Theo Niessen

To promote workplace learning for staff as well as students, a partnership was formed between a residential care organisation for older people and several nursing faculties in the Netherlands. This partnership took the form of two care innovation units; wards where qualified staff, students and nurse teachers collaborate to integrate care, education, innovation and research. In this article, the care innovation units as learning environments are studied from a student perspective to deepen un-derstandings concerning the conditions that facilitate learning. A secondary analysis of focus groups, held with 216 nursing students over a period of five years, revealed that students are satisfied about the units' learning potential, which is formed by various interrelated and self-reinforcing affordances: co-constructive learning and working, challenging situations and activities, being given responsibility and independence, and supportive and recognisable learning structures. Time constraints had a negative impact on the units' learning potential. It is concluded that the learning potential of the care innovation units was enhanced by realising certain conditions, like learning structures and activities. The learning potential was also influenced, however, by the non-controllable and dynamic interaction of various elements within the context. Suggestions for practice and further research are offered.

Research into workplace mentoring is principally focussed on predictors and psychosocial and instrumental
outcomes, while there is scarcely any in-depth research into relational characteristics, outcomes and processes.
This article aims to illustrate these relational aspects. It reports a co-constructed auto-ethnography
of a dyadic mentoring relationship as experienced by mentor and protégé. The co-constructed narrative illustrates
that attentiveness towards each other and a caring attitude, alongside learning-focussed values, promote
a high-quality mentoring relationship. This relationship is characterised, among other things, by person
centredness, care, trust and mutual influence, thereby offering a situation in which mutual learning and growth
can occur. Learning develops through and in relation and is enhanced when both planned and unplanned
learning takes place. In addition, the narrative makes clear that learning and growth of both those involved
are intertwined and interdependent and that mutual learning and growth enrich and strengthen the relationship.
It is concluded that the narrative illustrates a number of complex relational processes that are difficult
to elucidate in quantitative studies and theoretical constructs. It offers deeper insight into the initiation and
improvement of high-quality mentoring relationships and emphasises the importance of further research into
relational processes in mentoring relationships.

There is a need for person-centred approaches and empowerment of staff within the residential care for older people; a movement called ‘culture change’. There is however no single path for achieving culture change. With the aim
of increasing understandings about cultural change processes and the promotion of cultural values and norms associated with person-centred practices, this article
presents an action research project set on a unit in the Netherlands providing care for older people with dementia. The project is presented as a case study. This study
examines what has contributed to the improvement of participation of older people with dementia in daily occupational and leisure activities according to practitioners.
Data was collected by participant observation, interviews and focus groups. The results show that simultaneous to the improvement of the older people’s involvement in daily activities a cultural transformation took place and that the care became
more person-centred. Spontaneous interactions and responses rather than planned interventions, analysis and reflection contributed to this. Furthermore, it proved to be beneficial that the process of change and the facilitation of that process reflected the same values as those underlying the cultural change. It is concluded that changes arise from dynamic, interactive and non-linear processes which are complex in
nature and difficult to predict and to control. Nevertheless, managers and facilitators can facilitate such change by generating movement through the introduction of small focused projects that meet the stakeholders’ needs, by creating conditions for interaction and sense making, and by promoting the new desired cultural values.

In organisations, learning is generally seen as a dynamic, collective and often conscious process that occurs
by reflecting on real work experiences. In this article, we discuss these assumptions about learning in the
context of work by presenting a case study in the care for older people. The case illustrates that learning in and through work is predominantly an embodied and responsive phenomenon that usually occurs implicitly while acting. We argue that a learning perspective grounded in the worldview of enactivism encapsulates this pragmatic and embodied character of learning and at the same time provides a reality and language
helpful in encouraging a critical attitude towards assumptions about learning in organisations. Understanding learning from an enactive point of view carries consequences for studying and organising learning within organisations. These are outlined within this article to challenge managers’ meanings of learning in health care and comparable settings and to encourage further dialogue on this issue.

This chapter is an exemplar of how we, together and with others, engage in cognitive and artistic critique and create a blend of scholarly and artistic spaces within which to live our research practices. The context of the exemplar is our critical companionship (Titchen, ...

In this article the authors challenge contemporary epistemological research within educational settings. After a reconciliation of the current models which treat epistemological beliefs as static and mechanical, the authors present a teaching experience to illustrate their enactivist view that epistemological beliefs should be conceptualized as fluid and dynamic constructs, emerging in web-like configurations. Answers to epistemological questions unfold within the interstices and mutual interactions between people and their environment. Boundaries between student–teacher, individual–community, cognition–bodily experience are becoming blurred. From this enactivist perspective the researcher’s role changes considerably. Instead of determining teachers’ personal traits and epistemological make-up, the researcher should sensitize teachers to the subtle ways epistemological beliefs are enmeshed within their day-to-day professional lives, focusing on the complex fabric of the teaching pra...