Work in Progress
Sustaining effective social partnerships
Summary
- Item:
- 10352
- Title:
- Sustaining effective social partnerships
- Type:
- Managed research project
- Project no:
- NR5004
- Status:
- Finished
- Date commenced:
- 1 August 2005
- Contact:
- Stephen Billett
- phone: +61 7 3875 5855
- email: s.billett@mailbox.gu.edu.au
Purpose
This second phase of the project seeks to work over a period of 18months with diverse kinds of social partnerships associated with VET and capacity building in order to identify: (i) how these principles and practices identified in Phase One are manifested social partnerships and work to withstand the changing demands and requirements of the social partnerships' work; (ii) in what ways the enactment of these practices and principles is associated with social partnerships achieving their social and economic goals through supporting local decision-making and capacity building associated with VET; and (iii) their ability to inform about partnership work's capacity to sustain that role over time and in changing circumstances and with changing tasks and goals.
In the first phase, the researchers worked with 10 social partnerships to identify factors have contributed to or inhibited their development and continuity in the time since they were previously investigated. The purpose was to retrospectively map the factors and practices that have either assisted their development or threatened their viability over the history of these partnerships. This second phase comprises an investigation of four partnerships of distinct kinds, but with specific concerns associated with VET and local capacity building over a period of 18 months. This is undertaken to appraise the utility of principles and practices identified retrospectively in the first phase. The specific enabling purposes of this Second Phase are threefold: (i) to appraise the utility of these principles and practices to other kinds of social partnerships within vocational education over time; (ii) to identify variations in the operation of these principles and practices; and (iii) to evaluate their robustness as enabling principles and practices capable of being effective in change circumstances.
Approach
Case studies and Interviews
Research questions
The principal questions for this research are:
1. What are the key principles and practices that underpin the formation, development and maintenance of social practices that are effective in assisting localised decision-making and capacity building associated with VET?
2. How is the effective enactment of these principles and practices shaped in a different way across the diversity kinds of social practices?
3. In what ways are the principles and practices associated with establishing and initially developing a social partnership robust enough to manage the changing circumstances, tasks and goals that social partnerships will inevitably face in responding to an effective provision of VET?
Methodology
The research procedures comprise a further investigation and analyses of factors influencing the formation, development and continuity of four social partnerships associated with vocational education and capacity building in conjunction with Research Partners in the community service and health, and the mining sectors.
Phase Two: Analyses of factors influencing the formation, development and continuity of social Phase Two comprises working with four social partnerships within VET and local capacity building. This phase comprises four stages.
Stage 1: Integration of phase on finding with those synthesised from other Objective 3 projects. Four partnerships identified and agreement reached to participate in project.
Stage 2: Interviews with participants involved in the partnerships, focusing on purposes, scope, participants and history of the 4 partnerships, with a focus on factors that can jeopardise partnership development at various stages.
Stage 3: Ongoing interactions with the social partnerships including structured interviews in order to capture significant periods of change and gather data on what processes guide how the social partnerships navigate through these.
Stage 4: Analysis of findings, with the synthesis of findings on how support and guidance for the formation, development and continuity of social partnerships might best be organised.
Organisations
Griffith University
The Adult and Vocational area within the School of Vocational, Technology and Arts Education, Griffith University has a demonstrated capacity for quality research and its conduct, particularly through the Centre for Learning and Work Research. The University has extensive research infrastructure to support the effective enactment of this research.
University Monash, Centre For Work And Learning Studies
Centre for Work and Learning Studies (CWALS) is a teaching and research centre which takes working knowledge seriously. The Centre's staff have undertaken a range of funded research studies and consultancies examining cross-cultural contexts of education and training in Australia and other countries, changes in work and learning, training reform, changes in work organisation and its implications for learning, teaching and managing, and the roles and responsibilities of education and training professionals in the emerging knowledge society. The centre is located in the Faculty of Education, Monash University.
