ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Stephen Billett

Dr. Stephen Billett is Professor of Adult and Vocational Education at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia and also an Australian Research Council Future Fellow. He has worked as a vocational educator, educational administrator, teacher educator, professional development practitioner and policy developer in the Australian vocational education system, and as a teacher and researcher at Griffith University. Since 1992, he has researched learning through and for work, and published widely in fields of learning of occupations, workplace learning, work and conceptual accounts of learning for vocational purposes. He has been Fulbright scholar, national teaching fellow, and recipient of an honorary doctorate from Jyväskylä University in Finland.

Anneli Eteläpelto

Anneli Eteläpelto, PhD (Psychology) is a Professor (Adult Education) at the Department of Education, University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Before that, she was the Professor of Educational Psychology, University of Helsinki. Her research interests have addressed work-related learning and how to promote workplace learning through the renegotiation of professional identity and enacting professional agency at work. She has widely published in international and national refereed forums, edited and co-edited books on professional and work-related learning, identity, agency, creativity, expertise development, and social aspects of learning and education. She is currently leading a research project, The Role of Emotions in Agentic Learning at Work (REAL), funded by the Finnish Academy.

Karen Evans

Karen Evans is Professor in the UCL Institute of Education, University College London. She is a leading researcher in the UK Economic and Social Research Council’s LLAKES Research Centre, investigating Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies. Karen Evans’ main fields of research are learning in life and work transitions, and workplace learning. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Her international appointments have included a two-year Visiting Fellowship with the Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore, 2011-2013. 206

Soon Joo Gog

Soon Joo Gog is the Group Director, Training Partners Group, and Chief Research Officer of the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA). She has more than ten years of experience in workforce development at the national level. Her research interests include political economy of skills and sectoral institutional logic. She has a keen interest in national skills policy and comparative study of skills formation systems. Soon Joo is a strong advocate of leveraging on sectoral institutional logics in shaping high-skills ecosystem. She has a doctor in education from the Institute of Education, University College London and the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University Singapore.

Annie Karmel

Annie Karmel is currently a researcher with the Centre for Work and Learning (CWL), Research Division at the IAL, Singapore. She has predominantly published in the areas of adult educator professional identity, careers, and Singapore’s Continuing Education and Training landscape. Her current area of focus is in workplace learning and work-integrated assessment. Prior to joining IAL, Annie was a research scholar in the Master’s programme for Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore where she pursued her interests in intercultural interaction and labour migration.

Poi Shan Lai

Ms Poi Shan Lai is a Principal Learning Designer with the IAL. She reviews and designs adult learning solutions to build capability of adult educators such as the Specialist Diploma in Advanced Facilitation offered under the Workplace Skills Qualification (WSQ) framework for the Training and Adult Education sector. She has also designed and implemented blended learning innovations such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in blended learning and facilitation, an accelerated learning pathway for recognising prior competency, and initiatives to encourage enterprise adoption of workplace learning.

Yew-Jin Lee

Associate Professor Yew-Jin Lee has interests in sociocultural theories of learning, inquiry science, informal learning environments, and curriculum theory. In 2002, he pursued his interdisciplinary doctoral studies at

the University of Victoria, British Columbia; the dissertation looked at issues of learning, identity and history in a salmon hatchery. Overall, the research contributed to theory development in cultural-historical activity theory as well as bettering workplace practices. As a teacher educator, he now works closely with primary science teachers and has graduate students pursuing workplace research in science-rich organisations in Singapore.

Wee Chee Lee

Mr Wee Chee Lee is an Assistant Director with the IAL. He is involved in the design, implementation, and review of key programmes like the Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment (ACTA) and Diploma in Adult and Continuing Education (DACE), both of which are WSQ initiatives by the WDA, aimed at professionally developing adult educators in the Continuing Education and Training landscape in Singapore. Wee Chee was responsible for introducing pedagogical innovations in IAL, like the use of video-recording and e-portfolios in assessment, as well as initiatives to facilitate effective workplace learning in enterprises.

Sahara Sadik

Sahara Sadik is a senior researcher with the Centre for Work and Learning (CWL) at the Institute for Adult Learning, Singapore. She holds a Master’s Degree in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research interests pertain to the comparative political economy, employability, and labour market institutions.

Renée Tan

Renée Tan is with the WDA, Singapore, and is pursuing her Doctorate in Education with the University of Bristol. Her research interests include national narratives, globalisation and its social and cultural impact, diversity and inclusivity, as well as narrative inquiry and the use of creative ethnographic writing in research. Her most recent published work is a chapter in Using Narrative Inquiry for Educational Research in the Asia Pacific, edited by Sheila Trahar and Wai Ming Yu.

Towards A New Understanding of Workplace Learning: The Context of Singapore

The chapters in this book contribute to a new understanding of workplace learning. Using a socio-cultural approach, the editors and authors explore the idea of context as a pivotal influence on learning through its entwinement within everyday activity in, at and through work. This positioning is inclusive of the societal, cultural, historical, economic, political and situational factors that mediate learning. It is necessarily a complex picture as it explores the shifting agency and identity of individuals and groups as their biographies and dispositions variously enable them to make sense of and engage in meaningful work.

“Originating from but not limited to the efforts of researchers at the Centre for Work and Learning (IAL-Singapore), what emerges in this collection is a lively and rather comprehensive treatment of workplace learning as a mediated phenomenon. In taking up many of the most relevant issues in this field of study today – from the role of identity, agency and creativity to the meaning of training, facilitation, skill, the effects of globalization, diversity and more – it reflects the past and present, the relevance of place, and brings clarity to ideas that can make a difference in Singapore... and elsewhere.”

Peter H. Sawchuk

Professor of Adult Education, Work and Learning Cross-appointed, Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources University of Toronto

“At a time when conventional approaches to learning are being challenged as never before, this critical analysis of approaches to workplace learning, located in a society at the crossroads of Western and Asian cultures, offers insights not only into the challenges of developing our understanding of workplace learning in a global context but also of the new possibilities such a context provides for theoretical development.” David Ashton

Emeritus Professor, University of Leicester

“This book not only offers a distinctly holistic and contextual perspective on workplace learning. It also provides unique insights about workplace learning in Singapore. It is definitely a timely and essential reading for researchers, educators and policy makers.” Jörgen Sandberg

Professor in Management and Organisation, UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Australia.