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The purpose of this study is to explore what new knowledge is gained at academic and professional conferences by describing how this knowledge complements or contradicts campus-based learning and previous experiences of graduate students. Through gaining insights into conference-based learning, researchers and policymakers can create more complex and dynamic graduate student learning experiences and design conferences that welcome and encourage graduate student perspectives and voices.

Rooted in transformative learning theory, this qualitative study explores what and how master’s level graduate students learn at professional and academic conferences.

Findings point to four categories of learning through conferences: students acquired empirical knowledge, gained insights into professional and scholarly trends and values, explored diversity of the conference body and their own belonging and benchmarked their knowledge in relationship to scholars and professionals. Interviewees gained this knowledge by linking conference-based learning to their graduate school curriculum and previous knowledge and experiences.

Findings suggest considerations for educators, policymakers and administrators to enhance learning in graduate programs through in-person and virtual conference attendance.

This study adds to minimal existing research on graduate student learning beyond the campus that contributes to holistic learning at the master’s level. The findings on conference-based learning for graduate students go beyond the common notion of conferences as places of socialization for graduate students. These findings are increasingly relevant as academic and professional conferences are being reconsidered in the shift to the virtual space.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the positive and negative workplace experiences of gay men that they perceive to be a consequence of their sexual identity.

This paper uses in-depth interviews of a diverse group of university educated white collar men employed full-time in the public and private sector. Its findings are based on a thematic content analysis of these interviews.

Despite experiencing some negative consequences of being out at work, their positive and neutral experiences show encouraging signs of increasingly tolerant workplaces. Some of the challenges encountered that respondents believe to be a consequence of their sexual identity are, however, not dissimilar to those faced by workers with non-traditional families.

As with any small sample exploratory qualitative research, this paper’s findings cannot necessarily be generalized to larger populations. The uniqueness of the sample (ethnically/culturally homogenous, university educated, public/private sector employees, residents of medium-sized Canadian city) allow for display of certain experiences not representative of the population at large.

This paper contributes to the relatively small but growing body of research on the experience of sexual minorities in the workplace. Its findings challenging the notion that sexual minorities are uniquely advantaged in the workplace, and that research on sexual minorities in the workplace is misguided in focusing on the problematic aspects of sexual identity/orientation.

This paper considers the role of testing, particularly in the training of financial services salespeople. It examines the potential of testing as a positive influence on the development of salespeople, and the different requirements of knowledge and skills assessment. The use of data derived from testing, both in training and in recruitment, is also considered.

Web 2.0 technologies, such as blogging, allow for locally developed, cost-effective, and holistic alternative portfolio assessment systems. By enhancing critical reflection and fostering social interaction, blogging portfolios or bPortfolios become integral formative and summative assessment tools for all teacher education students enrolled in a university program. Blogging platforms such as WordPress.com are free to use and are available worldwide allowing bPortfolios to be implemented at any institution where students have Internet access.

Technological change has permitted organizations to design jobs in different ways and control work performed in remote locations. This article examines how telework can be used to provide benefits to organizations and their members. In it I present the findings of a study of a large Canadian financial services organization preparing to introduce telework into its sales and customer service operations. These findings highlight the role of expectancy in forming attitudes toward telework, most importantly: the extent to which face‐to‐face communication prevents important social needs from being satisfied and prevents workers from developing a sense of belonging and commitment to the organization; and the belief that telework will bring improved performance results by creating a work environment with fewer distractions and new, more objective performance measures based on output. This exploration of individuals’ willingness to telework is apt because it points to potential sources of resistance to the implementation of new technologies of production and control in the workplace.

Tenure, the permanency of employment offered to university professors, is discussed in the context of an institutionalized practice. This article examines the bases of legitimacy of this institution, specifically as a mechanism to protect academic freedom and trade‐off for higher pay. An analysis of the cases of two Canadian academics suggests that both of these bases of legitimacy are an institutional myth. By rendering the untenured faculty member highly visible and subject to measurement and classification, they are susceptible to intervention and management. As such, the preservation of tenure is rationalized in a rule‐like way that espouses its benefits and obfuscates its dark side. The resulting experiences indicate some negative consequences of tenure that do not receive widespread attention.

Results of a survey of Canadian work organizations reveal a broad set of gendered values embedded in organizational cultures. The findings of this study show stereotypically masculine values in the culture of these organizations and a desired change toward a culture that is more friendly, less accepting of established authority and less dominant. In addition, current cultures are perceived to reward men and women differently in terms of the values shown in their behavior, contributing to a discriminatory climate that makes many women feel unwelcome and uncomfortable. This makes many organizational change efforts particularly difficult.