2025/26 Special Issue: Work-Integrated-Learning through Community Engagement

2025-05-15

WIL traditionally refers to a range of placement and non-placement approaches to curriculum design in which students engage in authentic tasks appropriate to their discipline. A more contemporary perspective of WIL involves three key actors – the student, the university and the community – with authentic tasks focused on career aspiration more than discipline specificity (Zegwaard et al., 2020).

WIL, through community engagement, supports both community priorities and student learning.  There is an increasing call for universities to contribute to sustainable development through initiatives that address global challenges, while valuing local knowledge and partnerships(Wright et al., 2022) . Therefore, community engaged WIL is likely to be increasingly adopted. Key to its success is the development of sustainable partnerships with local communities. The literature emphasises the importance of building, maintaining and sustaining relationships for effective outcomes that enhance a student’s career readiness (Peach et al., 2012; Rook & Sloan, 2021).

Part of enhancing career readiness involves ensuring that graduates are digitally literate and adept at solving complex problems. As generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) transforms industries, professions and higher education, there is an increasing recognition of the need for these skills (Long & Magerko, 2020). Tertiary education providers should address these skills through curriculum design and collaboration with key partners, such as employers and communities. In this context, GenAI holds substantial potential to support the development of essential skills, offering new possibilities for shaping future models of WIL.

To this end this special issue invites papers related to:

  1. Curriculum and assessment design for community engaged WIL programs.
  2. Exploring employment outcomes in community engaged WIL contexts.
  3. The views of community in WIL experiences: insights from local businesses and not-for-profits.
  4. Establishing and managing effective community engaged WIL partnerships.
  5. Strategies to address the risks and challenges of community engaged WIL.
  6. How community engaged WIL programs contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals through intentional curriculum design.
  7. How teaching and learning outcomes through community engaged WIL can be supported or enhanced through the use of GenAI.

Potential contributors may contact the editors regarding other possible areas of investigation. Manuscripts will be judged based on their scholarly merit and ability to advance scholarship of WIL.  

The editors for this special are:

 

We invite submissions in the following forms:

Scholarly papers (up to 8,000 words), which may include:

  • Research-based evaluations of innovations, practices and programs
  • Investigations of the literature in the field, including reviews, and conceptual or theoretical approaches
  • Case studies of innovation or practice

Practitioner reflections (up to 2,000 words), which may include:

  • Engagement with the ideas, practice and concerns of practitioners
  • Creative responses including visual artefacts
  • Constructive criticism of conceptual, philosophical, theoretical or professional issues

Provocations (up to 1,000 words), which may include:

  • Commentary that provokes new thinking
  • Ideas for new ways to engage with the issue
  • Fresh perspectives from students and industry

All submissions should align with JTLGE guidelines and evaluation criteria. Please refer to https://ojs.deakin.edu.au/index.php/jtlge/about/submissions   

If you would like to receive feedback on a proposal, please submit a 500-word (max) abstract by Friday, 5 September 2025, 5pm AEDT, to mercedez@uow.edu.au

Important dates

  • Abstracts (optional): 5 September 2025
  • Feedback on abstract: mid-October 2025
  • Full manuscript submission: 19 January 2026. Please email full manuscript submissions to Dr Mercedez Hinchcliff mercedez@uow.edu.au
  • Notification of outcome: 31 March 2026
  • Publication date: July 2026

 

References:

Long, D., & Magerko, B. (2020). What is AI literacy? Competencies and design considerations Proceedings of the 2020 CHI conference on human factors in computing systems.,  https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376727

Peach, D., Larkin, I., & Ruinard, E. (2012). High-risk, high-stake relationships: building effective industry-university partnerships for Work Integrated Learning (WIL) 2012 Australian Collaborative Education Network National Conference, Victoria. https://acen.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ACEN-2012-National-Conference-Proceedings.pdf?x91341#page=230

Rook, L., & Sloan, T. (2021). Competing Stakeholder Understandings of Graduate Attributes and Employability in Work-Integrated Learning. International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, 22(1), 41-56. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1286230

Wright, C., Ritter, L. J., & Wisse Gonzales, C. (2022). Cultivating a collaborative culture for ensuring sustainable development goals in higher education: An integrative case study. Sustainability, 14(3), 1273. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031273

Zegwaard, K. E., Pretti, T. J., & Rowe, A. D. (2020). Responding to an international crisis: The adaptability of the practice of work-integrated learning. International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning, Special Issue, 21(4), 317-330. https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstream/10289/13876/2/2020%20zegwaard%20pretti%20rowe