Objective This research explores Nurse Managers' (NMs') influence on workplace learning. The facilitation of staff learning has implications for the role of NMs, who are responsible for the quality and safety of patient care. However, this aspect of their work is implicit and there is limited research in the area. Methods This paper discusses the findings from one hospital as part of a broader philosophical hermeneutic study conducted in two public hospitals over a 20-month timeframe. NMs participated in interviews, a period of observation, follow-up interviews and a focus group. Transcribed data was thematically analysed. Eraut's 'Two triangle theory of workplace learning' was used to interpret participants' accounts of how they facilitated workplace learning. Findings The analysis found that NMs worked to positively influence staff performance through learning in three domains: orientating new staff, assessing staff performance and managing underperformance. Conclusions This study purports that NMs influence workplace learning in ways that are seldom recognised. A more conscious understanding of the impact of their role can enable NMs to more purposefully influence workplace learning. Such understanding also has implications for the professional preparation of NMs for their role in the context of workplace learning, facilitating learning for change and enabling the advancement of quality and safety in healthcare. What is known about the topic? Studies exploring the influence of Nurse Managers in workplace learning have been limited to their role in the facilitation of formal learning. There is a paucity of research that examines their role in influencing informal learning. What does this paper add? The findings of this study draw on Eraut's 'Two triangle theory of workplace learning' to further define the interdependent relationship between management and educational practices. What are the implications for practitioners? NMs' awareness and deliberate use of their management role to enhance workplace learning will not only strengthen their role, but will also foster good learning environments and quality nursing services.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue for the articulation of the affordances of two qualitative methodologies when used within one study to address the multi-dimensional nature of the research phenomena. Design/methodology/approach This paper considers one example of combining narrative inquiry and phenomenological inquiry to construct new understandings of teacher learning from an Australian study. Findings The author draws on the individual meaning-making and shared social phenomena of professional learning explored for five secondary school teachers. Findings are accessed in two ways: narrative inquiry enables the construction of unique professional learning narratives and phenomenological inquiry proposes commonalities in the teachers’ experiences. Research limitations/implications Selected examples from the study are used to explore what may be learnt from combining two interpretative methodologies within one study with limited references to the overall research findings. Practical implications These qualitative methodological designs and their implementation within one study have positive influences on the multifaceted nature of the construction of meaning-making in teacher professional learning. Furthermore, using two qualitative methodologies together provide insights on the study phenomena, in this instance, highlighting the personal aspect of expert teachers’ professional learning needs and the disruptive dissonance of ongoing problematics as central for the teachers throughout their professional learning. Originality/value This study offers one possibility for combining methodologies to access the meaning-making in teacher learning and one avenue for creating hermeneutic understanding in using the methods within this approach.

Explicating interview approaches is significant for education research in understanding how the nuances of meaning from personal narratives uncover challenges and opportunities for investigating the lived experience across contexts. This paper considers interview approaches that focus on the reflexivity and meaning-making possible over a longitudinal timeframe for researcher and interviewee. Two methodological frameworks enabled a narrative oral history interview and a phenomenological lifeworld interview to establish variation in individual meaning-making, whilst eliciting understandings of shared social phenomena. We elucidate examples shared from the experience of teachers deemed as expert and interrogate the deliberations taken throughout a three-interview process. Reflexivity and the researcher's attendance to language, timing and open-ended prompting are some techniques considered for clarifying meaning in a small-scale Australian study. We argue that interrogating interview approaches for accessing deeper meaning-making of teacher professional learning further develops our understanding of interviewer-interviewee dynamics and the application of analytical frames.

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