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The purpose of this editorial is to outline the historical and conceptual context in which the research into workplace learning as a research field is emerging.

The paper in an essayistic knowledge sociology perspective parallels developments in the nature of work and the growing interest in human resources, and hence learning. It confronts the general stereotypes of work with the actual multiplicity of different work domains.

The actual sample of articles is characterized briefly, drawing attention to the epistemological value of concrete studies of different learning experiences in different types of work.

The perspective of the editorial is mainly to spur the reflection of researchers in the field to the interrelation between theoretical issues and practical engagement in learning enterprises.

Refers to work domains that might be termed professional or semi‐professional: engineers, social workers, nurses, pedagogues, police, and researches the subjective engagement of the people in the development of their profession. Considers how to theorize the subjective side of work within a life history perspective and focuses on a critical discussion of the notion of professional identity. This theorizing is seen as a complementary contribution to a critical sociology of knowledge and other concepts of profession identity and learning.

This paper aims to discuss the challenge for the classical idea of professionalism in understanding the Chinese software engineering industry after giving a close insight into the development of this industry as well as individual engineers with a psycho‐societal perspective.

The study starts with the general review of the sociological concept of profession, professional and specialization of knowledge. Together with revealing the critical challenge from the empirical field of software engineering industry regarding its professionalization, a critique of the neglect of subjective agency in classical conception of professionalism in sociology theory and methodology is set out.

A case study with interpretation of the subject's continuously developing identification with their specialization in knowledge and occupation from their narration of career experience reveals the dynamics in this development process relating to individual, social practice and societal factors.

This paper contributes to empirical research of analyzing the professionalization process of software engineering and software engineers in relation to the concept of professionalism, and it contributes theoretically by discussing the challenge of this process to the development of professionalism within this highly knowledge‐based industry in a Chinese societal context.

This paper aims to report on the author's recent research examining the meaning and practices of educating for solidarity, specifically from anti‐racism and decolonizing perspective. The research is part of the critical exploration on new educational approaches on solidarity building among workers and trade union members in the broader political and economic context of neoliberalism.

Utilizing the research methodologies of participatory action research, arts‐informed research and critical autobiography, the research draws on the words and visual images made by the participants who are labour educators and activists from Aboriginal and racialized communities. In‐depth interview and the Aboriginal talking circle method were used to deepen the dialogue among this group of activists. By focusing on their authentic voices and lived experiences, the research is grounded in Dei's stance on the importance of the embodied knowledge as part of the necessary conditions for anti‐racism education work and political action.

The findings reveal a sense of profound gap between what participants experience as daily practices of solidarity and what they envisioned. Through the research process, the study explores and demonstrates the importance and potential of a more holistic and integrative critical labour education approach on anti‐racism and decolonization. The study proposes a pedagogical framework on solidarity building with four interlinking components – rediscovering, restoring, reimagining and reclaiming – as a way to make whole.

A further research implication will be to explore the possibility and application of this proposed pedagogical framework with a group of trade union activists from racialized and non‐racialized backgrounds.

The pedagogy of solidarity offers a transformative process for activists to engage in critical dialogue on how to build solidarity across constituencies. The solidarity circle dialogue process provides a space for critical reflection.

This is an original research integrating Aboriginal worldview and arts‐informed research, to explore the potential of a new pedagogy that is grounded in restoring people's spirit, recovering their voices so they can have the courage to reimagine; and reclaim in order to make whole. The value of the research lies in its hopefulness as a tool of countering the politics of division and fear.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the motivations underlying the specialisation choices of six female specialist doctors working in Cape Town, South Africa and to investigate whether the specific gender work identity associated with that specialism resulted in their motivation to enter it.

The research methodology comprised conducting semi‐structured interviews, where female medical doctors were asked to provide an account of their general experiences as medical doctors in a male‐dominated profession, as well as a more specific question related to their choice of specialisation.

These female medical specialists entered these so‐called soft specialisms mainly for three reasons: so‐called female‐friendly characteristics; exposure to, not necessarily fuelled by interest in, certain specialisms; and so‐called male characteristics.

The importance of such research is threefold as it has practical, social, and economic implications. The practical implications are evident in that a better understanding of the perceived gendered work identities has the potential to impact better retention and recruitment. The social implication is also important, as unchallenged gendered trends serve to perpetuate gender unequal outcomes in the wider society, which can be constraining or discriminatory. Lastly, an aspect which is not always considered is the fact that gender inequality is economically inefficient. The scientific value is found in the space it provides for reconsidering the relevance of the use of the terms “soft and hard” specialisms to explain the drivers of internal segregation in the medical profession.

The purpose of this paper is to explore learning for and through retirement from the workplace.

First, “retirement” is considered in the light of the existing literature, demonstrating a complex concept. The paper describes the research project from which a theme of retirement as a learning process has emerged. Case studies illustrate individuals' retirement transformations within the communities and cultures where they live and learn. “Learning lives” is a qualitative project in which the life histories and ongoing lives of over 100 UK adults were researched in interviews 2004‐2008. The sample included many people approaching retirement or retired.

Analysis showed retirement as being an ongoing process and learning as being integral to those transitions through which older people go before, during and after leaving paid work. It was found that learning is often informal and tacit, in anticipation, preparation and reaction to change. Learning interrelates with people's positions in society, time and place as they “become” retired.

Time and funding limited analysis of the large bank of data, which are deserving of further work. There are implications for workplaces and for the wider society in the need to recognise and understand the transition process through which retirees must learn their way. Formal course provision can be beneficial but is only part of, or possibly a trigger for, the life learning that occurs.

There is limited work available looking at learning and retirement. What there is tends to focus on formal courses. The study adds to those, looking at learning more broadly and as an integral and reciprocal part of the process.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of “learning” through what we have termed “integrated development practices”. These are common organisational practices that both enhance organisational effectiveness and contribute to organisational and employee learning.

The paper analyses the ways in which learning and being a learner were talked about and enacted with regard to one of the integrated development practices identified in a study of four different organisations – safety practices, and how learning and being a learner regarding safety were legitimate in one of the organisations. Data are drawn from semi‐structured interviews with members of a variety of workgroups in one major division of the organisation.

Interviewees' responses reflected that learning was fully embedded as an accepted part of a necessary function of the organisation. This use of a learning discourse is discussed in the light of findings from an earlier study on informal learning at work that suggested that learning and the identity of being a learner were sometimes resisted in the everyday culture of work.

Using the theorisations of practice of Schatzki and the lifelong education framework of Delors the paper discusses the implications of these findings to examine when it is acceptable to articulate learning as part of work and be identified as a learner at work.

Because of high drop‐out rates among the students entering vocational education in Denmark retention of students has become pivotal to Danish educational policy. Thus vocational educational training (VET) colleges have been asked to work on implementing different kinds of retention initiatives and as a result, most colleges have established extended basic courses aimed at students with personal, social and/or academic difficulties. This paper aims to explore the emotional aspects of vocational educational teachers' work and present a preliminary analysis of the notion of care as socially situated within the vocational educational system.

This paper derives from a study based on fieldwork at a VET college offering extended basic courses. During the fieldwork nine weeks of participating observations and 13 interviews with teachers were conducted.

The paper provides empirical insights into the emotional practices and the management of emotions related to prevention of dropout within an educational setting. It shows how emotional practices can provide both teachers and students with positive identities and make out a productive force that prevents students from dropping out. However the management of emotions also involves a range of dilemmas and ambivalences revealing the difficult limitations related to an institutionalization and professionalization of human care.

Because of the chosen research design more studies on the emotional aspects of prevention of drop‐out from both the perspective of teachers and students are needed.

The emotional dimension of retention remains to be recognized and critically discussed more widely among stakeholders at different levels within the VET system and policy makers within education. Handling both the possibilities and the pitfalls of emotional practices requires that teachers are not left alone feeling responsible for the fate of their students.

The paper contributes with descriptions of how emotions can be productive forces preventing students from dropping out of education. At the same time it identifies a need for further critical examination of the emotional aspects of teachers' working life.

With the intention of detecting and describing a series of team learning patterns within a selection of organisations, an extensive exploratory and qualitative research project was conducted in seven phases. The study at hand aims to report on the most recent phase, namely eight case studies in the public employment service of Flanders (Belgium) and aims to expand the provisional typology of learning patterns and to explore the strategic relevance of these learning patterns in the light of a strategic human resource development (HRD) policy.

A qualitative research approach with a multiple case study design served as the methodological base. A total of 22 interviews in eight cases were conducted in the competence centres of the Flemish employment service, what brings the total to 40 cases and 150 interviews.

Hitherto, five basic learning patterns and 16 variations make up the provisional typology of learning patterns. The strategic relevance of the learning patterns varies with respect to the scope of the developed competences and the degree of orientation to future of the organisation and the career expectations of the employees.

The provisional typology of learning patterns has proven to be useful as a tool for the identification of configurations of workplace learning in teams. The exploration of the strategic relevance provides clues for the alignment of the HRD with the organisational strategy.