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We are investigating ‘new learning spaces’ that are developing alongside established institutions of education and training, like schools, TAFE Institutes and universities.
These new learning spaces are often organised as social partnerships. In social partnerships some combinations of industry, government and community agencies engage in voluntary, mutually beneficial activities to address shared goals. The partner agencies support this joint work by combining their resources and competencies. Good examples of social partnerships are industry-education partnerships and Local Learning and Employment Networks (LLEN).
We are interested in the way these social partnerships work and how they are formed, maintained and sustained. We are also interested in the kinds of learning that is supported in partnerships; how decision-making occurs; and the implications of this partnership activity for learner’s life chances.
Since 2001 we have been involved in a series of projects that have investigated social partnerships and the way they serve as new learning spaces. In 2005 we are embarking on a further set of partnership case studies in Victoria and Queensland funded by the Australian Research Council and National Centre for Vocational Education Research. We want to find out how social partnerships maintain themselves over time and how the challenges of partnership play out in terms of learning, governance and life chances.
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