Constituting integration in work integrated education and learning

Presentation by a visiting researcher at the University of Iceland

Stephen Billett, Griffith University, Australia gives a presentation in Askja (room N-130) 20. June, 14:00-15:30.

Constituting integration in work integrated education and learning for higher education programs

With university graduates’ employability seen as priority by students, employers and government, considerations of what constitutes higher education goals and processes that are effective in achieving that goal are topical. Central to this goal is the provision of work placements for these students. Common to the effectiveness of what constitutes both work-integrated learning (WIL) and work-integrated education (WIE) is the degree by which, and how, students’ experiences in tertiary educational and work settings are integrated. For WIL, it comprises how individuals come to reconcile and construct meaning, capacities, and dispositions from experiences encountered in both settings. For WIE, it comprises the organisation of experiences and educational interventions to assist students in intentionally integrating the two sets of experiences as part of a planned educational process.

This presentation discusses how experiences in both university and work settings provide necessary experiences and outcomes, and yet are most beneficial when they are effectively integrated. Commencing by rehearsing the distinction of WIE from WIL and the centrality of integrations to both conceptions, the bases by which such integrations progress are discussed: the provision of experiences and the process of experiencing. Considerations of the particular qualities of experiences and learning outcomes in work settings and their integration with higher education programs are advanced. The case is made by drawing on findings of projects informing about the qualities of workplaces as sites for learning, and the integration of those two sets of experiences and their outcomes are then discussed. Throughout, the sociocultural positioning draws on distinction between zones of potential and proximal development that accommodate what is afforded and mediated by those experiences and how learners might mediate their integration.

Professor Stephen Billett

Dr Stephen Billett is Professor of Adult and Vocational Education in the School of Education and Professional Studies at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, a National Teaching Fellow and Australian Research Council Future Fellow. After a career in garment manufacturing, 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 has published widely in fields of learning of occupations, workplace learning, work and conceptual accounts of learning for vocational purposes. He is a Fulbright Scholar (1999), National Teaching Fellow (2008-2010), and Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (2011-15). In 2013, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Jyvasksla University (Finland) and another by the University of Geneva in October 2020 for his contributions to education, elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia in 2015, Honorary lifetime membership of the Australian Co-operative Education Network, 2018, and appointed as an Honorary Research Fellow at Oxford University in 2019 and holds adjunct appointments at the University of Stavanger (Norway) and University West (Sweden). He currently leads research projects in Australia, Singapore and Finland funded by national granting bodies. The Stanford World Ranking of Scientists places him in the top 1% of researchers in the field of Education being 38th out of over 58,000 researchers, and Scopus indicates a H index of 46.