Alison Fuller

Before joining University College London, Alison Fuller served as Director of Research and Head of the Lifelong Work-Related Learning Research Centre at the Southampton Education School of the University of Southampton. She then joined the Institute of Education of the University College London in 2013.{{Cite web |url=https://www.policyconnect.org.uk/sc/people/prof-alison-fuller |title=Profile of Alison Fuller on PolicyConnect. Retrieved January 19th, 2019. |access-date=2019-01-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190119121112/https://www.policyconnect.org.uk/sc/people/prof-alison-fuller |archive-date=2019-01-19 |url-status=dead }}

Alison Fuller's research focuses on work transitions, apprenticeships, vocational education and training, and workplace learning. A frequent academic collaborator of hers is Lorna Unwin (University College London). Already in the 1990s, Fuller and Unwin argued in favour of a reconceptualization of apprenticeships based on a reconciliation of learner-centred and transmission approaches to pedagogy, challenging the perceived superiority of a formal education taking place only in educational institutions.{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13636829800200043 | doi=10.1080/13636829800200043 | title=Reconceptualising apprenticeship: Exploring the relationship between work and learning | date=1998 | last1=Fuller | first1=Alison | last2=Unwin | first2=Lorna | journal=Journal of Vocational Education & Training | volume=50 | issue=2 | pages=153–173 }} Face to wide variation in UK apprentices' experiences with seemingly similar programmes, Fuller and Unwin co-operated with a range of enterprises to perform case study research on their apprenticeships. As a result, they developed the concept of expansive-restrictive continuum to characterize the differences in apprenticeship and highlight how apprenticeships' quality is mediated through participation, personal development and institutional arrangements, with important lessons for the UK's Modern Apprenticeship programme and the integration of organizational and personal development.{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1363908032000093012 | doi=10.1080/1363908032000093012 | title=Learning as Apprentices in the Contemporary UK Workplace: Creating and managing expansive and restrictive participation | date=2003 | last1=Fuller | first1=Alison | last2=Unwin | first2=Lorna | journal=Journal of Education and Work | volume=16 | issue=4 | pages=407–426 }}{{Cite book |last1=Fuller |first1=Alison |url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781134374120 |title=Workplace Learning in Context |last2=Unwin |first2=Lorna |date=2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9780203571644 |editor-last=Fuller |editor-first=Alison |location=London |pages=142–160 |chapter=Expansive learning environments: Integrating organizational and personal development |doi=10.4324/9780203571644-14 |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |editor-last2=Munro |editor-first2=Anne |editor-last3=Rainbird |editor-first3=Helen |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203571644-14/expansive-learning-environments-alison-fuller-lorna-unwin}} Arguing that the Modern Apprenticeship programme was being undermined by a lack of employer demand and commitment and resulted in poor outcomes, Fuller and Unwin have moreover been critical of public plans to expand the programme as a means of social inclusion.{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1363908022000032867 | doi=10.1080/1363908022000032867 | title=Creating a 'Modern Apprenticeship': A critique of the UK's multi-sector, social inclusion approach | date=2003 | last1=Fuller | first1=Alison | last2=Unwin | first2=Lorna | journal=Journal of Education and Work | volume=16 | pages=5–25 }}

In research with Unwin, Phil and Heather Hodkinson, Karen Evans, Natansha Kersh and Peter Senker, Fuller highlights the significance of workers' biographies for workplace learning, arguing that the latter is framed by (i) workers' prior knowledge and skills, (ii) workers' habitus, (iii) workers' individual dispositions, and (iv) the existence of a workplace community as a locus of identity.{{cite journal | url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02660830.2004.11661484 | doi=10.1080/02660830.2004.11661484 | title=The significance of individual biography in workplace learning | date=2004 | last1=Hodkinson | first1=Phil | last2=Hodkinson | first2=Heather | last3=Evans | first3=Karen | last4=Kersh | first4=Natasha | last5=Fuller | first5=Alison | last6=Unwin | first6=Lorna | last7=Senker | first7=Peter | journal=Studies in the Education of Adults | volume=36 | pages=6–24 }} By contrast, the concept of legitimate peripheral participation,Lave, J., Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press. as developed by Lave and Wenger, is inadequate to conceptualize workplace learning in modern workplaces due to its outdated portrayal of workplaces in advanced industrial societies and of the institutional environments in which people work, which strongly influence the opportunities and barriers employees encounter with regard to workplace learning.{{cite journal | url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0141192052000310029 | doi=10.1080/0141192052000310029 | title=Learning as peripheral participation in communities of practice: A reassessment of key concepts in workplace learning | date=2005 | last1=Fuller | first1=Alison | last2=Hodkinson | first2=Heather | last3=Hodkinson | first3=Phil | last4=Unwin | first4=Lorna | journal=British Educational Research Journal | volume=31 | pages=49–68 }} Together with Unwin, Alan Felstead, David Ashton, Peter Butler and Tracey Lee, Fuller makes the case for a conceptualization of learning as a form of participation, wherein individual performance at work can be substantially enhanced by social relationships and mutual support, a perspective ignored by the prevailing metaphor of "learning as acquisition".{{Cite journal |last1=Felstead |first1=Alan |last2=Fuller |first2=Alison |last3=Unwin |first3=Lorna |last4=Ashton |first4=David |last5=Butler |first5=Peter |last6=Lee |first6=Tracey |date=2005 |title=Surveying the scene: learning metaphors, survey design and the workplace context |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13639080500327857 |journal=Journal of Education and Work |language=en |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=359–383 |doi=10.1080/13639080500327857 |issn=1363-9080}} Finally, Fuller and Unwin have challenged the picture of a linear trajectory for apprenticeships wherein older employees mould novices into experts, where expertise is equated with experience.

{{Cite journal |last1=Fuller |first1=Alison |last2=Unwin |first2=Lorna |date=2004 |title=Young people as teachers and learners in the workplace: challenging the novice–expert dichotomy |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-3736.2004.00194.x |journal=International Journal of Training and Development |language=en |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=32–42 |doi=10.1111/j.1360-3736.2004.00194.x |issn=1360-3736}}

• [https://www.routledge.com/Contemporary-Apprenticeship-International-Perspectives-on-an-Evolving/Fuller-Unwin/p/book/9780415640268 Fuller, A., Unwin, L. (2012, eds.). Contemporary Apprenticeship: International Perspectives on an Evolving Model of Learning. London: Routledge.]
• Rainbird, H., Fuller, A., Munro, A. (2004). Workplace Learning in Context. London: Psychology Press.
• Fuller, A., Felstead, A., Unwin, L., Jewson, N. (2009, eds.). Improving Working as Learning. London: Routledge.

{{Reflist}}

• [https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=AFULL30 Alison Fuller's profile in UCL's Institutional Research Information Service]
• [https://scholar.google.com.eg/citations?user=PUA4B6EAAAAJ&hl=en Alison Fuller's profile on Google Scholar]

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Category:Educational researchers

Category:Living people

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Category:Academics of the University of Southampton

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Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire