The SAGE Handbook of Workplace Learning

This Handbook provides a state-of –the art overview of the field of workplace learning from a global perspective. The authors are all well-placed theoreticians, researchers, and practitioners in this burgeoning field , which cuts across higher education, vocational education and training, post-compulsory secondary schooling, and lifelong education. The volume provides a broad–based, yet incisive analysis of the range of theory, research, and practical developments in workplace learning

The editors draw together the three essential areas of theory, research and practice, and issues in the field of workplace learning. In addition, final chapters focus on issues, future developments, and directions with recommendations for further development.

Key researchers and writers in the field have approached workplaces as the base of learning about work, that is, work-based learning. There has also been emerging interest in variations of the idea such as learning about, through, and at work. Many of the theoretical discussions have centered on adult learning and some on learners′ managing their own learning, with emphasis on aspects such as communities of practice and self directed learning.

Early work in the field was often linked to the Vocational Education and Training (VET) traditions with concerns around skills, competencies and ′on the job′ learning. The idea that learning and workplaces had more to do with real lifelong and lifewide aspects than the traditional "training" regimen has emerged in the last decade. Since the mid 1990s the field has grown as an area of theory, research, and practical work which has not only expanded the interest but has also legitimized the area as a field of study, reflection, and progress.

The SAGE Handbook of Workplace Learning draws together a wide range of views, theoretical dispositions, and assertions and provides a leading-edge presentation by key writers and researchers with insight into the field and its current state. It will be a basic source for researchers and academics interested in the scope and breadth of the workplace learning area.

Leonard Cairns, PhD, FRSA, is an Adjunct Associate professor at Monash University, Australia, and was previously Associate dean in the Faculty of Education, at Monash University. Len is a past Chair of the Workplace Learning Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association and has been a long-time member of the EERA, VETNET group. Len is an associate editor of a number of international journals and reviews for journals in the areas of VET, Management and Learning and Teacher Education. His research on work, learning and VET, and Capability Theory and application, has led to many publications. Past SAGE edited books have included The SAGE Handbook of Workplace Learning (Malloch, Cairns, Evans and O′Connor, Eds, 2011) and the four volume "major work", Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, (Malloch, Cairns and O′Connor Eds, 2016).

Karen Evans, PhD, FAcSS is Emeritus Professor of Education at UCL Institute of Education. She held the Chair in Education in the Department of Education, Practice and Society at UCL and served as Head of Lifelong Education and International Development in the Institute of Education, University of London. Karen’s research and publications focus on learning in the life and work transitions of youth and adulthood. Honorary Professorships currently include the UK Economic and Social Research Council Centre for Learning and Life Chances (LLAKES, UCL) and RMIT University, Australia.  She also plays leading roles in the Asia-Europe Education and Research Hub for Lifelong Learning and in VETNET (European Educational Research Association). She was honoured to be awarded the European Commission’s Vocational Education and Training Research Award in 2017.

Bridget N. O’Connor, Ph.D., is Professor Emerita, Higher Education and Business Education, New York University where she taught graduate level courses including curriculum development and workplace learning. In addition to her work with SAGE Publishing, her work includes six college-level textbooks related to either end-user computing or learning in the workplace. Bridget chaired AERA’s Special Interest Group Workplace Learning and was president of the Organizational Systems Research Association, and editor of its journal. Bridget was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kabul, Afghanistan, and a Fulbright Senior Specialist at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia.  She either chaired or served as a member of 60 NYU doctoral committees; several of her students have won national research awards.