The Relational Skill and the Competence Debate page is for the study of relational perspectives on skill and learning, and the application of such perspectives on the competence debate.
The term relational skill has been adopted to refer to social process perspectives on the nature of skill, competence, capability, learning, performance etc. Whereas dominant orthodoxy on these issues treat them as attributes of entities (particularly individuals but also, by extension, organisations and societies), a relational perspective examines the social processes by and through which these are constructed.
Papers
Beyond Learnerism: Learning, Practices, Emergent Identity
Presented at the Fifth International Conference on HRD Research and Practice
across Europe, University of Limerick, May 2004
The
learning turn in education and training: liberatory paradigm or oppressive ideology?
Paper presented at 'Critique and Inclusivity: Opening the Agenda', 3rd
International Critical Management Studies Conference, Manchester July 2003
Higher Education and
the Learning Agenda: A Degenerative Programme?
paper presented at 'Students and Learning: What is changing?', Annual conference
of the Society for Research into Higher Education, Glasgow, December2002
Can only managers (learn to) manage?: Management, practice
and trajectories of emergent identity
Paper presented to 3rd International Connecting Learning and Critique Conference
Cambridge University, 17th -19th July 2002
Emergent identity, education and distributed
assessment: an ethnomethodological exploration
paper presented at "Ethnomethodology: A Critical Celebration conference",
University of Essex, March 2002
Decontaminating the concepts of 'learning'
and 'competence': education and modalities of emergent identity
Paper presented in Education Stream of Second International Conference on Critical
Management Studies, Manchester, 2001
Is Learning a Contaminated Concept?
Paper prepared for Learning and Practice Conference of the Learning and
Critique Network, Manchester, 8 Nov 2000
Reframing Learning: Performance, Identity and
Practice
Presented at Critical Contributions to Managing and Learning: 2nd Connecting
Learning and Critique Conference, Lancaster University, July 2000
Reframing the skills agenda in higher education:
graduate identity and the double warrant
Presented at conference on The Future Business of Higher Education, Lady
Margaret Hall, Oxford, March 2000
The Making of Black Managers: Unspoken Issues of
Identity Formation.
(with Gilbert Robinson).
Presented at The 1st International Conference on Critical Management Studies,
Manchester School of Management, UMIST, 14th -16th July 1999
Learning as a confidence trick: exorcising the ghost in
the machine
Paper presented to conference on Emergent Themes in Management: Connecting Learning
and Crtique, Lancaster University and Leeds University, held at University of
Leeds, 15-17th July 1998.
The Making of Real Managers: Ideology, Identity and Management Development
Presented at Conference on
"The Strategic Direction of Human Resource Management:
Understanding and Practising Human Resource Management", Nottingham Business School, December 1995
Is competence a 'confidence trick'?
Keynote presentation at 'What is Competence?', the inaugural conference of
The Competence Network, Centre for Labour Market Studies, University of Leicester, 1st December 1994.
The Domestication of Management Knowledge? Recent UK State Intervention in Management Education
Presented at 1993 Colloquium of the European Group for Organisational Studies, on "The Production and Diffusion of Managerial and Organisational Knowledge"
Understanding Professional Competence: Beyond the Limits of Functional Analysis
presented at Course Tutors' Conference, Institute of Personnel Management at UMIST, 6-8 July 1992
Dysfunctional Analysis? A Critical
Analysis Of The 'Standards In Training & Development' (with Sheila Marsh)
Presented at conference 'A Qualified Success? Critical Perspectives on Competence
Based Education and Training', held at Polytechnic of North London, 27 September
1990