Purpose: This paper aims to identify the ethical foundations and principles underpinning the learning organization (LO) concept. Design/methodology/approach: By interviewing one thought leader in the field, Professor Robin Snell, this paper traces how his early days in academia shaped the development of an ethics-driven research agenda on LO.…

Purpose: This paper aims to attempt to provide an overview of the valuable scientific contribution on learning organization in social science from the perspectives of Professor Silvia Gherardi and discusses the evolution of Silvia's work over her long career. Design/methodology/approach: With the collaboration of this leading scholar, Professor…

In this paper, I propose a renewed look at how teaching assistants (TAs) are being prepared to fulfill their duties in higher education. I argue that the apprenticeship model of learning that is currently in use be replaced by the more holistic workplace learning approach. Workplace learning theories take into consideration the complexity of the…

Contemporary global transitions are remaking education as a social institution and re-positioning educators in a lifelong learning political order. In this paper, I reflect on a research project that investigated the teaching occupation in learning societies in order to explain the concept of "educational work": the form of labour that…

This paper employs a socio-technical perspective to explore the role of complex work support systems in organising knowledge and providing opportunities for learning in professional work. Drawing on concepts from infrastructure studies, such systems are seen as work infrastructures which connect information, knowledge, standards and work…

When Toni Pearce ran for National Union of Students (NUS) Vice-President for Further Education she put adults at the heart of her manifesto, pledging to champion the cause of learners "studying in the workplace, as distance learners or re-skilling later in life" and to make the NUS more accessible to them. It's a promise which, now in…

The first decade of democracy in South Africa ushered in dramatic social policy reforms. One innovation in initial teacher education emerged through the skills development policy, which introduced learnerships to address South Africa's human resource development needs. South Africa's learnerships have been adapted from countries such as the United…