Professional Learning in Changing Contexts

Tara Fenwick is Professor of Education at the University of Stirling, UK, and Director of ProPEL, international network for research in Professional Practice, Education and Learning, www.propel.stir.ac.uk. Her research focuses on exploring sociomaterial approaches to understanding learning, knowledge politics and practice in professional work. Her most recent books include Knowledge Mobilization and Educational Research (Routledge 2012) with L. Farrell, Emerging Approaches for Educational Research: Tracing the Sociomaterial (Routledge 2011) with R. Edwards and P Sawchuk, and Actor-network theory and education with R Edwards (Routledge 2010). Monika Nerland is Professor in the Department of Educational Research, University of Oslo, Norway. Her research focuses on knowledge practices and learning in professional education and work. She has recently been the leader for the project Learning Trajectories in Knowledge Economies, funded by the Research Council of Norway, and is currently co-leading a project that examines the role epistemic practices play in inducting students in higher professional education in expert communities. Karen Jensen is Professor in the Department of Educational Research, University of Oslo, Norway. Her research area is professional education and work. She has published widely on the role of knowledge in professional communities and was the scientific leader for the research project Professional Learning in a Changing Society (2004–2008), funded by the Research Council of Norway. Her most recent book is Professional Learning in the Knowledge Society (2012), co-edited with Leif Chr. Lahn and Monika Nerland.

Introduction: Sociomaterial approaches to conceptualising professional learning and practise Tara Fenwick, Monika Nerland and Karen Jensen 1. Docta ignorantia: professional knowing at the core and at the margins of practice Silvia Gherardi 2. The knowledge that matters in professional practices Anne Edwards and Harry Daniels 3. Professional learning and the materiality of social practice Åsa Mäkitalo 4. Interprofessional working and learning: ‘recontextualising’ lessons from ‘project work’ for programmes of initial professional formation David Guile 5. Epistemic practices and object relations in professional work Monika Nerland and Karen Jensen 6. Thinking teacher professional learning performatively: a socio-material account Dianne Mulcahy 7. Complexity science and professional learning for collaboration: a critical reconsideration of possibilities and limitations Tara Fenwick