IRL was a nonprofit research organization that looked at learning in schools, workplaces, and informal settings, using collaborative, multidisciplinary teams.
Research questions were based in real-world problems and settings defined in partnership with people in schools and workplaces who championed these activities.
The institute had a significant impact on education and knowledge management (among many other fields) not only in the US but globally through the development of the concept of a community of practice.
Its innovative view of learning, the use of qualitative methods and the coupling of research with design were path breaking in its time, inspired an enthusiastic following and have enriched organizational and educational discourses to this day.
Of particular note, James G. Greeno, a senior educational psychologist, worked to define themes and guide research projects throughout IRL's history.
The analogous research on the industry side consisted in ethnographic projects in organizations to uncover social forms of learning inside the workplace and to enhance what benefits they could bring to the corporation.
What all had in common was the theoretical position of the institute – to treat a corporation as a social entity composed of individuals and communities formed around key practices or competencies.
Furthermore, as venue for broad dissemination, in 1989, John Seely Brown and Roy Pea co-founded The Cambridge University Press book series Learning in Doing: Social, Cognitive, and Computational Perspectives - in over 30 years, close to 50 book titles were published to illuminate and contribute to research scholarship pursuant to the core themes and advances wrought by IRL and its knowledge networks.
It hired researchers, developed a network of affiliates and corporate sponsors, conducted industry retreats, delivered reports and presentations, and contributed to journals and conferences.