Skip to main content

Framing Workplace Learning

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Workplace Learning in Teacher Education

Abstract

This chapter sets the scene of teacher professional learning in England and its shifting context. It reflects on the politicisation of education and the increasingly radical agenda to pursue a more extensively workplace-based model of teacher pre-service and continuing professional learning, including a brief dalliance with the notion of teaching as a master’s level profession. The chapter then explains the genesis and structure of the book, reflecting upon its four themes: the social policy context and related tensions in England; policy and practice relating to teacher learning in UK home nations and internationally; learning theory and socio-cultural perspectives on learning; and, learning across the professions including medicine and educational psychology. Before exploring these themes the chapter presents three different analytical frames for considering workplace learning. First it disaggregates it into its constituent parts: work and place and learning. In doing this it highlights contemporary struggles around binary ways of thinking about knowledge and learning, and about the theory/practice dichotomy. This leads to a discussion of the possibilities offered by ‘third space’ thinking, which draws on hybridity theory, and situates binaries in productive dialogue. A third and final analytical move from third spaces to nomadic spaces is guided by the theoretical lens of Deleuze and Guattari.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ashton, D. (2004). The political economy of workplace learning. In H. Rainbird, A. Fuller & A. Munroe (Eds.), Workplace learning in context (pp. 21–37). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, D. (2000). Bridging practices: Intertwining content and pedagogy in teaching and learning to teach. Journal of Teacher Education, 51(2), 241–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S. (2001). Performativities and fabrications in the education economy: Towards the performative society. In D. Gleeson & C. Husbands (Eds.), The performing school: Managing teaching and learning in a performance culture (pp. 210–226). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S. (2003). The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity. Journal of Education Policy, 18(2), 215–228.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Becta. (2008). Get on board next generation learning. www.nextgenerationlearning.org.uk. Accessed 25 June 2008.

  • Bhabha, H. (1994). The location of culture. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billett, S. (2001). Learning in the workplace: Strategies for effective practice. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billet, S. (2004). Learning through work: Workplace participatory practices. In H. Rainbird, A. Fuller & A. Munroe (Eds.), Workplace learning in context (pp. 109–125). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brisard, E., Menter, I., & Smith, I. (2005). Models of partnership in programmes of initial teacher education: A systematic literature review commissioned by the General Teaching Council Scotland. Edinburgh: General Teaching Council Scotland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, T., & McNamara, O. (2005). New teacher identity and regulative government: The discursive formation of primary mathematics teacher education. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, T., & McNamara, O. (2011). Becoming a mathematics teacher: Identity and identifications. Mathematics Education Library. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cairns, L., & Malloch, M. (2011). Theories of work, place and learning: New directions. In M. Malloch, L. Cairns, K. Evans & B. O’Connor (Eds.), The Sage handbook of workplace learning (pp. 3–16). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Capel, S., Turner, T., & Leask, M. (Eds). Learning to teach in the secondary school: a companion to school experience. (5th edn 2009, 6th edn in press 2013) London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casey, E. S. (1997). The fate of place: A philosophical history. Berkeley: University of California.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castle, K., Peiser, G., Smith, E. (2013). Teacher development through the masters in teaching and learning: a lost opportunity. Journal of Education for Teaching, 39 (1), 30-38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. (1999). Relationships of knowledge and practice: Teacher learning communities. Review of Research in Education, 24, 249–305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darling-Hammond, L. (1994). Will 21st-century schools really be different? The Education Digest, 60, 4–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Day, C., Stobart, G., Sammons, P., Kington, A., Qing Gu, Smees, R., & Mujtaba, T. (2006a). Variations in teachers’ work, lives and effectiveness. Research Report RR743. London: DfES. http://dera.ioe.ac.uk/6405/1/rr743.pdf. Accessed 2 Oct 2012.

  • Day, C. W., Kington, A., Stobart, G., & Sammons, P. (2006b). The personal and professional selves of teachers: Stable and unstable identities. British Educational Research Journal, 34(4), 601–616.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Day, C., Sammons, P., Gu, Q., Kington, A., & Stobart, G. (2008). Committed for life? Variations in teachers’ work, lives and effectiveness. Journal of Educational Change, 9(3), 243–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DCSF. (2008). Being the best for our children: Releasing talent for teaching and learning. Nottingham: DCSF Publications (DCSF-00246-2008)

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (2004). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. (Original work published 1980 copyright 1987).

    Google Scholar 

  • DfE. (2010). The importance of teaching: Schools white paper 2010. London: DfE.

    Google Scholar 

  • DfE. (2011a). The school workforce in England: November 2011. www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s001062/sfr06-2012v7.pdf. Accessed 2 Oct 2012.

  • DfE. (2011b). Hundreds of teachers awarded national scholarships. www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a00200774/hundreds-of-teachers-awarded-national-scholarships. Accessed 2 Oct 2012.

  • DfE. (2012). Teachers’ standards. London: DfE. https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/teachers%20standards.pdf. Accessed 10 Oct 2012.

  • DfES. (2004). Every child matters. Green Paper. London: Department for Employment and Skills.

    Google Scholar 

  • Earl, L., Watson, N., Levin, B., Leithwood, K., Fullan, M., Torrance, N., Jantzi, D., Mascal, B., & Volante, L. (2003). Watching learning 3, final report of the external evaluation of England’s National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto (OISE, UT).

    Google Scholar 

  • Engeström, Y. (1999). Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In Y. Engeström, R. Miettinen & R. Punamaki (Eds.), Perspectives on activity theory (pp. 19–38). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Towards an activity-theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14(1), 133–156.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engeström, Y. (2004). The new generation of expertise: Seven theses. In H. Rainbird, A. Fuller & A. Munroe (Eds), Workplace learning in context (pp. 145–165). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engeström, Y. (2011). Activity theory and learning at work. In M. Malloch, L. Cairns, K. Evans & B. O’Connor (Eds.), The Sage handbook of workplace learning (pp. 86–104). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eraut, M. (2004). Transfer of knowledge between education and workplace settings. In H. Rainbird, A. Fuller & A. Munroe (Eds), Workplace learning in context (pp. 201–221). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, K., & Kersh, N. (2006). Adults learning in, for and through the workplace: The significance of biography and experience. Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, University of Warwick, 6–9 September 2006.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, K., Hodkinson, P., Rainbird, H., & Unwin, L. (2006). Improving workplace learning. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, L. (2008). Professionalism, professionality and the development of education professionals. British Journal of Educational Studies, 56(1), 20–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frankham, J., & Hiett, S. (2011). The Master’s in teaching and learning: Expanding utilitarianism in the continuing professional development of teachers in England. Journal of Education Policy, 26(6), 803–818.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, A., & Unwin, L. (2003). Learning as apprentices in the contemporary UK workplace: Creating and managing expansive and restrictive participation. Journal of Education and Work, 16(4), 407–426.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, A., & Unwin, L. (2004). Expansive learning environment integrating organizational and personal development. In H. Rainbird, A. Fuller & A. Munroe (Eds.), Workplace learning in context (pp. 126–144). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, A., Munro, A., & Rainbird, H. (2004). Introduction and overview. In H. Rainbird, A. Fuller & A. Munroe (Eds.), Workplace learning in context (pp. 1–13). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, A., Hodkinson, H., Hodkinson, P., & Unwin, L. (2005). Learning as peripheral participation in communities of practice: A reassessment of key concepts in workplace learning. British Educational Research Journal, 31(1), 49–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, A., Unwin, L., Felstead, A., Jewson, N., & Kakavelakis, K. (2007). Creating and using knowledge: An analysis of the differentiated nature of workplace learning environments. British Educational Research Journal, 33(5), 743–759.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furlong, J. (1996). Do student teachers need higher education? In J. Furlong & R. Smith (Eds.), The role of higher education in initial teacher education (pp. 151–165). London: Kogan Page.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gadamer, H.-G. (2004). Truth and Method. 2nd revised edn. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galton, M. (1995). Crisis in the primary classroom. London: David Fulton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (1984). The constitution of society. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gove, M. (2010). Speech to the annual conference of the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services. Birmingham, 16 June. http://www.education.gov.uk/news/news/nationalcollege. Accessed 12 July 2012.

  • Gove, M. (2012) Tough exams and rote learning inspires pupils. www.theweek.co.uk/uk-news/50095/gove-tough-exams-and-rote-learning-help-inspire-students#ixzz2DGbwlHav. Accessed 12 Oct 2012.

  • Gutiérrez, K., Rymes, B., & Larson, J. (1995). Script, counterscript, and underlife in the classroom: James Brown versus Brown v. Board of Education. Harvard Educational Review, 65, 445–471.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutiérrez, K., Baquedano-López, P., & Turner, M. G. (1997). Putting language back into language arts: When the radical middle meets the third space. Language Arts, 74, 368–378.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutiérrez, K., BaquedanoLópez, P., & Tejeda, C. (1999). Rethinking diversity: Hybridity and hybrid language practices in the third space. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 6(4), 286–303.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hager, P. (2004). The conceptualization and measurement of learning at work. In H. Rainbird, A. Fuller & A. Munroe (Eds.), Workplace learning in context (pp. 242–258). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hager, P. (2011). Theories of workplace learning. In M. Malloch, L. Cairns, K. Evans & B. O’Connor (Eds.), The Sage handbook of workplace learning (pp. 17–31). London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, S., & Dourish, P. (1996). Re-place-ing space: The roles of space and place in collaborative systems. Proceedings of CSCW ’96 (pp. 67–76). New York: ACM.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (1989). The condition of postmodernity: An enquiry into the origins of cultural change. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helsby, G. (1999). Changing teachers’ work: The ‘reform’ of secondary schooling. London: Taylor Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hobson, A., Malderez, A., Tracey, L., Giannakaki, M., Pell, R., Kerr, K., Chambers, G., Tomlinson, P., & Roper, T. (2006). Becoming a teacher: Student teachers’ experiences of initial teacher training in England. Research Report RR744. London: DfEE. www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/RR744.pdf Accessed 2 Oct 2012.

  • Hobson, A., Malderez, A., Tracey, L., Ashby, P., Mitchell, N., McIntyre, J., Cooper, D., Roper, T., Chambers, G., & Tomlinson, P. (2009). Becoming a teacher: Teachers’ experiences of initial teacher training, induction and early professional development. Research Report DCSF RR115. London: DCSF. www.education.gov.uk/publications/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-RR115.pdf. Accessed 2 Oct 2012.

  • Hodkinson, H., & Hodkinson, P. (2004). Rethinking the concept of community of practice in relation to schoolteachers. International Journal of Training and Development, 8(1), 21–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodkinson, H., & Hodkinson, P. (2005). Improving schoolteachers’ workplace learning. Research Papers in Education, 20(2), 109–131.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holland, J., Gordon, T., & Lahelma, E. (2007). Temporal, spatial and embodied relations in the teacher’s day at school. Ethnography and Education, 2(2), 221–237.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holyoake, J. (1993). Initial teacher training—the French view. Journal of Education for Teaching, 19(2), 215–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoyle, E. (1974). Professionality, professionalism and control in teaching. London Education Review, 3(2), 13–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoyle, E. (2001). Teaching: Prestige, status and esteem. Educational Management & Administration, 29(2), 139–152.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, I. (1994). Rethinking the school. St. Leonards, New South Wales: Allen and Unwin

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingersoll, R. (2003). Who controls teachers’ work? Power and accountability in America’s schools. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kalmbach Phillips, D. (2002). Female preservice teachers’ talk: Illustrations of subjectivity, visions of ‘nomadic’ space. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and practice, 8(1), 9–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaustuv, R. (2003). Teachers in nomadic spaces: Deleuze and Curriculum. New York: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kersh, N., Waite, E., & Evans, K. (2011). The spatial dimensions of skills for life workplace provision. Centre for learning and life chances in knowledge economies and societies, Research Paper 24. www.llakes.org. Accessed 12 July 2012.

  • Kozleski, E. (2011). Dialectical practices in education: Creating third space in the education of teachers. Teacher Education and Special Education, 34(3), 250–259.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lisahunter, Rossi, T., Tinning, R., Flanagan, E., & Macdonald, D. (2011). Professional learning places and spaces: the staffroom as a site for beginning teacher induction and transition. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 39(1), 33–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maguire, M. (2000). Inside/outside the ivory tower: Teacher education in the English academy. Teaching in Higher Education, 5(2), 149–165.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahony, P., & Hextall, I. (1998). Social justice and the reconstruction of teaching. Journal of Education Policy, 13(4), 545–558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malloch, M., Cairns, L., Evans, K., & O’Connor, B. (2011). The Sage handbook of workplace learning. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayhew, K., & Keep, E. (1999). The assessment: Education, training and economic performance. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 4(3), 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGregor, J. (2003). Making spaces: Teacher workplace topologies. Pedagogy, Culture and Society., 11(3), 353–377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKinsey, &C. (2007). How the world’s best-performing school systems come out on top. London: McKinsey. www.mckinsey.com/locations/UK_Ireland/Publications.aspx Accessed 10 Oct 2012

    Google Scholar 

  • McNally, J., Blake, A., & Reid, A. (2009). The informal learning of new teachers in school. Journal of Workplace Learning, 21(4), 322–333.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McNamara, O. (Ed.) (2002). Becoming an evidence-based practitioner. London: Routledge Falmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • McNamara, O., Roberts, L., Basit, T., & Brown, T. (2002). Rites of passage in initial teacher training: Ritual, performance, ordeal and numeracy skills tests. British Educational Research Journal, 28(6), 861–876.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moje, E. B., McIntosh-Ciechanowski, K., Ellis, L., Carrillo, R., & Collazo, T. (2004). Working toward third space in content area literacy: An examination of everyday funds of knowledge and discourse. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(1), 38–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Munby, H., Russell, T., & Martin, A. K. (2001). Teachers’ knowledge and how it develops. In V. Richardson (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (4th ed, pp. 877–904). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray, J., Jones, M., McNamara, O., & Stanley, G. (2011). The Teacher Education Research Network (TERN): Building research capacity in the North West Region of England. ESRC Project Final Report: RES-069-25-0008. Swindon: ESRC.

    Google Scholar 

  • National College for School Leadership. (2012). System leadership prospectus. London: National College.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ofsted. (2013). The framework for school inspection. www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/framework-for-school-inspection-january-2012. Accessed 22 Dec 2012.

  • Ozga, J. (1995). Deskilling a profession: Professionalism, deprofessionalisation and the new managerialism. In H. Busher & R. Saran (Eds.), Managing teachers as professionals in schools (pp. 21–38). London: Kogan Page.

    Google Scholar 

  • Philips, D., & Ochs, K. (2004). Researching policy borrowing: Some methodological challenges in comparative education. British Educational Research Journal, 30(6), 773–784.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Power, M. (1994). The audit explosion. London: Demos.

    Google Scholar 

  • Power, M. (1997). The audit society: Rituals of verification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prensky, M. (2001). Digital native, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rainbird, H., Fuller, A., & Munro, A. (2004a). Workplace learning in context. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rainbird, A., Munro, A., & Holly, L. (2004b). The employment relationship and workplace learning. In H. Rainbird, A. Fuller & A. Munro (Eds.), Workplace learning in context (pp. 38–53). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salisbury, J., & Morris, K. (2012). Beyond the border: Perspectives on teacher education in Wales. Paper presented at the UCET Annual Conference, November.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sammons, P., Day, C., Kington, A., Gu, Q., Stobart, G., & Smees, R. (2007). Exploring variations in teachers’ work, lives and their effects on pupils: Key findings and implications from a longitudinal mixed-method study. British Educational Research Journal., 33(5), 681–701.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schleicher, A. (Ed.) (2012). Preparing teachers and developing school leaders for the 21st century: Lessons from around the World. OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264xxxxxx-en. Accessed 10 Oct 2012.

  • Schon, D. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schultze, U., & Boland, R. J. Jr (2000). Place, space and knowledge work: A study of outsourced computer systems administrators. Accounting, Management and Information Technologies, 10, 187–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sfard, A. (1998). On two metaphors for learning and the dangers of choosing just one. Educational Researcher, 27(2), 4–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shulman, L. (1986). Those who understand: Knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Researcher, 15(2), 4–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shulman, L. (2005). Signature pedagogies in the professions. Daedalus, 134(3), 52–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soja, E. (1996). Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined places. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stronach, I. (1996). Fashioning post-modernism, finishing modernism: Tales from the fitting room. British Educational Research Journal, 22, 359–375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stronach, I., Corbin, B., McNamara, O., Stark, S., & Warne, T. (2002). Towards an uncertain politics of professionalism: Teacher and nurse identities in flux. Journal of Educational Policy, 17(1), 109–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • St. Pierre, E. (1997). Nomadic inquiry in the smooth spaces of the field: A preface. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 10(3), 365–383.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Troman, G. (1996). The rise of the new professionals: The restructuring of primary teachers’ work and professionalism. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 17(4), 473–487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wahlstedt, A., Pekkola, S., & Niemela, M. (2008). From e-learning space to e-learning place. British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(6), 1020–1030.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webb, R. (Ed.) (2006). Changing teaching and learning in the primary school. London: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webb, R., & Vulliamy, G. (2006). Coming full circle? The impact of new labour’s education policies. London: ATL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webb, R., & Vulliamy, G. (2008). ‘On a treadmill’ but ‘the kids are great’: Primary teachers’ work and wellbeing. London: ATL.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wenger, E. (1999). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wenger, E. (2009). Communities of practice and social learning systems: The career of a concept. http://wenger-trayner.com/resources/publications/cops-and-learning-systems/. Accessed 10 Oct 2012.

  • Zeichner, K. (2010). Rethinking the connections between campus courses and field experiences in college- and university-based teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 61, 89–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olwen McNamara .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

McNamara, O., Jones, M., Murray, J. (2014). Framing Workplace Learning. In: McNamara, O., Murray, J., Jones, M. (eds) Workplace Learning in Teacher Education. Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher Education, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7826-9_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics