Nicky Solomon

University of Technology Sydney | UTS · Graduate Research School

Objective: To develop a detailed account of changed practices in everyday work in the redesign of a primary healthcare program. Design: The research aimed to produce layered and rich descriptions of the complex and multidimensional remaking of health practices. Empirical data was gathered through ethnographic methods including; interviewing, self-...

Abstract: Objective: To develop a detailed account of changed practices in everyday work in the redesign of primary healthcare program. Design: The research aimed to produce layered and rich descriptions of the complex and multidimensional remaking of health practices. Empirical data was gathered through ethnographic methods including; interviewi...

Purpose This paper aims to provide an account of learning and change in the redesign of a primary health-care initiative in a large metropolitan city in Australia. Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on research exploring the place and role of learning in the re-making of health professional practices in a major New South Wales Governme...

Changes in expectations of research education worldwide have seen the rise of new demands beyond supervision and have highlighted the need for academic leadership in research education at a local level. Based on an interview study of those who have taken up local leadership roles in four Australian universities, this paper maps and analyses differe...

In this chapter, we challenge two conventional assumptions from workplace learning research and organizational change research: that learning can be understood isolated from its embeddedness in work practices and that managing change at work aims to re-stabilize entities known as organizations. In contrast, we believe understanding the nexus betwee...

In this paper, we challenge conventional theories underpinning the practice of human resource development (HRD) that typically focus on the objects of learning – individuals, skills, jobs – or separate the contexts of work (performance) from learning (training). Using case study research from a public utility and a winery, we found similarities in...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of “learning” through what we have termed “integrated development practices”. These are common organisational practices that both enhance organisational effectiveness and contribute to organisational and employee learning. Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses the ways in which l...

Learning in workplaces is always mediated through talk. It is tempting for management to seek to utilise everyday talk as part of learning and therefore enhance productivity. This paper examines the responses of workers to interventions that aim to formalise informal conversations at work as part of an explicit workplace learning strategy. It draws...

Contemporary changes in what constitutes work are producing different kinds of people in organizations and thus workers can be understood as engaging in ongoing identity work (Scheeres 2003; Solomon 2005). In this chapter we examine how this is played out in two workplaces focussing on one worker in each organisation. The first workplace is a furth...

This paper about consumption as a metaphor for learning follows from some ideas about learning and space that emerged from a research project concerned with everyday learning at work. These learning/work spaces have drawn our attention to the significant consumption (eating and drinking) occurring within them. We suggest that linking everyday learn...

Much has been written about how space and time are integral to understanding social relations, in particular about associations between space and understanding learning in workplaces. Drawing from a research study exploring everyday learning at work, this paper looks beyond what is generally understood as work situations by turning to those spaces...

In this article I draw attention to the current legitimising of new forms of identity of vocational and higher education learners. Using identity as a lens for examining pedagogy I focus on one of these new forms – the learner-worker identity. I examine one teaching and learning practice portfolio development, by discussing the program within which...

Limited research has been undertaken to identify and examine systemic issues associated with the provision of vocational education and training (VET) to equity groups. This report focuses on the institutional relationships and policies that determine equity provision, and proposes three principles for framing equity practices. The principles are: l...

The terms “learning” and “learner” are used in discussions of workplace learning as if they were unproblematic and as if workers, organisations and researchers had a common, shared view about what these terms mean. A study of four different workgroups within an organisation in which the discourse of learning was pervasive suggests that having an id...

How is adult learning used to produce personal, organisational and social change? This interesting examination of adult learning for change illustrates through diverse case studies and theoretical perspectives that personal change is inextricably linked to broader organisational and social change. The authors explore how theorising education as a v...

This chapter explores some of the challenges and complexities presented by the new discourses on work and workplace learning, particularly those that serve as foreground to questions of culture.

Research in workplace learning needs to take into account the reflexive nature of researchers’ learning. Explores how members of a research team examined their own learning and collaboration through a study of transcripts of interactions between them during planning meetings and reflections upon them. Identifies implications for collaboration and l...

Universities are at a pivotal point in their history and are undergoing dramatic changes. One of the more significant of these changes is the move towards instrumental programmes of learning, as manifest for instance in workplace and work-based learning. This paper argues that this trend threatens the existence of the liberal university, where know...

The focus of this paper is the current development of work-based learning awards. We will relate work-based learning awards to the way in which the workplace has been constructed by contemporary reform discourses that combine elements of the managerial and the educational. These discourses emphasise the role of cultural change and the role of learn...

Models of workplace learning and principles for funding workplace learning in Australia were identified through case studies and a literature review. A diverse array of workplace-based approaches to delivering nationally recognized qualifications were identified. The following were among the nine funding proposals formulated: (1) funding arrangemen...

In post‐industrial workplaces, training can be theorised as a ‘technology’ that controls the systematic organisation of knowledge. Training is more than a symbol of the shift in the location of labour in relation to commodity production. Training does not ‘simply’ upskill workers. It can and does enable new forms of control and surveillance over th...

The handbook is designed as an introductory text on reading instruction for teachers of English as a Second Language. The first chapter explores the nature of reading through a series of activities that help identify the kind of knowledge one draws on and the strategies one uses in reading. Chapter 2 reviews key theories of reading that have inform...

In this symposium, members of the Researching Adult and Vocational Learning group at the University of Technology Sydney discuss new questions about work and learning they see as arising from the growing emphasis on learning throughout life and beyond formal educational settings. This trend recognises the workplace as an important site of adult lea...

It develops out of three diverse but interrelated sets of theorizations of change that have significant implications for Australia. These include the rise of new economy discourses and the emergence of new vocationalism in education and training; new forms of identity and new interests in the construction of self; and the contemporary re-conceptual...

In tune with lifelong learning discourses, adult learning is now understood to be anywhere and everywhere – in classrooms, in workplaces, in community settings and indeed in everyday life. This distribution of learning sites is accompanied by changing understandings of the relationship of formal and informal learning and of the role of adult educat...

Paper presented at the Asia-Pacific Researchers in Organization Studies (APROS) 10 th International Colloquium, Oaxaca, Mexico, 7-10 December 2003. Abstract This paper reports and discusses findings from a collaborative research project into learning in organizations conducted an Australian state government department. Informed by our theoretical p...