RIPPLE - Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education
About Us
RIPPLE is a multi-disciplinary research centre that conducts high-quality applied research and consultation in the field of professional practice. Within this broad rubric, central concerns are issues of epistemology, quality, responsibility and the development of intra and inter disciplinary communities of practice.
RIPPLE comprises one foundational theme with three interconnected themes.
Research into professional practice: Theories and methodologies for enquiry into practice
Enquiry as a practice is foregrounded in this theme. Due to the complexity of practice as identified in the themes below, specific foci in this theme include: interpretive enquiry; critical and post-structural methods of enquiry; researcher reflexivity; and multi-method enquiry.
Initial and continuing professional education
Within this theme, programs of enquiry focus on the conceptual, theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of professional education as well as the critical issue of how professional knowledge and skills are renewed and maintained over time.
Professional cultures, identities and roles
Modes and tacit norms of practice are understood as being shaped by specific traditions over time. Foci of this theme include: the responsibilities of, and meanings associated with, being a professional in contemporary society; post-modern constructions/ reconstructions of professional identity; the particular challenges of the emerging professions; and professionals as leaders in civil society.
Practice in context
Professional practice is a complex, interactive phenomenon that must be understood within the context in which it occurs. Foci within this theme include: programs of enquiry in the geographic context of practice, eg, rurality, as well as the organisational, historical, political and sociocultural contexts in which practice occurs.