The South African Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF, 2014: §34, p. 17) states that some qualifications incorporate work-integrated learning (WIL) into the curriculum, and that “WIL may take various forms including simulated learning, work-directed theoretical learning, problem-based learning, project-based learning and workplace-based learning”. Similarly, the Council on Higher Education (CHE, 2014: 34) reference regarding curriculum design, development and delivery for distance education in a digital era CHE (2011: 16-21) specify different curricular modalities namely:
- Work-directed theoretical learning.
- Problem-based learning.
- Project-based learning.
- Workplace learning.
Other CHE (2004) publications, such as the ‘Criteria for Institutional Audits’ and the ‘Criteria for Programme Accreditation’ respectively, specified work-based learning; and indicate that ‘experiential learning’ is a term that has historically been used within the former technikon sector for work-based learning.
Gerhardt and Annon (2023: 225) define the meanings of their use of the terms work-based learning (WBL) and work-integrated learning (WIL) as follow:
- Work-Based Learning (WBL): A distinctive pedagogical practice due to the negotiation of learning which follows the needs of the workplace rather than a professional body or subject discipline with learning occurring principally in the workplace and is concerned with the practice of work (Talbot & Lilley, 2014).
- Work-Integrated Learning (WIL): The intersection and engagement of theoretical and practice learning (Cooper et al., 2010, p. xiii), an umbrella term for a model and process of curricular experiential education that formally and intentionally integrates a student’s academic studies within a workplace or practice setting (CEWIL Canada, 2021).
The Canadian body ‘Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada’ (CEWIL Canada) illustrates WIL as follow — take note of the 2nd (**) side note:
The proponents of experiential learning failed to date to make a convincing academic case for work-based learning, say Gerhardt and Annon (2023: 211), and indicate that UNESCO (2014) considers work-based learning as a subset of experience-based learning. The notion of “learning that occurs through undertaking real work, through the production of real goods and services, whether this work is paid or unpaid” is stated, as well as that work-based learning entails “a partnership between universities and employers, delivering learning that meets the needs of the learners and employers, resulting in an accredited qualification”.
Gerhardt and Annon (2023: 220) concludes “that rather than WIL and WBL being incompatible, that WBL, as a different form of WIL, inhabit the space, the tension across disciplines, and in that space, as experts, produce practical knowledge”. They state “that WBL as a different form of WIL, finds meaning and creates meaning in the liminal zones across disciplines” and that one of WBL’s important outcomes is to “produce work-ready professional citizens, through experiential-transformative-experience-based learning (andragogy - person and personnel)”. WBL is a unique pedagogical field, and this uniqueness creates boundaries.
Gerhardt and Annon (2023: 209) raise the question: “Do different pedagogical approaches (modes) justify the conceptual differences?” They comment that “distinction raises questions about power discourses, ‘boundary’ assumptions, and thus impacting professional identity/status”. They (p. 210) indicate that those responsible for work-integrated learning acquire a dual identity, being both an academic and being practical, a pracademic, an insider/outsider having diverse backgrounds and experience, which results in a bricoleur (a French word describing a handyperson who makes use of available tools to complete a task). They elaborate that bricoleur practitioners have a broadened repertoire and a heterogeneous approach, enabling the understand that “the frontier of knowledge work rests in the liminal zones where disciplines collide” (citing Kincheloe & Berry, 2004, p. 80) and the implosion of disciplinarity, or thinking associated with disciplinarity. Those that inhabit the zones of WIL/WBL practitioners “become experts in mastering this space, sharing similar pedagogical approaches, and avoiding the creation of boundaries” (p. 210).
Co-operative Education and Work-Integrated Learning Canada (CEWIL Canada). What is work-integrated learning (WIL)? https://cewilcanada.ca/CEWIL/CEWIL/About-Us/Work-Integrated-Learning.aspx?hkey=ed772be2-00d0-46cd-a5b8-873000a18b41
Council on Higher Education (2014). Distance Higher Education Programmes in a Digital Era: Good Practice Guide. https://www.saide.org.za/documents/CHE_-_Distance_Higher_Education.pdf
Council on Higher Education (2011). Work-Integrated Learning: Good Practice Guide. HE Monitor No. 12, August 2011. Pretoria: IeCommunications. Electronically accessible from https://www.che.ac.za/sites/default/files/publications/Higher_Education_Monitor_12.pdf
Council on Higher Education (2004). Criteria for Institutional Audits. https://www.che.ac.za/publications/criteria/criteria-institutional-audits
Gerhardt, T, & Annon, P. (2023). Towards conceptual clarity: Pedagogical liminality. International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, 24(2), 209-225. https://www.ijwil.org/files/IJWIL_24_2_209_225.pdf
South African Government (2014), Department of Higher Education and Training, Government Notice No 819. Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework. Government Gazette No. 38116, 17 October 2014. https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201410/38116gon819.pdf