This article proceeds from the argument that while the discourse of social responsibility (SR) is increasingly evident in pedagogies circulating through the workplace, its actual practices tend to be obscured beneath complex tensions and moral precepts presented as self-evident. Through an examination of individuals' learning of SR in the…

This chapter focuses on "learning processes" in the workplace from concepts emerging in the field of adult education, without straying into pedagogies and programs that can enhance learning. It discusses four topics on learning processes that seem to be particularly important for addressing key purposes and issues of workplace learning from an…

This article focuses on the complex negotiations of critical workplace educators positioned amongst contradictory agendas and discourses in the workplace. While philosophically aligned with critical pedagogical agendas of transformation and collective action for workplace change, these educators perform an array of pedagogic articulations in…

Accountability mechanisms in adult education, their constitution and their effects, are of increasing concern in an era threatening massive reductions to resources for adult education activity. Such mechanisms are frequently portrayed as unassailably oppressive. However, alternative analyses have illuminated contradictions and ambiguities in the…

With the dissemination of its Innovation Strategy in 2002, the Canadian government further solidified its commitment to a knowledge-based national competitiveness strategy. Through the unfolding of a multi-million dollar Workplace Skills Strategy (WSS) agency, and the launch of two research agencies, the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and…

Current issues in workplace learning scholarship include the following: situated learning and knowledge, culture and context of workplaces, texts and discourses mediating working knowledge, identity and difference, and equity and ethics in working knowledge. (Contains 39 references.) (SK)

An oral history of the workplace learning experiences of 17 women revealed that central to these experiences was exploration of self. Themes included recognizing and naming the self, confronting and breaking free of constraining workplace structures, and recovering an authentic self. (SK)

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare theoretical conceptions that reclaim and re-think material practice--"the thing" in the social and personal mix--specifically in terms of work activity and what is construed to be learning in that activity. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is theory-based. Three perspectives have been selected…

This article explores processes and possibilities for critical learning in the workplace, with a focus on workers laboring in what are often exploitive and dehumanizing conditions. The argument is based on a study of work-life learning of women, mostly new immigrants, employed long-term at an Alberta garment manufacturing plant. It is argued that…

A study of women entrepreneurs explored learning in the process of business start-up, conditions that foster innovative learning (challenge/variety, compelling social purpose, recognition and pride), and forms of innovative learning (generating multiple ideas, scanning, optimizing, problem solving, self-confidence). Innovative processes involved…

Traces the expansion of human resource development (HRD) into spirituality. Identifies associated problems: contradiction between the purposes of spirituality and HRD, religious fundamentalism, invasion of privacy, potential for manipulation, coercion into the global economy, and simplistic and naive treatment of spiritual community. (SK)

A discursive study of Canadian women who had started businesses identified five themes about women and entrepreneurship: (1) business plans as the "right" way; (2) profit/growth as success measures; (3) women as misplaced in the masculine business frontier; (4) success in business as liberation; and (5) effect on women's…

This article argues that understandings of work learning within human resource development (HRD) theory can be fruitfully enriched by more fully incorporating practice-based perspectives. Three contemporary theories that analyze learning as a relation of individuals with and/or in activity are discussed: the participational perspective of situated…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to argue that foundational terms in work-learning research, specifically "learning", "work", and "workplace", are inherently complex and contested as the same as their scope has expanded in different fields to elide various conceptual categories and theoretical positions. Yet…

Teacher education in Canada is an institution largely enshrined in tradition and certain unquestioned assumptions. It is about preparing teachers to work in school situations. Teacher educators must teach education majors a broader vision of these opportunities, and focus on "education" rather than just on classrooms and schools.…