Tony Wall

A manifesto for higher education, skills and work-based learning: Through the lens of the Manifesto for Work

Purpose This paper is prompted by recent professional and political events and specifically the politically oriented “Manifesto for Work” recently published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). The purpose of this paper is to propose a manifesto for the broad professional sphere of higher education, skills and work-based learning. Design/methodology/approach This paper utilises a unique form of political ideology critique, applied to the CIPD’s manifesto for work, to propose alternative directions for practice, research and policy. Findings This paper highlights four key areas which need further research and development in the area of higher education, skills and work-based learning. These are discussed in relation to: overhauling corporate governance; inclusive workplaces, flexible working and disadvantaged groups; investment in skills, lifelong learning and well-being; and re-balancing working practices and rights. Research limitations/implications This paper highlights areas for further research in the broad professional area of higher education, skills and work-based learning. Originality/value This paper is a unique, time-bound political respond to the current political landscape, and is the first to propose a manifesto for the professional sphere of higher education, skills and work-based learning.

The Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship: Trials and Tribulations

Purpose In 2014, the UK Government introduced a new form of apprenticeship, the Degree Apprenticeship, which extends across all undergraduate degree and master’s degree levels, maps to professional standards, and which is now embedded within governmental levies of large businesses. The purpose of this paper is to share early experiences of developing these Degree Apprenticeships, and consider the processes deployed to achieve it. Design/methodology/approach This paper combines desk research with reflections on the experience of developing the new Degree Apprenticeships within higher education institutes (HEIs) and considers the implications of this upon current and emerging HEI practice and research. Findings There were a number of key resources which facilitated the approval of the Degree Apprenticeship, and these included a pre-existing, flexible work-based learning framework, the associated mechanisms of accreditation, existing professional networks, and a professionally oriented interface between the university, employer and professional body. Research limitations/implications As the context is currently at the early stages of implementation, and the policy context is rapidly changing in the context of Brexit, so too will the related scholarship. This means factors others than those highlighted within this paper may emerge over the coming year or two. Practical implications There are a number of practical implications for the development of Degree Apprenticeships from this research that are reflected in the findings, and include the development of flexible and collaborative processes, resources and networks. Originality/value This paper is one of the first published accounts of the development of a Degree Apprenticeship within the new policy context in the UK.

Work-based learning as a catalyst for sustainability: a review and prospects

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the continuing dearth of scholarship about the role of work-based learning in education for sustainable development, and particularly the urgent demands of climate literacy. It is proposed that forms of work-based learning can act as catalysts for wider cultural change, towards embedding climate literacy in higher education institutions. Design/methodology/approach This paper draws data from action research to present a case study of a Climate Change Project conducted through a work-based learning module at a mid-sized university in the UK. Findings Contrary to the predominantly fragmented and disciplinary bounded approaches to sustainability and climate literacy, the case study demonstrates how a form of work-based learning can create a unifying vision for action, and do so across multiple disciplinary, professional service, and identity boundaries. In addition, the project-generated indicators of cultural change including extensive faculty-level climate change resources, creative ideas for an innovative mobile application, and new infrastructural arrangements to further develop practice and research in climate change. Practical implications This paper provides an illustrative example of how a pan-faculty work-based learning module can act as a catalyst for change at a higher education institution. Originality/value This paper is a contemporary call for action to stimulate and expedite climate literacy in higher education, and is the first to propose that certain forms of work-based learning curricula can be a route to combating highly bounded and fragmented approaches, towards a unified and boundary-crossing approach.

Co‐delivered work based learning: contested ownership and responsibility

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore, from a practitioner perspective, the tensions in facilitating the “challenging and complex” terrain of co‐delivered work based learning (WBL) – a growing area of practice in the UK, but under‐researched and under‐discussed – and a possible cutting edge resolution which is currently being developed.Design/methodology/approach – The article draws from on‐going practitioner research using a first person action research methodology which uses critical reflection and peer discussion over two years.Findings – Although higher education institutions are required (by regulation) to be responsible for the quality of teaching, learning and assessment of the qualifications granted in their name, this becomes problematic in co‐delivery. Three tensions emerged which contest such ownership and responsibility: a perception (or preference) of co‐delivery trainers to be “trainers delivering training” rather than owning/taking responsibility for teaching, learning and asses...

Positive emotion in workplace impact: the case of a work-based learning project utilising appreciative inquiry

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to highlight the role of positive emotions in generating workplace impacts and examine it through the application of an adapted appreciative inquiry process in the context of a work-based project aimed at promoting integrated working under challenging organisational circumstances. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a case study methodology which highlights how an organisation facing difficult circumstances (such as austerity measures, siloed cultures, constant threats of reorganisation, and requirement to work across occupational boundaries) adapted an appreciative inquiry intervention/method. Findings This paper found, first, that the utilisation of appreciative inquiry in the context of an adapted work-based project in difficult organisational circumstances generated positive emotions manifest through a compelling vision and action plans, second, that the impacts (such as a vision) can become entangled and therefore part of the wider ecological context which promotes pathways to such impact, but that, third, there are a various cultural and climate features which may limit the implementation of actions or the continuation of psychological states beyond the time-bound nature of the work-based project. Practical implications The paper illustrates how an organisation adapted a form of appreciative inquiry to facilitate organisational change and generated outcomes which were meaningful to the various occupational groupings involved. Originality/value This paper offers new evidence and insight into the adaptation of appreciative inquiry under challenging circumstances in the context of a work-based learning project. It also provides a richer picture of how positive emotion can manifest in ways which are meaningful to a localised context.

A unifying, boundary crossing approach to developing climate literacy

Empirical evidence suggests that educational approaches to climate change remain limited, fragmented, and locked into disciplinary boundaries. The aim of this paper is to discuss the application of an innovative unifying, boundary-crossing approach to developing climate literacy. Methodologically, the study combined a literature review with an action research based approach related to delivering a Climate Change Project conducted in a mid-sized university in England. Findings suggest the approach created a unifying vision for action, and did so across multiple boundaries, including disciplinary (e.g. psychology, engineering, business), professional services (e.g. academic, library, information technology), and identity (e.g. staff, student, employee). The project generated a number of outcomes including extensive faculty level climate change resources, plans for innovative mobile applications to engage people in climate literacy, and new infrastructural arrangements to continue the development of practice and research in climate change. This paper outlines empirical insights in order to inform the design, development, and continuity of other unifying, boundary-crossing approaches to climate literacy.

Resilience and the (Micro-)Dynamics of Organizational Ambidexterity: Implications for Strategic HRM

Abstract In the twenty-first century, resilience has emerged as a seminal and important topic linked to calls for adaptability, well-being and organizational performance. Extant strategic human resource management (HRM) literature and practices have developed many insights into resilience. However, overall, they have a propensity to conceptualise resilience as being associated with ‘macro-’ and ‘extreme’ situations. This paper complements the prevailing perspective by developing a micro-focus on resilience through the conceptual framework of organizational ambidexterity surfacing under-examined individual resilience in connection with HRM practices. Methodologically, the paper adopts a qualitative approach presenting data from two illustrative contexts: an ‘everyday’ quasi-governmental institution and a prima facie ‘extreme’ pan-international military organization. Using template analysis, a number of valuable themes and similarities are identified. The findings and discussion underline the managerial challenges in handling organizational ambidextrous dynamics and tensions surrounding resilience, positive and sceptical approaches in relation to individual and organizational stances towards HRM practices. As such, the results point at value in HRM managers and practices recontextualising and appreciating ‘extremes’ and resilience more as an everyday (rather than exceptional) phenomenon wherein myriad micro-moments are highly significant in constructing and influencing macro-contexts. This also implies a need to see cynical resistance as normative rather than automatically negatively.

Conjuring A ‘Spirit’ for Sustainability: a review of the socio-materialist effects of provocative pedagogies

Evidence suggests that wider sociological structures, which embody particular values and ways of relating, can make a sustainable living and working problematic. This chapter introduces ideology critique, an innovative methodological perspective crossing the fields of theology, cultural studies and politics to examine and disturb the subtle and hidden ‘spirit’ which is evoked when we engage with everyday objects and interactions. Such a ‘spirit’, or ideology, embodies particular models of how humans relate to other humans, animals and the planet more broadly. This chapter aims, first, to document and demonstrate the subtleties of how the hidden ‘spirit’ can render attempts at sustainable working futile in the context of education, and then, second, to demonstrate how it can be used to intentionally evoke alternative ‘spirits’ which afford new relationality amongst humans, animals and the planet. In a broader sense, therefore, this chapter explores how concepts and political commitments from the humanities, such as ideology critique and ‘spirit’, can help (1) analyse how wider social structures shape our values and beliefs in relation to sustainable learning, living and working, (2) explain how these behaviours are held in place over time and (3) provoke insight into how we might seek to disrupt and change such persistent social structures.

Now What Might We Do

Žižek warns us that that we become enslaved to particular ideas and beliefs which implicate our inner-most unconscious desires and drives. Dialectically, being ‘critical’ about these ideas can work as an insidious way for such ideas to tighten their grip. So what can teachers and students do to bring about something else? Can we escape enslavery? For Žižek, we cannot escape the very Symbolic which guides us in knowing how to act in practice, and which manifests throughout vast educational and broader regulatory systems. So whatcan we do? This, Žižek points out, is our task rather than his, and refuses to provide specific actions for us—and is this not fully aligned to a slippery ‘hag fish’ pedagogy where we have to find the answers? Crucially, Žižek raises the urgency of a need to act, and gives us glimpses into directions that we might consider. Educational researchers have taken Žižek’s inspiration and call to action, and have documented how they have constructed alternative actions in practice. Their interpretations have involved attempting to draw from different zones of the Symbolic realm, and patiently considering how such activity appears to be implicating themselves and others in their educational practices. Yet these are never definitive, victory narratives, as Žižek reminds us of Lacan’s famous statement “les non-dupes errent”: only those who think they have not been duped have already been duped. Such attempts do act, however, as beacons towards producing different understandings of education, and therefore hold the potential for change.

Mobilising ‘Customer as King’

Where do we start if we should wish to change the demands students (the customer) place on their teachers (their service provider)? For Žižek, the problem is that this is a near impossible task, because contemporary capitalism is so entrenched in our everyday lives. The Symbolic realm does not belong to one educational establishment or educational sector, but is pervasive across society: governing frameworks shape all aspects of educational life, from institutional policies, to disciplinary knowledge structures, through to the way marking sheets of educational assessments are laid out. This far-reaching Symbolic realm not only guides us in how we understand education, but contains other seeds of why is it so difficult to achieve educational reform which goes beyond tinkering around the edges of curriculum re-design or educational policy. Žižek alerts us to how the Symbolic infects our unconscious motivations to create images of ourselves, thereby shaping how we think we should act. Moreover, something always escapes capture by the Symbolic, and because this fragmentation is traumatic, we are propelled and mobilised in ways towards acting in accordance with a more coherent and unified self-image. This spurs us to continually attempt to strive to be coherent as a ‘customer demanding good customer service’ or a ‘teacher, imparting knowledge’. Žižek suggests that, together, these provide a powerful motivational mechanism towards enacting and re-enacting out the same behaviours, which are near impossible to change unless we challenge the very grounds, including language, on which we engage.