About us
The Centre for Learning and Change investigates the changing contexts and practices of contemporary life resulting from globalisation, increased mobility and new technologies. Learning is central to our agenda since it is through learning that change occurs. An important focus is on ideas of practice, from educational practices to professional practices, from language practices to social practices more generally. Current research interests centre on the changing health environment and the needs for new forms of learning to address new health needs; changing linguistic environments where new mixtures of language and new modalities present challenges for learning and communication; changing workplaces where workers need new skills and forms of communication to operate; and changing educational institutions, where new technologies and changing student populations suggest a need for different conceptualizations of learning and schooling.
Advances in technology, particularly in new digital media, and other post-industrial challenges, require innovative social, cultural, environmental and economic responses. Governments, business, communities, professional bodies and special interest groups increasingly invoke learning as a key strategy in understanding and facilitating these responses. Our research builds inter-disciplinary and collaborative partnerships with governments and other organizations and sectors of the community that particularly value learning.
Our particular research objectives are to:
• undertake research that examines the various theoretical and practical dimensions of the role of learning and language in changing social, educational and economic environments
• encourage collaborative and outcomes-based research partnerships with government, industry, organizations and communities
• foster local, national and international research partnerships with researchers who work in the various fields of education and training
• contribute to the development of a dynamic research culture, with research students, in the University and wider professional communities.
• The Centre’s research outputs are published widely in scholarly books and journals, and are disseminated through our web site, working papers, published reports and seminar series.
