Introducing RAVL

RAVL is a cross-disciplinary research grouping made up members from the UTS Faculty of Education with expertise in developmental psychology, philosophy, adult learning theory, human resource development, social theory, political economy, policy studies and applied linguistics. The group is examining new developments in adult and vocational learning arising from changing conceptions of learning and work and the responses of educational institutions to these changes.

David Beckett is a Senior Lecturer, Department of Education Policy and Management, Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne. His current teaching and thesis supervision and research output centres on adult education, particularly professional development, policy analysis, and in workplace and lifelong learning. In the early 1990s when he completed his doctorate with Professor Paul Hager, with whom he has since worked on joint research and publication activities.

David Boud is Professor of Adult Education and Associate Dean (Research) in the UTS Faculty of Education. He has been involved in research and teaching development in adult, higher and professional education for nearly thirty years. He was Head of the School of Adult and Language Education at UTS and formerly Professor and Foundation Director of the Professional Development Centre at the University of New South Wales. His research is in experience-based learning, reflection and learning, innovations in teaching and learning in adult and higher education and self-assessment and appraisal.

Clive Chappell is Senior Research Fellow in the UTS Research Centre for Vocational Education and Training, and holds a PhD from University of Technology Sydney. His research interests are in the area of the professional competence of vocational teachers and the emerging new vocational professionals.

Griff Foley is Associate Professor in Faculty of Education, University of Technology, Sydney. He is the editor of 'Understanding Adult Education and Training' (Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 2nd ed). His current research interests are in strategic learning in the workplace.

John Garrick is a Senior Lecturer at UTS with research interests in learning in the workplace and organisational development. His PhD and subsequent Australian Research Council (ARC) research has focused on the links between work organisation, workplace reform and learning. He is the author of 'Informal Learning in the Workplace: Unmasking Human Resource Development' (Routledge) and co-editor of several international books on learning at work.

Andrew Gonczi is a Professor and Dean of Faculty of Education, University of Technology, Sydney (since 1997). Professor Gonczi has been involved in teaching and research on vocational and higher education for many years. He has been active in research in competency-based education and training during the last decade. Prior to his position as Dean of the Faculty of Education, he was Head of the School of Adult Education. His research is in the area of Vocational Education in Schools, Competency Based Education & Training Assessment.

Paul Hager is a Professor of Education in the UTS Faculty of Education. He has published books and research papers on philosophy of vocational education and training, on workplace learning, on critical thinking and on professional competence. He is currently writing a book (with Dr David Beckett) on informal learning. Current research projects include an Australian Research Council funded study of the role of generic competencies in workplace reform in the building and construction industry, and an investigation of work-based learning.

Alison Lee is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education where she is Co-ordinator of Research Degrees and the Doctor of Educatiopn program. She is a member of the Language, Discourse and Policy Research Group and the Centre for Language and Literacy.

Rod McDonald is Professor of Adult Education and currently Special Advisor to the Australian National Training Authority, under an arrangement between ANTA and UTS. He is best known for his work on the development of a national research strategy in vocational education and training and subsequent work on connections between research, evaluation, and policy. Prior to developing the UTS Research Centre for Vocational Education and Training as a national key centre, he was Foundation Dean of Education at UTS.

John McIntyre is Director of the UTS Research Centre for Vocational Education and Training (since 1999), a national key centre funded by the Australian National Training Authority. His research for national and state government agencies includes studies of enterprise training, early school leaving, key competencies in the workplace, indigenous participation in VET and outcomes of participation in adult community education (ACE) in Australia. His PhD By Publication from UTS was based on his work on Australian ACE. His research interests are in the relationship of policy and research. His current projects include the analysis of postcode-based variations in VET participation and socio-economic status.

Carl Rhodes holds a PhD from University of Technology, Sydney. He works as a consultant and manager in the areas of organisational development, change management and human resource development. He is an Associate of the UTS Faculty of Education. His research interests focus on the application of literary and narrative theory to the understanding of organisations. With John Garrick, he is the author of Research and Knowledge at Work (Routledge).

Hermine Scheeres has been involved in teaching, professional development and research in language and literacy education for over 20 years. She is Co-editor of the journal Literacy and Numeracy Studies: an international journal in the education and training of adults. Her research interests include the relationship between socio-political contexts, and theories and practices of language and literacy; discourse analysis; and workplace change and identity construction. Her current research focuses on restructuring workplaces and how this reconstructs identities of workers; and academic identities and commissioned research practices.

Nicky Solomon is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education. She is currently Program Manager for Work-based Learning for the University complemented by her position as Work-Based Learning Coordinator for the Faculty. Her scholarly writing has been in the cultural critique of workplace learning as a field of practice and a site of academic study, drawing on social theories of global, social and cultural changes and their relationship with local workplace practices. She has explored the use of 'culture' as a management tool and its influence in the shaping of subjectivity in the workplace, and understandings about 'difference' . Her current work is on social theoretical issues in work-based learning programs.

Colin Symes is currently a Research Fellow working with RAVL. He is also a lecturer in the School of Cultural and Language Studies at the Queensland University of Technology. He is the co-author of Schools and Classrooms (Addison Wesley Longman) and the co-editors of Taught Bodies (Peter Lang, forthcoming) and Working knowledge: the New Vocationalism and Higher Education (Open University, forthcoming). His most recent papers have appeared in Time and Society, Australian Journal of Education, and Mosaic: a Journal of the Interdisciplinary Study of Literature. His current research deals with the textual mediation of workplaces.

Mark Tennant is a Professor in Adult Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Technology, Sydney. He has published widely in the area of psychology and adult education, including 'Psychology and adult learning' (Routledge, 1988/1997) which won the Cyril O. Houle Award for Literature in Adult Education, an international award which is conferred each year under the auspices of the American Association of Adult and Continuing Education. Mark has been a visiting scholar or visiting professor at the universities of Syracuse, Warwick, British Colombia, Alaska and Hokkaido. He was Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Technology, Sydney January 1994-December 1996. His ongoing interest is in the relationship between learning, self formation and change.

Robin Usher (RMIT University) Robin Usher is a Professor of Education and Director of Research and Consultancy, Faculty of Education, Language and Community Services, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He is also Senior Policy Advisor for Postgraduate Education, Office of the PVC (R and D). He has published extensively in philosophical issues in educational research, on the impact of postmodernism in education and on the influence of new constructions of knowledge on contemporary changes in higher education.

For further information contact: Professor David Boud on 61-2-9514-3700 or david.boud@uts.edu.au.