Editorial
The papers in this first issue of the Journal of Workplace Learningfor 2007 continue the high standards set in preceding years. It is very encouraging to the editor, and I daresay to the Editorial Advisory Board, that there continues to be a steady flow of high quality papers submitted for consideration. By the same token, it is also true that quite a lot of papers are not accepted for publication, sometimes because they do not meet the high standard we have now come to expect of papers published in this journal, and sometimes because their themes are not sufficiently relevant to “workplace learning”, but seem more appropriate in the main for management or leadership journals, and occasionally for higher education periodicals.
The first paper in this issue, “From university to working life:mentoring as a pedagogical challenge” by Marjatta Saarnivaara and Anneli Sarja, went within a whisker of publication in the special issue of the journal(volume 18, nos 7-8) from the 4th International Conference on Researching Work and Learning, but we simply had too many good papers revised and reviewed from that conference to fit in one issue, even a double one. So it is good to be able to publish it first up in the next available issue.
One of the co-authors of the second paper, David Livingstone, is well-known internationally, particularly for his work as leader of the Research Network on New Approaches to Lifelong Learning, Canada. Here with Susan Stowe he presents the findings of a longitudinal study of the paid and unpaid work time of a small sample of continuously employed Canadians. The significance of the paper for the Journal of Workplace Learning is particularly in its consideration of the link between participation in adult education courses and informal learning in the workplace. The paper also draws attention to a possible emerging “lifelong education culture” which clearly has implications for workplace learning practitioners and researchers.
The third paper in this issue of JWL, “Competence development of entrepreneurs in innovative horticulture” continues a thread that has run through the journal in recent years which has focused on “farms” as workplaces. For example, we have published papers about tropical fruit growers in Thailand, and dairy farmers and wine producers in New Zealand. Now this paper by Martin Mulder, Thomas Lans, Jos Verstegen, Harm Biemans and Ypie Meijer focuses on an intriguing primary production area, “horticulture under glass” in The Netherlands. As the authors note, much workplace research learning research is about the employees, but it is the employers who tend to provide the learning spaces.
Finally, this first issue of the Journal of Workplace Learning for 2007 includes a paper by Peter Franklin which promises an explication that“helps people to develop a honed philosophical mindset which can recognise and deal with the empty arguments, flawed recipes and fictions that often characterise traditional management theory”. Having seen a distinct lack of improved management practices in my considerable working experience in a variety of workplaces, despite the apparent proliferation of management theories, all I can say is: “Bring it on!”.
As usual, good reading!
Darryl Dymock
