This article explores how organizational cultures shape workplace learning for those learning to be educational leaders. The discussion is illustrated with the data from an ethnographic case study which explored the workplace learning of five school leaders. The findings suggest that workplace boundaries were constructed in response to perceptions of threat from the external environment and perceptions of risk in terms of school performance and that this had a significant impact on both what and how learning was taking place. These findings raise questions about how learners are able to develop creativity and innovation through workplace learning in a restrictive environment and the purpose of workplace learning when it is placed as a central feature of national leadership programmes.

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Purpose -Understanding the relationship between learning and work is a key concern for educational researchers and policy makers at the local, national and international level. The way that learning and the economic environment are framed impacts upon policy and funding decisions and has significant implications for the HE sector. The purpose of this paper is to explore how internships have become a key site in which policy and funding mechanisms seek to address concerns about graduate employability and graduate skills in relation to Scottish national economic plans and perceived business needs. Design/methodology/approach -Drawing from five years data generated from the Third Sector Internships Scotland programme, the authors adopt an approach to the analysis of policy and internship experiences based on a spatial perspective. The authors explore two spatial arenas in play; the conceptual space where discussion and policy making occur and the physical places of education and the workplace where learning takes place. The authors trace shifts in the policy and funding of higher education internship and work placement schemes and consider how these shifts respond to internship experiences of the workplace. Findings -The authors argue that changes within the conceptual and physical spaces intersect and that identifying contrasts and overlaps helps them to focus on particular questions about how internships develop learning for students. Originality/value -Taking the national approach within Scotland as a bounded case offers a unique opportunity to explore the ways in which internships have played an increasingly significant place as a pedagogic device operating at the borderlands between educational organisations and the physical spaces of employment.