Practising what we teach: vocational teachers learn to research through applying action learning techniques

Action learning techniques are well suited to the teaching of organisation behaviour students because of their flexibility, inclusiveness, openness, and respect for individuals. They are no less useful as a tool for change for vocational teachers, learning, of necessity, to become researchers. Whereas traditional universities have always had a research culture, new Australian universities, such as the one under study here, have, until recently, concentrated on consulting to industry, and teaching. Faced with strong competition for government research funds to enable its survival and growth, Swinburne University set in place a number of strategies aimed at changing the old consulting culture into a thriving research culture. One such strategy was to hold a colloquium to promote and support teachers' research efforts. A number of iterations of an action learning process took place over a period of time, with each iteration addressing a different research question. The result of academics' engagement with the process of feedback and reflection has been instructive. Unquestionably, the majority of the academics who initially engaged in the ‘learning by doing’ process were encouraged to actively address the problems that beset them, resulting in significant changes in behaviour and a dramatic increase in research output. However, without a commitment to the process that is ongoing, and critical, further interest in research and development as researchers may come to a standstill, predetermining a level of research output that may yet see the School succumb to the internal and external pressures to which it is subject.