About RWL
Purpose, Audience and History of the RWL Conference Series
The Researching Work & Learning (RWL) International Conference Series is the world’s longest, continuously running international research conference series serving the field of workplace learning. It was initiated in 1999 by researchers at the University of Leeds (UK). As of 2022 it will have visited ten countries in five continents.
- RWL1 Leeds, England (1999)
- RWL2 Calgary, Canada (2001)
- RWL3 Tampere, Finland (2003)
- RWL4 Sydney, Australia (2005)
- RWL5 Cape Town, South Africa (2007)
- RWL6 Copenhagen, Denmark (2009)
- RWL7 Shanghai, China (2011)
- RWL8 Stirling, Scotland (2013)
- RWL9 Singapore (2015)
- RWL10 Grahamstown, South Africa (2017)
- RWL11 Giessen, Germany (2019)
- RWL12 Toronto, Canada (2022)
Throughout, it has sought to recognize the multi-disciplinary character of this research area by actively promoting involvement across scholarly disciplines including but not limited to the following: Adult Education, Labour Education, Higher Education, Vocational Education, Human Resource Management, Business Studies as well as the full range of human sciences scholarship where matters of both work and learning are considered.
At the same time, the conference series has also sought to actively maintain linkages to practitioners who deal with matters of work and learning. These include but are not limited to the following: human resource managers, vocational trainers, union educators, community educators, school teachers and so on.
Further information about the conference series including past conference proceedings can be found at the standing website of the International Advisory Committee:
RWL International Advisory Committee
- Professor Stephen Billett, Griffith University, Australia
- Professor David Boud, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
- Dr. Helen Bound (RWL9 Conference Co-Chair), Institute for Adult Learning Singapore, Singapore
- Professor Linda Cooper (RWL5 Conference Co-Chair), University of Cape Town, South Africa
- Professor Carol Costley, Middlesex University, England
- Professor Madeleine Abrandt Dahlgren, Linköping University, Sweden
- Professor Yrjö Engeström, University of Helsinki, Finland
- Professor Alison Fuller, Institute of Education – University College London, UK
- Professor Huang Jian (RWL7 Conference Chair), East China Normal University, China
- Professor Bernd Käpplinger (RWL11 Conference Chair), Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany
- Sim Soo Kheng (RWL9 Conference Co-Chair), Institute for Adult Learning Singapore, Singapore
- Professor David W. Livingstone (emeritus) University of Toronto, Canada
- Dr. Han Min, National Research Center of Education Development Research, China
- Professor Henning Olesen (RWL6 Conference Chair), Roskilde University, Denmark
- Dr. Presha Ramsarup (RWL10 Conference Co-Chair), The University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
- Dr. Ann Reich, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
- Professor Eureta Rosenberg (RWL10 Conference Co-Chair), Rhodes University, South Africa
- Professor Peter Sawchuk (RWL2 Conference Co-Chair; Current Chair of RWL-IAC), University of Toronto, Canada
- Professor Shirley Walters (RWL5 Conference Co-Chair), University of the Western Cape, South Africa
- Professor Miriam Zukas (RWL1 Conference Co-Chair), University of London, UK