The full-time studentship, which includes an element for teaching will be for 3 years, subject to satisfactory progress. Starting bursary will be £20,000 pa plus student fees. Socio-cultural perspectives on learning emphasise the social, relational and situated processes by which individuals become accomplished practitioners. Becoming a manager, nurse, plumber, airline pilot etc. is not simply a matter of being ‘taught’ in a formal sense: identity-development and participation within networks and communities of practice are also important. Although socio-cultural perspectives have permeated academic research on learning in the past 15 years, much of the research has been uncritical: assuming that communities are idyllic (Reynolds, 2000), but neglecting the ‘dark side’ of communities (Lave & Wenger, 1991) whereby newcomers’ access to learning opportunities are blocked by oldtimers for political, economic or other reasons.
PhD applications are invited on the topic of workplace learning. The proposed PhD research could take a number of directions such as (but not limited to) the role of identity-development in learning; the politics of workplace learning; and the nature of ‘participation’. Research contexts might include business, the public sector, or not-fo profit organisations. ‘Learners’ might be of any age ranging from young apprentices to mature workers transitioning to new roles and opportunities.

Scholarship Application Deadline: 15 April 2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application