The bases of the article are the results of an empirical study about traditional work places in industry. There were made group discussions and special qualitative interviews with workers and employees of a German factory. The article tries to interpret and to integrate these subjective concepts in the actual discussion of theoretical perspectives in sociology, social psychology, and adult education. The theoretical discussion refers to German, Austrian, French, and American social scientists. The result of this discourse is a theoretical construction of a hidden informal lifeworld, which is embedded in the concrete industrial working process. These informal lifeworlds influence the cooperation of the workers and the relationship between work and learning

This paper deals with the professionalization of human service work. It analyses learning processes and identity development in the emerging profession of child care with concrete examples from empirical research, based on a life history approach. It discusses examples of careers mainly based on students’ life experience, pointing out that their immediate success in the workplace may inhibit an even better qualification they had been spurred to critical reflection. It further follows a sample of students through their theoretical education and trainee periods, illuminating their changing identification with and understanding of their future work, and their learning of professional knowledge and competences. The conclusion is that the new 3.5 year education in child care pedagogy clearly improves the professional competences of child care, but it also identifies a set of further specific challenges to be met for the development of real professional competences.

In order to investigate the self identity and vocational identity among community youth in Shanghai and their associated spatial experience, 4 focus groups, made up of 14 individuals were interviewed. We assigned numbers to indicate each interviewee as well as the general theme of each transcription of the interview. Results are as follows: community youth are in a transitional period in their lives, especially in regards to self concept, family, and how they experience their role in society; there is a notable distance between reality and the ideal career goals; the family space and community space have distinct characteristics for community youth, and there are specific interactive patterns that exist between the two types of spaces. Based on these results, we have introduced several insights into career guidance for this population.

The field of workplace learning scholarship in Western countries is reviewed. First, the emergence of workplace learning scholarship is discussed historically for its relation to the emergence and ongoing development of capitalism beginning from early thought on markets and productivity, 20th century scientific management, industrialism and post-industrialism theses, and finally contemporary conceptual and disciplinary expansion and the conditions of globalization under late capitalism. Following this, six thematic clusters of research are discussed in relation to key scholars, their primary contributions and the ways that each can, potentially, inform those working in other areas of workplace learning scholarship. These thematic clusters include the following: i. cognition, expertise, and the individual; ii. micro-interaction, cognition, and communication; iii. mediated practice and participation; iv. meaning, identity, and organization life; v. authority, conflict, and control; and vi. competitiveness and knowledge management. It is concluded that no single thematic cluster has established predominance, and that there is a strong tendency toward isolation or balkanization of research interests (thematically, nationally, linguistically, etc.) despite a variety of parallel and/or mutually informing interests.

Based on a literature review from English language journals related to the field of human resource development (HRD), the conceptual framework for this study was derived from the models developed by American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) for HRD practice. This study compared and analyzed the similarities and differences in HRD roles, key work dimensions, and practitioner competencies through the competitive vision of different countries, including China, US, UK, Germany, Japan, India, Singapore, and Korea. This comparative study not only described the HRD position of Chinese enterprises under the international HRD coordinates but also indicated how these differences inspire HRD in China.

The goal of this paper was to examine promising effects of a bilingual family literacy program: to track the changes of families’ literacy activities through a bilingual family literacy intervention, and to examine the children literacy gains in both Chinese and English across socioeconomic sub-groups. The intervention was an eight-week, two hours per week, literacy program in three Chinese communities in Toronto. Parents, with their children, participated in the program. The extremely high attendance rate provided evidence that families enjoyed the family literacy intervention and felt that the sessions were worthwhile. For their families’ literacy activities, the three sites followed the same trend: reaching the peak of activity at week four, slightly dropping down at weeks five and six, and then increasing to a second peak at week seven or week eight. Results also showed that across the three groups, children of mothers with lower education levels made fewer gains in their English expressive vocabularies and their Chinese expressive vocabularies, than children whose mothers had a higher level of education.

Research on work life and job satisfaction of university professors is becoming an important research issue in the field of higher education. This study used questionnaires administered to 1 770 teachers from different levels, types, and academic fields of Chinese universities to investigate job satisfaction among university professors and the relationship between job satisfaction of university professors and the organizational characteristics of the university. The job satisfaction of Chinese university professors includes six dimensions: career development and school management, teaching and research services, salary, benefits and logistical services, professional reputation, teaching and research facilities, and the work itself. The overall job satisfaction levels are close to average, with salary and benefits receiving the lowest level of satisfaction. The organizational characteristics of universities, such as school type, school level, academic field, organizational climate, evaluation orientation, and school management, all have significant effects on the overall job satisfaction of university professors. The organizational climate and school level affect all six dimensions of job satisfaction among university professors.

The development of private higher education in Macau has experienced rapid growth in the past two decades. The purpose of this paper is to understand this trend by investigating the facts and figures supplied by official sources and to analyze the role between the Government and the private sector. This paper shows that the attitude of the Macau Government is neither authoritative nor laissez-faire toward private higher education. On the one hand, the Government is investing heavily in the public sector. On the other hand, it is assisting the private sector by various means. However, there is a lack of systematic planning in the area of public-private partnership. There are also two issues which may hinder the current development of private higher education. They are an outdated legal framework and a lack of standardized quality assurance measures.