World Yearbook of Education 2007

The 2007 edition of this respected international volume considers the challenges facing work related education arising from the rapid expansion of the global economy and the impact of this on labour markets and individual workers.

Including perspectives from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South America, India and South Africa, the 2007 volume is split into four clear sections covering key topics, such as:

• the current global context when all work, even local, is influenced by global economic activity
• workers are expected to engage in lifelong learning but also be mobile and deal with rapidly changing working knowledge
• work related education must prepare workers for the global economy and specific contexts, where governments attract global companies by promoting education and literate workforces
• how the responsibility for providing work-education is distributed between schools, vocational education, HE, professional bodies, local and global companies, governments, the private sector and individuals
• the pressures on formal education and training institutions to produce graduates with certain kinds of knowledge, skills and personal attributes.

Lesley Farrell

Lesley Farrell is an Associate Professor at Monash University, Clayton, Australia. She has an international reputation in the field of language and global work, and has published widely. Her research and publications have focused on language and social change in globally distributed workplaces, paying particular attention to the development of new forms of ICT-enabled workplace literacy, the effects of globalization on local work practices and local knowledge-building, and the role of local work-related education in the production of the global knowledge economy.

Tara Fenwick

Tara Fenwick is an Associate Professor at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. She has an international reputation in the field of work-related learning and has published widely in the field. Her research and publications have focused on three related areas within the field of work-based learning and education: (1) learning in work, including organizational learning, gender in work and learning, and socio-cultural understandings of learning in work; (2) professionals’ lifelong learning, focusing on experiential learning, problem-based learning, portfolio careers and knowledge networks in fast-changing, flexibilized work environments; and (3) teacher development, focusing on teacher professional growth plans, and teacher development in international contexts.