This paper explores the professional practice of the Action Learning (AL) facilitator through a process of critical inquiry, self-reflection and evaluation of action learning practice within a Higher Education Leadership Programme, commissioned by an English NHS Mental Health Trust. Action research was adopted as the overarching research approach…

Action learning is one of the most effective leadership development interventions [Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm, and McKee. 2014. "Advances in Leader and Leadership Development: A Review of 25 Years of Research and Theory." The Leadership Quarterly 25 (1): 63-82; Pauleen. 2003. "Leadership in a Global Virtual Team: An Action…

This account of practice tells the story of how engaging in a critical action learning set helped us address problems with student engagement in a postgraduate module. On the surface, this seems fairly straightforward following Revans' model (1971). However, what we actually have are multiple layers of self-reflection, a visual metaphor and its…

This paper explores how three organisations collaborate to support organisations and individuals to act on the challenges of sustainability through action learning, each using its unique skills. It examines the roles of each organisation and how by moving from individual to a collaborative they could do things better and do better things. The…

There is concern that management and business research favours rigour and theory over relevance and practice. There are pressures from funding councils for researchers to show more impact. The paper shows how the bridge between the academic world and the world of practice can be served by action learning. Consideration is given to the difficulties…

The requirements of accreditation can add benefits of providing continuity and the impetus enabling engagement in a busy world full of distractions, that can pull people away from the important but less urgent realm of learning. But it can at times have a cart-before-horse impact; the danger is people can elevate the completion of a portfolio for…

This paper explores the literature around online and blended learning. The impetus came from a cohort of 60 students being led through their dissertation by an e-learning evangelist. Initially the pedagogy closely followed Salmon's Five Stage Model, Wenger's Community of Practice, and traditional Social Constructivism pedagogies. In hindsight, it…

This article sheds light on employee wellbeing. We reveal how an 'adapted' action learning intervention (a change laboratory) introduced prior to the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK, enabled learning and action to emerge within an educational programme. We utilise the theoretical lens of activity theory to illustrate the challenges and tensions of…

This account of practice is about the 'Scale Up' programme, an attempt by an external consultant and their client to implement a model of Action Learning in an academic environment. It tells the story of establishing an Action Learning programme for local business leaders in collaboration with an academic business school. The programme involved…

What do people need to learn to engage actively in social action for neighbourhood improvement or development? How important is emergent learning relative to planned learning in this context? Where does first-person knowledge fit into the body of knowledge required for success in bringing about change for the better in neighbourhoods through…

This account of practice details the experiences of two doctoral students, on a DBA programme in the UK, as participants in an action learning set. It outlines the background to setting up the action learning set and describes early assumptions made by the students in relation to action learning structures. It highlights the initial difficulties…

The contribution of scholarship to practice is an on-going concern of the AL/HRD community. This paper explores how one influential discourse may shape AL/HRD's understanding of that contribution. In 2020 the UK Government implemented the Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF) to gather data on English Universities' knowledge exchange activities.…

This account of practice focuses on using action learning (AL) from both the facilitator and student experience during the dissertation stage of a postgraduate degree to resolve wicked workplace problems. The action learning process was used to explore and create a catalyst for change through research that explored the wicked problem of…

This paper examines a Revans led action learning / action research project in services for people with learning disabilities which took place between 1969 and 1972 across seven local authorities in the UK. It explores aspects of social and political history as the project unfolded, including the notable scandals in hospital and social care which…

This paper explores the learning and experience of Western action learning facilitators engaged in developing Chinese facilitators of action learning, all of whom were also managers, as part of a qualification programme based in China. The Western facilitators interviewed for this study had been specifically asked by their hosts to deliver a…