Identifying Factors Facilitating Effective Implementation of the Workplace Curriculum: A Qualitative Research Synthesis

The workplace curriculum has been developed as one of the subfields of education in the workplace education and for benefitting from the findings of the curriculum field of study. Lack of attention to such an important notion, insufficient theoretical works related to the workplace curriculum, multiple failurs in different workplaces and the growing significance of workplace education in the social, economic and global contexts require an in-depth investigation of the workplace curriculum. Thus, the main objective of this study was to identify factors that facilitate the effective implementation of the workplace curriculum. In line with this objective, a qualitative approach to research and a cumulative synthesis method were used for conducting this study. The materials used in this study consisted of 45 scientific documents (33 articles, 9 textbooks, and 3 dissertations). Document analysis was done based on the six stages of synthesis research. In the first stage, determining the inclusion criteria, the characteristics of the required documents were specified. In the second step, Persian keywords were searched in the SID, Civilica, Irandoc, noormags data bases and scientific works which were published over the years 2011-2020 and were related to either the workplace curriculum, workplace learning, workplace curriculum facilitator or helper, curriculum facilitator, or facilitator or helper of learning environment were included. In addition, English keywords such as the workplace curriculum, workplace learning, workplace curriculum facilitator /coordinator/organizer/promoter/helper, curriculum facilitator, factors facilitating effective implementation of the workplace curriculum, and workplace learning facilitator/coordinator/organizer/promoter/helper were searched in the Taylor and Francis, Springer, Science Direct, Wiley, PubMed, ProQuest, Eric, Emerald Insight, Google and Google Scholar databases and the relavant scientific works which were published over the years 2000-2020 were identified. At this stage, 6166 documents were identified. In the third stage, i.e. screening, the pre-determined criteria and the study research questions were considered and a number of previously identified documents were deleted. The remaining reports were also reviewed and the invalid documents were excluded. Finally, 45 studies remained. In the fourth step, coding, the data were split and conceptualized. Subsequently, they were synthesized through the use of new methods and data analysis was carried out using content analysis. In the fifth stage, evaluation, the quality of the collected data was evaluated. Finally, in the sixth stage, synthesis, the documents that could answer this study's research questions were selected and summarized and, finally, homogeneous studies were merged. To ensure data validity, it was tried to select appropriate and comprehensive samples, exercise care in selection of various articles, exclude irrelevant articles in the screening stage, look critically at the collected data, modify the data when necessary, and exercise caution in the process of combining data and valid search channels. To ensure reliability, data were selected and combined through consulting curriculum analysts and the coding process was conducted with great care. Bsed on the findings, organizational factors were of three types: occupational factors with the themes of proper management of workplace education, development of new products or services, organizational support, financial support and supporting educational programs and teams, delegation in the implementation of the workplace curriculum, job-organizational culture, feedback, and alignment of employees' and workplace interest. It is worth mentioning here that the reason for selecting the job theme was the existence of all factors presented in the workplace and concerned with the duties of the work environment towards employees, staff training and organizational support. Structural factors consisted of the themes of facilities and equipment, appropriate time for training, place of training, accountability, teacher-learner interaction, continuous training, guidance of experienced colleagues, understanding of the workplace community and learners' relationship with the researchers. And, finally, organizational status of workplace education included the themes of planners’ alignment with the constraints in the workplace, appropriate perception and positive attitudes towards the curriculum planners, personality and behavioral characteristics of the planners, attention to the training needs of new and experienced staff, having system thinking, familiarity with important elements of the curriculum, use of up-to-date methods of curriculum planning and research thinking in relation to the curriculum, entrepreneurial perspective in curriculum development, making teachers and learners involved in curriculum development and development of accuraterealistic-practical-transparent and structured curriculums. Extra-organizational factors had two national components with the themes of "the relationship between university and workplace teachings, the interaction between the workplace and the society, consideration of economic and social issues in curriculum development, consultation with subject matter specialists in curriculum development, and consideration of scientific rationality formed in the workplace, and the international component with the themes of rapid technological advancement, keeping pace with global change, and consideration of political and regional issues in curriculum development This study's findings can be of significance for planners and managers of human resources and those involved in education as this study can help them pay special attention to the facilitating role ofnational factors in the effective implementation of workplace curriculum. The findings of this study can further make it clear that the interactions between the workplace, society and the university and also the economic and social conditions of the individuals need to be taken into account when developing an effective workplace curriculum. Finally, with regard to the facilitating role of international factors in the effective implementation of the workplace curriculum, curriculum experts are recommended to use technology and pay enough attention to the regional and political factors in developing curriculums.