Dr Dan Bishop

I re-joined the University of Leicester in April 2018 having previously worked at the University between 2007 and 2015. I have also been a lecturer at Bath Spa University, a researcher at Cardiff University and have spent some time as a teacher in further education.

I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Academic Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

My academic interests lie mainly in the area of workplace learning, vocational education and lifelong learning, and I have conducted and published the findings of funded research in these areas.

In particular, I am interested in how the conditions, processes and relationships of working life, shape the ways in which individuals learn (and what they learn) at and through work, and how individuals perceive the learning process. My research to date has focused on these issues primarily – though not exclusively – in relation to small organisations. More broadly, I am interested in the sociology of education, and the occupational development and socialisation of education professionals.

Selected publications

Hordern J, Shalem Y, Esmond B, and Bishop D (2022) 'Editorial for JVET special issue on knowledge and expertise', Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 74(1). pp. 1-11

Bishop D (2020) 'Firm size and workplace learning processes: a study of the restaurant sector.' European Journal of Training and Development 44(2/3). pp. 305-320.

Bishop D (2019) 'Chapter 2: Education and Habitus' in C. Simon and G. Downes (eds.) Sociology for Education Studies pp12-24. Abingdon: Routledge.

Bishop D (2017) 'Affordance agency and apprenticeship learning: a comparative study of small and large engineering firms.' Research in Post-Compulsory Education 22 (1). pp. 68-86.

Bishop D (2017) 'Context agency and professional workplace learning: trainee accountants in large and small practices.' Education + Training 59 (5). pp. 516-533.

Bishop D and Hordern J (2017) Degree apprenticeships: higher technical or technical higher (education)? Gatsby Charitable Foundation.

Bishop D (2015) 'Small firms and the failure of national skills policies: adopting an institutional perspective.' International Journal of Training and Development 19 (1). pp. 69-80.

Bishop D (2012) ‘Firm Size and Skill Formation Processes: an emerging debate’, Journal of Education and Work 25(5). pp. 507-521.

Bishop D (2011) 'The importance of being an insider: How networks influence the small firm's engagement with formal training', Journal of European Industrial Training, 35(4): 326-344.

Bishop D, Felstead A, Fuller A, Jewson N, Kakavelakis K, and Unwin L (2009) ‘Constructing Learning: Adversarial and Collaborative Working in the British Construction Industry’, Journal of Education and Work 22 (4). pp. 243-260.

I have supervised numerous Doctoral candidates to completion and am interested in supervising theses in the following areas:

• Workplace learning and employee development.
• Informal learning at work.
• Workplace learning in small organisations.
• Initial and continuing development in the professions.
• Student experience and transitions in higher education.
• Staff development in schools, colleges and universities.

I am co-director of the MSc HRM and Training (on-campus), and teach on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules, both on-campus and by distance learning: These modules include:

• Workplace Learning and Development (MN2143).
• E-Learning (LM3505).
• Academic Practice (MN7366).
• Employee Development and Workplace Learning (MN7368).
• Knowledge Management and the Learning Organisation (LM8007)

PhD: Small Firms and Universities: the social construction of a training market (Cardiff University 2004). 

PGCE Further Education (Cardiff University 2000).

MA Industrial Relations (Warwick University 1999).

BA (Hons) Social and Political Sciences (University of Cambridge 1997).