Reconceptualising Professional Learning

This book presents leading-edge perspectives and methodologies to address emerging issues of concern for professional learning in contemporary society. The conditions for professional practice and learning are changing dramatically in the wake of globalization, new modes of knowledge production, new regulatory regimes, and increased economic-political pressures. In the wake of this, a number of challenges for learning emerge: _x005F_x000D_ _x005F_x000D_ _x005F_x000D_ more practitioners become involved in interprofessional collaboration_x005F_x000D_ _x005F_x000D_ _x005F_x000D_ developments in new technologies and virtual workworlds _x005F_x000D_ _x005F_x000D_ _x005F_x000D_ emergence of transnational knowledge cultures and interrelated circuits of knowledge. _x005F_x000D_ _x005F_x000D_ _x005F_x000D_ Reconceptualising Professional Learning develops these issues through specific contemporary cases focused on one of the book’s three main themes: (1) professionals’ knowing in practice, (2) professionals’ work arrangements and technologies, or (3) professional responsibility. Each chapter draws upon innovative theory to highlight the sociomaterial webs through which professional learning may be reconceptualised. Authors are based in Australia, Canada, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and the USA as well as the UK and their cases are based in a range of professional settings including medicine, teaching, nursing, engineering, social services, the creative industries, and more._x005F_x000D_ _x005F_x000D_ By presenting detailed accounts of these themes from a sociomaterial perspective, the book opens new questions and methodological approaches. These can help make more visible what is often invisible in today’s messy dynamics of professional learning, and point to new ways of configuring educational support and policy for professionals.