Mothers working as teachers in a post-16 environment face various challenges with balancing work and motherhood from the beginning of pregnancy. Colleges have in place a variety of policies, such as maternity leave and flexible working that are designed to mitigate some of these challenges. This paper investigates the experiences of eight mothers…

Resilience training for Further Education (FE) managers has become an increasingly familiar aspect of management development. This paper challenges the accepted orthodoxies underpinning resilience as a 'learnable' skill required to succeed as a manager. In particular, it addresses the concepts of toxic positivity, growth mindset (Dweck) and Grit…

In work-based learning (WBL), autodidactic, informal, nonformal, and formal approaches to learning are viewed not as dichotomous, distinct, or divergent spheres along a continuum but as intersected and clustered spheres. In WBL, prior learning, professional development, advanced standing, and other forms of learning are therefore formally…

In this article the role of Human Resource Management (HRM) in the UK Higher Education (HE) sector is interrogated, with a focus on the Gig Academy. A literature review of the casualisation of academics in the sector is undertaken and critiqued through the consultative unitarist values and behaviours of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and…

This paper provides a perspective on learning in which training and situated learning complement each other in developing cabin crew competence. Traditionally, airlines have approached cabin crew training from a competency-based, behavioural perspective with limited engagement in the actual work context. This ethnographic study builds on…

The paper analyses how educators employed on non-permanent contracts in the non-compulsory education sector in Ireland have fared during the COVID-19 pandemic. These employees were starting from a low base in relation to the terms and conditions of their employment when their places of work dramatically pivoted online in March 2020. We argue the…

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unexpected challenges to the lives and professional practice of teachers regardless of their institutional context. Our understanding of how teachers viewed their impact on their perceived sense of professional identity is largely unexplored, especially concerning teachers working in the post-compulsory sector. This…

The re-professionalisation of those who work in education is a common theme explored in the literature. This paper reports on research undertaken at an English Business School that was concerned with how academics responded to external accreditation and the introduction of five categories that demarcated them according to their academic…

This research explores the professional situation of teacher educators in post-compulsory education. The article reports on a project that included the largest online survey of this particular group to date, and the results provide rich insights into their values, experiences and particular working context. The results significantly extend our…

Workplace influences on Chinese Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) academics' development as researchers were examined in two Chinese higher education institutions in this qualitative collective case study. Data sources included research documentation and interviews with 12 Chinese TEFL academics. Both institutions were keen on research…

The aim of the article is to identify those factors that drive the high participation in immediate post-16 and higher education of some minority ethnic groups in the UK. What could we learn from these examples to encourage higher aspirations more generally? The article reports a summary of a formal and systematic review of 1678 studies dated 1997…

This paper is a reflection on my journey in a work-based (WB) research project while completing my PhD at a large Australian university. The paper explores issues that arose as I studied strategic change in the university and my role evolved from that of a "change agent" working as part of a project team to that of a researcher. A case…

In the 1990s, the meaning of lifelong learning has shifted to focus on economic rather than social goals. Current policy issues in the development of a training/learning culture include competency-based training, demand-side responsibility for training, increased emphasis on learning in the workplace and the role of workplace trainers. (Contains…

The article argues the case for rethinking the way we look at the process of ageing in the work place and the images we use to describe the nature of life for people over 50. Rather than there being more old and frail people in the community, many more people are experiencing an extended middle age, and their numbers are increasing. There are in…

The United Kingdom Merchant Navy has a very poor record on access and training for females in terms of marine careers across all levels. Furthermore, it is a world where equity and equality are often simply overlooked, partly because the difficult and harsh realities of "normal" working conditions effectively marginalise both women and…