Looking at individuals' stories of work-based learning prior to commencing a postgraduate course in engineering management

Abstract

While research into student learning in formal higher education contexts has a robust tradition, less literature exists on how learning is experienced in work settings. An understanding of the way learning is experienced in work settings not only provides insights for educators but is necessary for those who use these contexts in their curriculum design. This paper considers the view that individuals' identities provide a useful theoretical construct for exploring their relationships to learning in work contexts. In this paper, a narrative approach is used as a theoretical position for understanding identity. An inductive theory building approach was adopted which saw the emergence of social and personal elements of learning. Such elements were interpreted as the negotiation of modes of identity such as “feedback: learning how things work around here”, “sink or swim: learning to adapt”, and “validation: learning who I am as a manager or worker or person”. In doing so, this paper contributes to the discussions of identity construction through workplace learning. Empirical illustration is provided from a study of working adults returning for postgraduate study in a management programme based in an engineering faculty. This paper concludes with suggestions for how management development programmes could support working students in the navigation of learning through work practices for the purpose of leveraging their professional development.

Keywords:

• Engineering Management
• adult learners
• identity
• narrative
• workplace learning