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Workplace learning: main themes and perspectives

Workplace learning: main themes and perspectives
Workplace learning: main themes and perspectives
This paper provides an overview and critical discussion of some of the main themes and perspectives within existing academic literature concerning workplace learning. The introductory section of the paper outlines why learning at work has become a prominent issue for policy makers, employers and employees and discusses the social and multidisciplinary contexts through which workplace learning is understood and conceptualised. The paper continues in section one, to address the different approaches to learning that permeate current enquiry and research within the field. The discussion here centres upon two paradigms and two associated perspectives of learning and highlights how through these, the term ‘learning’ is subject to multiple definitions. Section two discusses formal and informal learning and attends to the ways in which learning at work has traditionally been associated with informal learning processes. The discussion illustrates how, as a result of ongoing debate, this perspective has been complicated and challenged and that learning at work is now understood to encompass a variety of both ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ elements. The final section of the paper, addresses the relationship between organisational structure and individual engagement in workplace learning. The discussion focuses on how underpinning this relationship is a structure/agency dynamic which, when attended to, illustrates how individuals and their learning contexts of work cannot be considered separately.
2
Centre for Labour Market Studies, University of Leicester
Lee, Tracey
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Fuller, Alison
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Ashton, David
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Butler, Peter
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Felstead, Alan
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Unwin, Lorna
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Walters, Sally
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Lee, Tracey
710b2b1c-5bd4-4951-b757-fe30b7147073
Fuller, Alison
c6b47796-05b5-4548-b67e-2ca2f2010fef
Ashton, David
23af9fd8-cfae-43ac-9f8d-b4787a141e90
Butler, Peter
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Felstead, Alan
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Unwin, Lorna
8203040c-b1e8-4948-bc2e-4bb2db648720
Walters, Sally
cffe5d20-3575-45d0-a40b-13d05a62cfb1

Lee, Tracey, Fuller, Alison, Ashton, David, Butler, Peter, Felstead, Alan, Unwin, Lorna and Walters, Sally (2004) Workplace learning: main themes and perspectives (Learning as Work Research Paper, 2) Leicester, GB. Centre for Labour Market Studies, University of Leicester 39pp.

Record type: Monograph (Working Paper)

Abstract

This paper provides an overview and critical discussion of some of the main themes and perspectives within existing academic literature concerning workplace learning. The introductory section of the paper outlines why learning at work has become a prominent issue for policy makers, employers and employees and discusses the social and multidisciplinary contexts through which workplace learning is understood and conceptualised. The paper continues in section one, to address the different approaches to learning that permeate current enquiry and research within the field. The discussion here centres upon two paradigms and two associated perspectives of learning and highlights how through these, the term ‘learning’ is subject to multiple definitions. Section two discusses formal and informal learning and attends to the ways in which learning at work has traditionally been associated with informal learning processes. The discussion illustrates how, as a result of ongoing debate, this perspective has been complicated and challenged and that learning at work is now understood to encompass a variety of both ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ elements. The final section of the paper, addresses the relationship between organisational structure and individual engagement in workplace learning. The discussion focuses on how underpinning this relationship is a structure/agency dynamic which, when attended to, illustrates how individuals and their learning contexts of work cannot be considered separately.

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More information

Published date: June 2004
Additional Information: Learning as Work: Teaching and Learning Processes in the Contemporary Work Organisation

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 63866
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/63866
PURE UUID: c36e0f8c-7721-4e51-ba1a-92611cd4e71e

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 12 Nov 2008
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 11:44

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Contributors

Author: Tracey Lee
Author: Alison Fuller
Author: David Ashton
Author: Peter Butler
Author: Alan Felstead
Author: Lorna Unwin
Author: Sally Walters

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