Work-Integrated Professional Learning: Shifting Paradigms through Transdisciplinary Engagement

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is widely used to connect students with the world of work and authentic industry practices. WIL research and practice is primarily focused on the benefits to students and universities, whilst the value of WIL to partner organisations remains relatively underexplored. This study takes an industry, government and community partner-centric perspective to examine learning in partner organisations stimulated through engagement with transdisciplinary WIL. A case study of a transdisciplinary, innovation-focused project-based WIL subject at one Australian university is interrogated through the theoretical lenses of practice theory and mutual learning. Fifteen interviews with stakeholders in partner organisations are analysed against the three dimensions of practice articulated by Kemmis et al. (2014): sayings, doings and relatings. The analysis shows that through engagement with university-led transdisciplinary WIL partners were able to advance their learning projects, disrupt and reconfigure organisational practices, and legitimise experimentation within their organisations. The study builds the case for conceptualising WIL engagement as a professional learning opportunity for partner organisations, in addition to the well-documented benefits to students and universities.