The current reform of the public services along ‘joined-up’ lines has been ahead of an evidence-base which would support it. The University of Birmingham’s Centre for Socio-Cultural and Activity Theory (CSAT) was concerned, among other things, with exploring a theory which would inform the implementation of multi-agency working. CSAT was born out of a strong interest shared by a small group of staff in Vygotskian ideas and in contemporary activity theory. As the Centre developed, other perspectives came into view and offered complementary and sometimes quite other ways of seeing things within the field of educational practice. It became clear that the socio-cultural dimension within what had become broadly known as Vygotskian activity theory could be approached from a range of perspectives that would expand its central modes of understanding.

CROP is the new centre that has emerged from this re-conceptualisation and expansion. We take the view that we are at an important historical juncture: that is to say, there is now an emerging new configuration of modes of governance - hierarchy, market and network - all of which impinge upon both educational and commercial organisations. The public-private nexus is being tightened.

Pedagogy is not a synonym for teaching or for learning styles. Teaching and learning styles should be seen in relation to social structure, to culture, to intellectual conditions, to the polity and to the economy. Pedagogy studies the connections among them. The study of pedagogy is not simply for teaching; it is also about teaching and the contexts in which it is embedded. Nor does pedagogy apply only to schools and to other formal educational organisations.

For most of the modern period, the prevailing ‘code’ of organisations has been bureaucratic. There have been attempts to ‘loosen’ this code (as in human relations management), but it has been very resilient to change. This is also true of schools: the organisational, spatial and temporal ‘grammar’ of schooling has anticipated that to be found in the workplace. Again, there have been attempts to alter this pedagogical code (as in the progressive education movement), but to little effect, apart from an agreement at the rhetorical level.

Contemporary society is said to be increasingly a ‘knowledge society’ marked by ‘lifelong learning’. New organisational forms are emerging so as to maximise both the tacit and explicit knowledge which organisations hold. But this 'learning' is not confined to formal organisations. One theorist has referred to a ‘totally pedagogized society’ wherein it is our responsibility to be always ready for ‘learning’, no matter what the institutional context might be. Similarly, the economy is said to be moving towards that of a ‘knowledge economy’. There are two dimensions to this. First, insofar as economic production is concerned, intellectual labour and emotional labour now prevail over manual labour. Networks of affiliation link organisations. Looser organisational structures allow for permeability both within and among organisations. Corporations are adopting organisational learning strategies as a way of maximising productivity. Patterns of leadership are becoming more ‘distributed’. Secondly, consumption patterns are no longer based on mass consumption, but more on niche - even personalised - forms of marketing. These economic shifts in both production and consumption are occurring not just within the corporate sector: the public services themselves are – at the policy level – beginning to adopt ‘joined-up’ policies (especially within ‘children’s services’) for ‘delivering’ ‘personalised’ services to ‘consumers’. This process of apparent reform calls for services to adjust and refine their pedagogic mission.

Proposed activities

• To undertake research and scholarship in the following:
  • Historical analyses of pedagogy and management in both formal educational organisations and   work-settings;

  • Inter-agency working and professional identities;

  • Theories of organisational learning;
  • Change management within organisations: activity theory and the learning organisation;
  • Pedagogy within new organisational forms in public- and private-sector agencies;
  • Pedagogy, architecture and organisations;
  • Distributed leadership as pedagogy
• To develop links within the University among academics of like-minded interests;
• To inform the Research Strategy of the School of Education;
• To seek external funds for:
  • Research seminars;
  • Empirical studies within the substantive area of the Centre.
• To invite self-funding external academic visitors (post-doctoral fellows; visiting scholars), and to otherwise seek external and internal funding to support them, where appropriate.