ABSTRACT
The need to ‘contextualize’ work-integrated learning (WIL) research should neither be novel nor surprising, as it is difficult to refute that context plays a role in shaping WIL and its outcomes. However, despite the prevalence of the practice of WIL across global contexts, the extant body of WIL research is largely decoupled from the multifaceted ways in which national context could potentially both consciously and unconsciously shape both WIL research and practice. Therefore, this chapter endeavors to put forward a multi-level analytical framework, as a means by which to situate WIL research within a given national context. This framework is required in order to facilitate the initial development of a shared conceptualization of national context within the field of WIL, thus enabling a more context-sensitive approach to the investigation of WIL phenomena across global contexts.
