Editorial

Citation

Dymock, D. (2006), "Editorial", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 18 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/jwl.2006.08618daa.001

Editorial

In the six years I have been the Editor of the Journal of Workplace Learning, we have published many papers examining various aspects of workplace learning. There have been numerous case studies, occasional surveys, philosophical explorations and so forth. Recently several papers have come forth which want to draw our attention to the nature of the research we are undertaking and presenting.

For example, in the second special issue (Vol. 16, Nos 1-2, 2004) from the 3rd International Conference on Researching Work and Learning, held in Tampere Finland in 2003, Paul Hager suggested that “the common-sense view of learning as a product gives many types of learning a bad name, including learning at work and lifelong learning”. He went on to argue that we needed to reassess what we meant by the term “learning” and how it applied in the workplace. Given that the term, “learning” is rather prominent in this journal’s title, it does seem appropriate that we should occasionally reflect on the meaning of a concept we so easily toss around in our research papers.

Another worthy paper in this ongoing conversation is the first one in this issue, by Yew-Jin Lee and Wolff-Michael Roth. Yew-Jin Lee has recently completed a PhD at the University of Victoria, Canada, and is now working in Singapore. He is interested in using activity theory, sociology, anthropology, and hermeneutic philosophy to understand the development of expertise in the workplace. Wolff-Michael Roth is Lansdowne Professor of Applied Cognitive Science at the University of Victoria. His interdisciplinary research agenda includes studies in science and mathematics education, general education, applied cognitive science, sociology of science, and linguistics (pragmatics). The breadth of interests and wealth of experience they bring to their research is very evident in the paper presented here, and the Journal is fortunate to have contributors of this calibre.

Yew-Jin Lee and Wolff-Michael Roth are well supported in this issue by research colleagues from other parts of the world: Lene Tanggaard is an Assistant Professor and a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Aalborg, Denmark; Virpi Slotte works for Everscreen as a corporate e-learning specialist, and completed her doctoral studies at Helsinki University, Finland. Her co-author, Anne Herbert is Academic Director at HSE Executive Education, Finland, and undertook her doctoral studies at the University of South Australia. Finally, Klaasjan Visscher, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Technology and Organisation at the University of Twente, The Netherlands, with interests in the dynamics of innovative organisations and technological trajectories, organisational design and consulting practices, and the history and philosophy of organisation theory.

The scope of interests represented in this issue of the Journal of Workplace Learning is indicative of the breadth and depth of workplace learning as a field of research and explains why this field is such an interesting and challenging one for the researchers who publish here. Good reading!

Darryl Dymock