Editorial

Citation

Kekäle, T. and Cervai, S. (2015), "Editorial", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 27 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-05-2015-0039

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Workplace Learning, Volume 27, Issue 5

For some years, we have attempted to collect the articles we receive into thematic issue, in order to ensure complimentary discoverability. From this issue onwards, the maximum length of articles will increased, and each volume will contain a few more articles. This is due to the fact that we are receiving an increasing amount of high-quality submissions. Unfortunately, we have been able to make this change only now and thus have a quite big backlog of accepted articles. Publishing these will take a couple of issues without any special theme. In this issue, we print some of the articles that have been waiting the longest time, without any clear thematic relation between them. Nevertheless, the compilation is very interesting and shows the multitude of research even a relatively narrow-scope title such as JWL can elicit from the scholars.

The first article we have selected for this issue is a conceptual piece studying ways of making teachers’ pedagogic capital visible, and is by Anna Henningsson-Yousif, from Sweden, and Solveig F. Aasen, from Norway. First, they develop the concept of pedagogical capital – resembling e g the concept intellectual capital of the human capital school – and then go on discussing two methods to visualize this pedagocic capital, through sketches and narratives. We feel the notion of pedagogic capital is potentially an important aspect for learning in organized settings; a lot of further research is asked for.

Next, Frankie Weinberg, Jay Mulki, and Melenia Lankau study the role of the mentors in workplace learning in an article titled “The Impact of Effort-Oriented EpistemologicaLBeliefs on Mentoring Support”. These beliefs, related to individuals’ ideas regarding the nature of knowledge, not only impact one’s approaches to learning, but can also decide how much effort a mentor puts in the mentoring activity. After a factor analysis on their sample, they indeed find the proposed connection especially when it comes to the amount of vocational support provided. Again, this proposes some interesting directions to further research.

The third article, is a very interesting workplace learning- historic account takes our thoughts to the opera about the fates of Carmen of Seville. The article, by Marie-Line Germain and Robin Grenier, describes the activity of the readers of pre-war cigar factories in Florida. Through these “lectores”, cigar factories were a place where workplace learning, organizational and social change occurred daily; the findings illustrate the multifaceted nature of workplace learning and that the workers should have a possibility to learn also other issues that what directly contribute to productivity in the work tasks. Any learning facilitates change.

The final article in this issue is about finance industry. The authors include Colin Milligan, Rosa Fontana, Allison Littlejohn, and our returning contributor Anoush Margaryan. Through a study of 170 knowledge workers in the finance industry, they conclude that there exists a relationship between the learning opportunities provided by a workplace role, and the learning undertaken. Regression analysis further identifies three key self-regulatory learning behaviours that appear to mediate this relationship: task interest/value, task strategies, and self-evaluation. This should provide insights for shaping the learning and development support provided to the individual workers.

Thus, again we have both interesting implications for learning facilitators and managers, as well as refined concepts for further research. We hope you enjoy reading this issue.

Tauno Kekäle and Sara Cervai - Editors