Dr Kerry Harman

Senior Research Fellow

Department: Institute for Work Based Learning

Contact

Qualifications

BA, Grad. Dip. (Org Psych), MCom (hons), PhD

Research Interests

My research interest is examining the ways workers learn in and through workplace practices. This is connected with my interest in making visible the everyday learning that takes place at work. This strand of research has implications in terms of how learning in workplaces might be understood, recognised and assessed. I am also interested in the contemporary intersections between workplaces and higher education institutions, and knowledge hierarchies. I am interested in questions such as ‘what counts as learning, and for whom’? This question links with a broader interest in the politics of work based learning and an exploration of power relations in the production, distribution and consumption of practice-based knowledges.

Teaching Interests

Research methods for work-based enquiry and Organisation studies.

Kerry is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Work Based Learning at Middlesex University. She has extensive experience in conducting organisational research with a focus on the exploration of power relations in workplaces. She has worked on a number of multidisciplinary and cross-institutional projects, both in the UK and in Australia. Kerry is currently evaluating the Middlesex Organisational Development Network (MODNet) project, part of the HEFCE funded Workforce Development Programme in the UK.

Biography

Kerry has over twenty years combined practice-based, research and HE teaching experience in the overlapping fields of Workplace Learning, Organisation Studies and Adult Education including:

  • Researcher on the Uncovering Learning in the Workplace project, a 3 year Australian Research Council funded project examining the significance of everyday learning at work. This was a collaborative industry-university project where academics worked closely with a group of professional developers in a large public sector organisation in Australia to explore everyday learning in 4 different workgroups in this workplace.
  • Researcher at the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) at Northumbria University, UK. Kerry led the Assessment Cultures project which explored the interrelationships between language, disciplinary cultures, academic identities and assessment practices in a post-1992 HE institution. She also coordinated a module on the MA Design programme at Northumbria University on Intercultural Communication.
  • Teaching Organisational Behaviour and HRM modules in HE for a number of years in Australia.
  • Working in the community sector for over 10 years co-ordinating the provision of government funded vocational skills training programmes to job seekers. Later performed a senior level management role as a voluntary member of the Board of Directors of Eastlake Skills Centre Ltd.
  • Currently on the Editorial Board of Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning and the WBL e-journal. Also a member of the UALL WBL Steering group.

Selected Publications:

  • Reimann, N., Harman, K., Wilson, A., & McDowell, L. (2012, under review). Learning to assess in higher education: a collaborative exploration of the interplay of ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ learning in the academic workplace. Studies in Higher Education.
  • Harman, K. (2011, in press). Everyday learning in a public sector workplace: the embodiment and activation of managerial discourses. Management Learning.
  • Harman, K., & McDowell, L. (2011). Assessment talk in Design: the multiple purposes of assessment in HE. Teaching in Higher Education, 16(1), 41-52.
  • Harman, K. (2010, 13-14 July). Examining the politics of WBL: opening up critical spaces in work-based learning research. Paper presented at the Work Based Learning Network of the Universities Association for Lifelong Learning Teesside University.
  • Bohemia, E., Harman, K., & McDowell, L. (2009). Intersections: The utility of an 'Assessment for Learning' discourse for design educators. Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, 8(2), 123-134.
  • Harman, K. (2009, 28 June-1 July). The contribution of a Foucauldian approach to theorising everyday learning at work. Paper presented at the 6th International Conference on Researching Work and Learning, Roskilde University, Denmark.
  • Bohemia, E., Harman, K., & Lauche, K. (2009). The Global Studio: Linking Research, Teaching and Learning. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: IOS Press.
  • Harman, K. (2008). Constructing ‘the workplace learner’ subject. In T. Keenoy & C. Oswick & I. Sabelis & S. Ybema (Eds.), 8th International Conference on Organizational Discourse: Translations, Transformations and Transgressions. London: KMCP.
  • Harman, K., & Bohemia, E. (2007). Structure and play: rethinking regulation in the higher education sector. Industry and Higher Education, 21(5), 367-374.
  • Bohemia, E., & Harman, K. (2006). Boundary Crossing: Negotiating Learning Outcomes in Industry Based Student Projects. In W. Aung & C. Crosthwaite & R. V. Espinosa & J. Moscinski & S. Ou & L. M. S. Ruiz (Eds.), Innovations 2006: World Innovations in Engineering Education and Research (pp. 179-192). Arlington, VA: Begell House Publishing.
  • Harman, K., Boud, D., Rooney, D., Solomon, N., & Leontios, M. (2003, 16-18 July). Co-producing knowledge: negotiating the political. Paper presented at the Journal of Vocational Education and Training Fifth Annual Conference, University of Greenwich, London.

 

Professional Membership:

SRHE, BERA.

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