of learning as unproblematic. This paper argues that much writing on workplace learning…

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…

In recent years there has been significant growth in research that has considered the relationship between worker identity and learning at work. A key part of this relates to discussions of the 'newness' of various types of work manifested in discourses such as post-capitalism, post-bureaucracy and the new work order. On this basis, it is argued…

Traditional structures and processes as well as norms and beliefs in the field of research training across Europe are challenged by four recent trends. They encompass the implications of the expansion and diversification of the student body in higher education, the changing functioning and role of research in the knowledge economy, the…

An action learning program was implemented by a manufacturer using lean production practices. Action learning practices were accommodated during times of stability, but abandoned in times of crisis. The meaning of work in this organizational culture excluded all practices, such as reflection, that were not visible and targeted at immediate…

Adult educators respond to fiscal stringency by realigning programs or attempting to maintain the status quo. Adult educators have played a significant role in local economies but this fact is largely unrecognized. They must rethink their rationale, reject outmoded beliefs and patterns, and justify their work through program outcomes. (Author/CH)