Learning and development practitioners : identity, profession and future trajectory
- Authors: Barratt-Pugh, Llandis , Hodge, Steven , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources Vol. 58, no. 2 (2020), p. 220-246
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- Description: The increasing focus on learning and innovation within organisations has significantly changed perceptions and practices of learning. It has also generated an increasingly diverse and growing network of learning and development practitioners (L&D), constructing an emerging identity that is critical to organisational growth. Our study of nearly 800 Australian L&D practitioners explored their working roles, relationships, and development needs, in a contested environment. Our purpose was to explore how L&D practice has changed; if a professional identity for L&D practitioners is emerging; and what development needs L&D practitioners have. The practitioner responses from this study are used to model the emerging themes of L&D practice, substantiate the emergence of a ‘quasi-professional’ identity, and indicate the imperatives that underpin professional development frameworks. This knowledge provides a foundation for reconceptualising the learning and development practitioner domain. © 2018 Australian HR Institute
Who is conducting educational research in Australia and how can their work be supported?
- Authors: Bennett, Dawn , Smith, Erica , Bennett, Sue , Chan, Philip , Bobis, Janette , Harrison, Neil , Seddon, Terri , Shore, Sue
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Educational Researcher Vol. 40, no. 4 (November 2013 2013), p. 473-492
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- Description: Educational research has long been the subject of lively and agitated debate, not least because of its diversity. Ranging in scope from academic development and broad-scale policy research through to student engagement and discipline-specific research, it includes methods of traditional academic inquiry and investigations and also less traditional modes of research. However, the topography of Australian educational research and the characteristics of the people who undertake this complex body of work are currently unclear. This paper explores some of the complexities of the Australian research community, drawing on the findings of a national online survey of academics who identified as researching in the field of education from within and outside education schools and faculties. The survey attracted 504 responses from 38 of Australia's 39 universities, and just over two-thirds of respondents were located in a school or faculty of education. We draw on the results to answer the questions of who is undertaking educational research and who how they might be supported. We utilise a conceptual model that 'segments' the educational research workforce represented by the survey respondents, and we conclude by indicating strategies that might be utilised to address research barriers indicated by educational researchers.
- Description: C1
Group training organisations: Bellwethers or shepherds?
- Authors: Bush, Tony , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at Evolution, Revolutions of Status Quo? VET in New Contexts
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The educative role of a regional newspaper : Learning to be drier
- Authors: Campbell, Coral , Smith, Erica , Siesmaa, Emma
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 51, no. 2 (2011), p. 269-301
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- Description: Throughout the world, people have to deal with the issues of global warming and other more direct consequences of environmental change. This paper considers how a local newspaper has an educative function in a small community in advising people of specific issues and learning how to deal with changing resources. Across the period of several months in 2009, the Buloke Times, a local newspaper in the Wimmera-Mallee region of Victoria, Australia, was scanned for articles relating to the issue of water scarcity. In the 24 editions of the paper, 68 articles of various themes were found. The articles/themes were analysed along a number of lines: frequency across time, frequency within each issue, prominence of articles and unusual events. This research paper develops an overview of the role of the newspaper and its capacity to influence and educate the people who constitute its readership.
Pre-apprenticeships in three key trades
- Authors: Dumbrell, Tom , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2007
- Type: Text , Book
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- Description: This report looks at whether pre-apprenticeships increase the potential supply of tradespeople, with a special focus on electrotechnology, automotive and engineering students. It found that pre-apprenticeships have been used in Australia for many years and are widely regarded as a valuable strategy for increasing the supply and quality of potential apprentices. Pre-apprenticeships are favoured by employers because they weed out unsuitable candidates and improve retention, while apprentices see them as a useful way of gaining experience in the trade.
- Description: 2003006164
Pre-apprenticeships in Australia : Differing orientations and their policy implications
- Authors: Dumbrell, Tom , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Vocational Education and Training Vol. 65, no. 2 (2013), p. 161-176
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- Description: Little has been published in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) literature on the topic of pre-apprenticeships, which are a loose type of preparatory courses for apprenticeships available in some trades. Nevertheless, pre-apprenticeships have been in existence for several decades. With continuing concern over skill shortages in Australia, the research study on which this paper is based investigated the role of pre-apprenticeship courses in addressing skill shortages in the electrotechnology, automotive and engineering trades, some of the largest 'traditional trades' in Australia, and those with sizeable numbers in pre-apprenticeships. The principal objective of the overall study was to determine whether the use of pre-apprenticeships increased the size and suitability of the supply of entrants to the traditional apprenticeships and whether pre-apprenticeships do or might increase completion rates in apprenticeships. The paper uses findings from the study to develop a typology of pre-apprenticeship courses, proposing two fundamental orientations and discussing whether different orientations towards pre-apprenticeships are compatible with one another. © 2013 Copyright The Vocational Aspect of Education Ltd.
- Description: 2003011101
Wicked learning : Reflecting on Learning to be drier
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Brown, Michael , Foley, Annette , Smith, Erica , Campbell, Coral , Schulz, Christine , Angwin, Jennifer , Grace, Lauri
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 49, no. 3 (2009), p. 544-566
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- Description: In this final, collaborative paper in the Learning to be drier edition, we reflect on and draw together some of the key threads from the diverse narratives in our four site papers from across the southern Murray-Darling Basin. Our paper title, Wicked learning, draws on a recent body literature (Rittel & Webber 1973) about messy or 'wicked problems' as characterised by Dietz and Stern (1998). It picks up on our identification of the difficulty and enormity of the learning challenges being faced by communities, associated, at best, with a decade of record dry years (drought) and severely over-committed rivers. At worst, drought is occurring in combination with and as a precursor to recent, progressive drying of the Basin associated with climate change. Our research is suggestive of a need for much more learning across all segments of the adult community about '... the big picture, including the interrelationships among the full range of causal factors ...' (Australian Public Service Commission, APSC 2007: 1) underlying the presenting problem of drying. We conclude that solutions to the messy or wicked problem of drying in an interconnected Basin will lie in the social domain. This will include building a wider knowledge and acceptance of the problems and likely future risks across the Basin including all parts of communities. The problem of drying as well as its causes and solutions are multidimensional, and will involve comprehensive learning about all five key characteristics of other 'wicked' policy problems identified in previous research in the environmental arena. The narratives that we have heard identify the extreme difficulty in all four sites of rational and learned responses to being drier as the problem has unfolded. All narratives about being drier that we have heard involve a recognition of a combination of the five characteristics common to wicked problems: multidimensionality, scientific uncertainty, value conflict and uncertainty, mistrust as well as urgency. All narratives identify the importance of social learning: to be productive, to be efficient, to survive, to live with uncertainty, to be sustainable and to share. Combating the extent and effects of drying, causality aside, will require new forms of learning through new community, social and learning spaces, apart from and in addition to new technological and scientific learning.
- Description: 2003007975
The effects on young people's transition from school of formal contact with workplaces while at school
- Authors: Green, Annette , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2005
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at RWL4
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Towards a model of learning and development practice
- Authors: Hodge, Steven , Smith, Erica , Barratt-Pugh, Llandis
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Human Resource Development: Practice, Policy & Research Vol. 1, no. 2 (2016), p. 7-25
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- Description: It is widely acknowledged that learning and development (L&D) is key to well-being, innovation andsuccess for individuals, organizations and societies (Delahaye, 2011). Learning and development practice involves application of distinctive knowledge, skills and techniques in distinctive contexts. The sheer range of contexts and kinds of expertise associated with this work produces a complex challenge to any attempt to model L&D practice. The Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD) took up this challenge in the Australian setting. A team of researchers was engaged to produce a model of L&D practice that the organization could use to conceptualize the work of its members and refine organizational strategy in areas such as professional development services. Although there have been attempts to represent the work of L&D practitioners (e.g. the ASTD ‘Competency Model’), the research presented here focused on the Australian setting and was also guided by a commitment to recognizing the role of organizational contexts in shaping L&D practice. This focus on context distinguishes the model from others that are concerned with the expertise and attributes of individual L&D practitioners. The model presented here thus represents contexts of L&D practice as well as knowledge and skills applied within them. The article describes the research process used to develop the model, including analysis of existing models, interviews with senior L&D practitioners and a survey of practitioners. The result is a model that acknowledges the complexity of L&D practice in a contemporary environment.
Practitioner researchers in vocational education and training
- Authors: Holden, Rick , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Training Research Vol. 7, no. 2 (2009), p. 134-144
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- Description: The paper reports on a study examining the issues facing vocational education and training (VET) practitioners who aspire to undertake formal research and move towards publishing their research. Research participants were drawn from attendees at a publishing workshop that was mounted at the 2008 conference of the Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA). The study utilised notes made by the conveners of that workshop, and the collective work produced in groups of participants, responses to an email interview six months after the date of the workshop, and subsequent in-depth telephone conversations. The study showed that practitioner researchers faced considerable difficulties in pursuing their research and publication goals, and analysis of findings suggest that these difficulties may reflect a lack of legitimacy for research within VET practice and VET institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Description: 2003007934
Good practice in apprenticeship systems: Evidence from an international study
- Authors: Kemmis, Ros Brennan , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Proceedings of the 2nd UPI International Conference on Technical and Vocational Education and Training
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- Description: Apprenticeships can be seen as the ultimate in co-operation between TVET providers and industry as they are based on a combination of work and study. Ideally they should provide appropriate skills for companies and also all-round occupational and generic skills. However there are many different actual and potential models of apprenticeship.This paper uses part of the work undertaken for a project funded by the International Labor Organization and the World Bank to compare and contrast apprenticeship systems in 11 countries, for the purpose of drawing out features of good practice. The project was undertaken to provide suggestions for the process of reform of the Indian apprenticeship system [Planning Commission 2009]. Experiences of other countries, both in the developed and the developing world, indicate that apprenticeship systems cannot be transplanted among countries; however, key features of countries’ systems can be identified and sensitively developed in other countries. The paper describes a method for undertaking this task, and the findings. Eleven individual country case studies, based on reports and literature, were produced by a team of national experts, and subjected to a cross-case analysis. The use of national experts was judged to be more effective than having people write on other countries’ systems; the latter method has proved in many instances to result in inaccurate reports, susceptibility to the influence of limited numbers of stakeholders and a lack of sophistication in analysing trends. The country case studies took into account agreed international benchmarks for describing, analysing and evaluating apprenticeships, based on the framework described in the recently-released memorandum by INAP, the International Network on Innovative Apprenticeship [INAP Commission 2012] and the framework developed by one of the authors in the International Encyclopedia of Education [Smith 2010]. The countries were selected to cover a range of variables. A cross-case analysis was undertaken which drew together data from the countries using a thematic approach and simple data display techniques [Miles and Huberman 1994]. The analysis covered both systemic issues and 'the life cycle of the apprentice'. The data were then further reduced to develop an identification of the features of a model apprenticeship system, and proposed measures of success and associated challenges, derived from the data.
Globalising the apprenticeship concept: How far can apprenticeship systems be compared across countries and what can be gained?
- Authors: Kemmis, Ros Brennan , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
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Learning to work in a global economy: How countries use apprenticeship systems to assist school-leavers
- Authors: Kemmis, Ros Brennan , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
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Apprenticeship: One concept, many facets
- Authors: McCracken, Martin , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Editorial , Journal article
- Relation: Education and Training Vol. 58, no. 6 (2016), p.
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- Description: This special edition is based on papers delivered at a conference of the International Network on Innovative Apprenticeship (INAP), a network of researchers and practitioners interested in apprenticeship and related issues. A previous special edition of Education + Training, “Innovative apprenticeships: promoting successful school-to-work transitions”, was based on the third conference of the network, held in Turin, Italy, in September 2009. This special edition is based on the sixth conference, held in Ballarat, Australia, in September 2015. The theme of the conference was Architectures for Apprenticeship: Achieving Economic and Social Goals. The papers in this volume are selected from the best of the 34 full papers and keynote speeches presented. "From introduction"
Part-time work of high school students and impact on educational outcomes
- Authors: Patton, Wendy , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2009
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Guidance & Counselling Vol. 19, no. 2 (2009), p. 216-224
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- Description: While increasing numbers of young high school students engage in part-time work, there is no consensus about its impact on educational outcomes. Indeed, this field has had a dearth of research. This paper presents a review of recent research, primarily from Australia and the United States, although it is acknowledged that there are considerable contextual differences. Suggestions for school counsellors to harness students' experiences to assist in educational and career decision-making are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Australian Journal of Guidance & Counselling is the property of Australian Academic Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
- Description: 2003007927
Balancing the equation : Mentoring first-year female STEM students at a regional university
- Authors: Reid, Jackie , Smith, Erica , Iamsuk, Nansiri , Miller, Jennifer
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Innovation in Science and Mathematics Education Vol. 24, no. 4 (2016), p. 18-30
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- Description: Due to changes to Australia's economic landscape (e.g., falling productivity and the end of the mining boom) and the emergence of disruptive digital technologies, the shape of the Australian workforce is rapidly changing and the development of STEM skills is an imperative. There has been a decline, however, in the number of students studying STEM subjects in senior secondary school, and the underrepresentation of females in many STEM disciplines further compounds the problem. The University of New England is a regional Australian university where a large proportion of students are from rural and regional areas, are mature-aged, and come from low SES backgrounds. Many commence their tertiary studies in STEM with diverse backgrounds, often without the necessary assumed knowledge. A mentoring program was designed to assist female students develop STEM-related study and career goals. Important components of the program included: face-to-face and online training and professional development for participants, two mentors (one academic and one industry-based) per student, accessibility for students studying at a distance, guest speakers, and outreach activities promoting STEM to the wider community. This program could be readily adapted for other cohorts of students (e.g., indigenous students) and expanded (e.g., for all students embarking on STEM studies). The program helped students recognise and address potential roadblocks to a sustained and successful STEM-based career, build confidence in pursuing study and career goals, and develop sound decision-making skills in career planning. For mentors, the program offered STEM-related professional development opportunities. Furthermore, academic mentors reported a positive impact on their approach to STEM teaching as a result of participation in the program.
Living in a 2.2 World: ERA, Capacity Building and the Topography of Australian Educational Research
- Authors: Seddon, Terri , Bennett, Dawn , Bobis, Janette , Bennett, Sue , Harrison, Neil , Shore, Sue , Smith, Erica , Chan, Philip
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Technical report
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- Description: Early in 2011, the Australian Association for Research in Education (AARE) and the Australian Council of Deans of Education (ACDE) established a joint working party to create a strategic plan for strengthening national research capacity in the field of Education. This proposal followed the publication of Excellence of Research in Australia (ERA) 2010 results, which revealed that the national average weighting of Australian research in Field of Research 13 (FoR 13) - Education was well below the 'world standard' rating of 3.0. Moreover, the 2010 ERA data demonstrated that we had no up-to-date picture of who is involved in educational research, what their strengths are, or how they relate to one another. As an input into strategic research capacity building in Australian educational research, this project begins the process of documenting who 'we' are as educational researchers. The research described within the report used an ecological model to address the project's overarching question, which was: What is the topography of Australian educational research?
The understandings about learners and learning that are imparted in Certificate IV courses for VET teachers and trainers
- Authors: Simons, Michele , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Training Research Vol. 6, no. 1 (2008), p. 23-43
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- Description: Much of the literature all Vocational Education and Training (VET) professional development for teachers and trainers in Australia has been descriptive, outlining the development, construction and outcomes of a range of initiatives or analysing the nature and extend of initial and ongoing professional development for teacher sand trainers. There has been lillie critical analysis of curricula which led to the attainment what has been the most common Australian initial VET teacher/trainer qualification - the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training, either in terms of the intended or enacted curricula as it was delivered in many hundreds of locations across Australia. This paper addresses this gap. It presents the outcomes of research that examined ways in which learners and processes of learning were constructed, understood and embedded in the delivery of the Certificate IV in Assessment and Workplace Training (AWT). This qualification was delivered from 1998 until November 2006. In late 2004 a new Certificate IV ill Training and Assessmet (TAA) was introduced, but there was a 'teach-out period' of two years on the old qualification. The study involved 16 case studies of registered training organisations that delivered the Certificllte IV in AWT. The paper updates the study by examining how the changes associated with the new qualification may affect understandings of learners and learning.
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Learning to control : Training and work organization in Australian call centres
- Authors: Smith, Andy , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Industrial Relations Vol. 50, no. 2 (2008), p. 243-256
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- Description: The organization of work in call centres has been the centre of study and debate for a number of years. This article explores the adoption of nationally-recognized training (based on formal qualifications) in Australian call centres, which is now becoming quite widespread, and its relationship to work organization and human resource management practices. The article draws on a national research project that explored the take up of nationally recognized training by Australian employers. A number of call centres were included in this study that forms the basis for the present article. One of the major attractions for call centre employers, apart from the financial incentives involved in adoption, is the close fit between nationally recognized training and work organization. Because of its on-job nature, such training fits the close quantitative controls that characterize almost all call centres. Because of its integration into the workplace and into work organization, nationally recognized training seems to be moving human resource management processes towards an increased emphasis on employee development.
Has Australia turned its back on international students?
- Authors: Smith, Andy , Smith, Erica
- Date: 2011
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at Creating and Sustaining International Connections: 41st annual conference of SCUTREA, the Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in the Education of Adults Lancaster University 5th-7th July, 2011 p. 138-146
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