The focus of this research is networked learning within European trade union organisations where there is a strong recognition that technology has a key role to play in developing educational opportunities and in extending the trade union influence locally, nationally and globally. This cross-disciplinary study explores a range of theories, models and approaches which underpin the pedagogical process in a distinctive educational environment, drawing on the fields of learning technology and knowledge management. The development and implementation of two transnational projects on networked learning form the basis of the research. Structuration theory, which highlights the interplay between the objective nature of broader social structures and the subjective perspectives of human agency, provides the epistemological foundation. To balance this highly abstract concept, related theoretical frameworks derived from education, learning technology and social informatics research have also usefully informed the investigations. This study contends that the design of networked learning and preparation for key roles can be valuably informed by focusing on the individual, social and technical boundary encounters inherent in the complex interplay of structure and agency. It has cast new light on an under-researched area of adult education and has highlighted the value of cross-disciplinary collaboration in advancing our understanding of networked learning. It has also gone some way towards addressing the recognised imbalance in linking theory and practice in networked learning and signposts new directions for learning technology research. Most importantly, there is evidence that it has influenced practice in the field, thus fulfilling one of the key aims of the research.

L’institution scolaire est loin d’être le seul espace où l’être humain acquiert des connaissances. L’apprentissage au quotidien commence dès la naissance pour se poursuivre tout au long de la vie. Au fil du temps, la personne cumule des connaissances qu’elle mobilise pour répondre à des problématiques inédites qui, de fait, contribuent à faire émerger de nouvelles connaissances et à remanier celles déjà acquises. La confrontation au quotidien à une maladie questionne les différentes dimensions et composantes de l’identité et génère des périodes de turbulences identitaires dont nous avons fait l’hypothèse qu’elles constituent des moments propices aux apprentissages. Sur la base de cette hypothèse, notre travail de thèse cherche à rendre intelligible les interactions entre les processus identitaires, les apprentissages en situations informelles et le rapport à la maladie. De type qualitative et sur base d’entretiens semi-directifs, la thèse analyse les stratégies mises en place par des personnes atteintes de diabète dans une tentative de requalification du rapport à soi, aux autres et à ses différents environnements, d’une part, de resignification du vécu subjectif de la trajectoire dans ses différentes dimensions spatio-temporelles, d’autre part. / School is far from being the only place where human beings acquire knowledge. Learning, begins at birth and continues throughout life. Over time, the person accumulates knowledge that he or she calls on to respond to new problems that in fact contribute to the emergence of a new knowledge and to revise that already acquired. The daily confrontation with an illness questions the different dimensions and components of identity and generates periods of identity turbulence, which we have assumed to constitute favorable moments for learning. On the basis of this hypothesis, our thesis aims at making intelligible the interactions between identity processes, learning in informal situations and the relation to illness. A qualitative method is used based on semi-directive interviews. On the one hand, the thesis analyzes the strategies put in place by people with diabetes to requalify the relationship with themselves, with others and the different environments. On the other hand the subjective experience of a person's trajectory in its different spatio-temporal dimensions is resignified.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) was situated as both a right and an obligation at the heart of Scottish education by the McCrone Report of 2000, and the ensuing agreement, A Teaching Profession for the 21st Century (2001). CPD was, and continues to be, construed as having the potential to transform teaching and improve learning. Further, CPD was promoted by the Report as having a key role in the re-professionalisation of the teaching profession. In the decade since the Teachers’ Agreement, however, levels of engagement with CPD initiatives, the review and repositioning of particular schemes, and the perceived impact on learning and teaching point to a tension between the discourse of CPD and the reality of its implementation. The publication of the McCormac Report in September 2011 signalled anticipated changes to teachers’ conditions of employment, which will inevitably include changes to CPD. This publication provides an opportunity to reflect on whether the Teachers’ Agreement has delivered the intended benefits for both teachers and pupils in terms of CPD, and to examine the impact of language or discourse in shaping attitudes to, uptake of, and engagement with CPD. This thesis looks at the language and implementation of the Teachers’ Agreement and related policies within the wider educational landscape in order to explore the tensions between discourse and actuality, to suggest reasons for such tensions, and to suggest transformed practice in terms of the discourse of CPD. In terms of methodology, critical discourse analysis is used to examine the language of CPD closely; policy analysis to describe and analyse the implementation of particular initiatives; narrative analysis to contextualise developments in CPD; and insider reflection to bring a personal perspective to bear on particular aspects of CPD. This combination of methodologies has been chosen in order to allow an in-depth study of nuances of language in policy discourse, changes in policy implementation, and location of such policy in the broader educational agenda. The study contends that CPD is not generally viewed as an uncontested good; indeed, engagement with various CPD initiatives has been limited for a number of reasons, including an underlying and fundamental tension between the concept of professionalism and a view of CPD which is related to a ‘standards’ framework. In contending that discourse is fundamental to the interpretation of and engagement with policy, the thesis points up the necessity to pay due regard to the nuances of language employed in denoting policy, and to addressing underlying tensions in the concept of CPD. Policy makers need to be acutely aware of the central role which language plays in the shaping and interpretation of policy and to learn from the experience of the last decade. CPD continues to be described by many influential figures and bodies as fundamental to the future development of Scottish education. At the same time, however, the educational agenda is dominated by the introduction of a new curriculum (Curriculum for Excellence or CfE), and CPD budgets are threatened by financial and economic imperatives, driven by the continued constraints on local and national government spending. It is vital that the discourse of the McCormac Report, and subsequent policy, is carefully constructed to avoid cynical and negative interpretations, such as suggestions that fewer ‘set piece’ CPD events are as a result of cost-cutting. I contend that lessons must be learned from the experiences of the last decade in the discourse and implementation of the policy related to CPD in order to ensure the intended impact on learners.