Praxis: Working to learn, learning to work
Why do some workplaces create ‘expansive’ learning environments, whilst others are more ‘restrictive’? In this edition of Praxis, Alan Felstead, Alison Fuller, Nick Jewson and Lorna Unwin, explore this question through six case studies.
Praxis: Working to learn, learning to work (PDF, 181 Kb)
Published January 2011
This edition of Praxis explores one way of investigating, codifying and actively promoting the embedded or intrinsic potential of work as a means of learning: through the Working as Learning Framework (WALF).
Drawing on a four year investigation into the relationship between workplace learning, the organisation of work and performance; this edition of Praxis highlights wide variances in the opportunities available to employees to learn and develop, even within jobs that are ostensibly identical. Why do some exercise instructors have more opportunity to learn and develop than others? How can changes to the management structures of primary care in the NHS impact on the capacity of Health Visitors to collaborate and innovate?
The answer, the authors argue, lies in the workplace but also, crucially, in the wider context of the productive systems and processes that shape the workplace as either an expansive or restrictive learning environment.
