University of Techology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / The concern of this thesis is the way workplace learning is able to be known and spoken about and the effects of the contemporary privileging of an experiential learning discourse in the workplace. Following an analytic method outlined by Foucault, I explore a field of multiple and mobile force relations between professional developers, trade teachers, workplace learning academics, senior managers, organisational consultants and organisational learning theorists, and the purposes to which discourses of workplace learning might be put. The research site for the study was a recent industry-university collaboration that explored workplace learning in a large public sector organisation. Using various organisational texts including: interview transcripts from workers participating in the industry-university research project, documents produced during the project, documents produced by a Professional Development Unit (the industry partners on the project), and academic texts on organisational learning, I examine the circulation and intersection of different workplace learning discourses. I also examine the positioning, position taking and resistances around the subject position of ‘the workplace learner’ in a workplace. A number of Foucauldian themes guide the analyses in this thesis including: power as multiformed, power as relational, the distribution of power, multiple subjectivities, and subjectivity as a site of resistance. This enables an examination of workplace learning discourses as instruments of power, but also as providing points of resistance. This thesis makes a significant contribution to knowledge in the fields of organisational learning and workplace learning by foregrounding complex mechanisms whereby technologies of power interplay with technologies of the self. These citings/sitings/sightings of power and subjectivity have implications for professional development practices and the ‘management’ of workplace learning, as well as the practices of workplace and organisational learning researchers.

Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, a series of Federal Government papers and major reports called for changes and improvement in the skills formation of the Australian workforce, in an attempt to create a highly skilled and flexible workforce. Training reform was seen as a means of achieving the flexibility and skill levels required for general economic improvement. The Federal Government proposed increased investment in training by industry and government, and the transformation of the training system from a time-based approach to a competency-based approach. A National Training Board was established to assist in the implementation of the reform. The National Training Board perceived the national training reform agenda as a national response to increase the competitiveness and productivity of industry through the implementation of competency-based vocational education and training. (For complete abstract open document)

Through the late 1980s and early 1990s, a series of Federal Government papers and major reports called for changes and improvement in the skills formation of the Australian workforce, in an attempt to create a highly skilled and flexible workforce. Training reform was seen as a means of achieving the flexibility and skill levels required for general economic improvement. The Federal Government proposed increased investment in training by industry and government, and the transformation of the training system from a time-based approach to a competency-based approach. A National Training Board was established to assist in the implementation of the reform. The National Training Board perceived the national training reform agenda as a national response to increase the competitiveness and productivity of industry through the implementation of competency-based vocational education and training. (For complete abstract open document)

Thesis (M.S.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references (ℓ.89-84 )

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Auburn University, 2006. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographic references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Commerce 1993? / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 2005. / Chair: Barbara A. Bichelmeyer. Includes bibliographical references.

Zugl.: Oestrich-Winkel, Europ. Business School, Diss., 2006. / Also available in print.

Theisi (Psy.D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.