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Learning in and Through Work: Positioning the Individual
Abstract
Understanding the purposes, processes and outcomes of learning in and through work – workplace learning – necessitates positioning individuals centrally in those deliberations. The purposes of engaging in learning in, through and for work are central to individuals developing the capacity to participate in adult and working life, to form a specific occupational identity, to have bases to realise and maintain economic independence through ongoing employment and to sustain that ability across working life. This includes advancements within an occupation field and as a means to transfer to other occupations as interests and economic circumstances change. The process of that learning is shaped by experiences afforded by social settings such as workplaces and educational institutions, but ultimately mediated by individuals. It is the construction of personal domains of occupational knowledge, including understanding variations in requirements and capacities to adapt what individuals know, can do and value that is central to occupational performance. These domains of knowledge are not some version of a textbook or uniformly constructed. Instead, they are developed in personally-specific ways that arise from the particular sets of experiences which individuals are afforded and how they construe, construct and reconcile those experiences based on the previous experiences and development. Hence, beyond what is afforded by social institutions (e.g. workplaces), ultimately, it is individuals that generate the purposes, enact the processes and realise the outcomes of learning in through and for work (i.e. workplace learning). In advancing a case for individuals as meaning makers, knowledge producers and innovators is not to position these purposes, processes and outcomes as being abstracted from the social and cultural world. On the contrary, the purposes are embedded in the social world, processes are inherently interdependent with what is experience socially and culturally, and the outcomes represent a version of what is suggested, required and enacted in the social world. It is these concepts that are advanced in this chapter to elaborate the role of the individual in what is referred to as workplace learning.
... The latter is seen as a specific form of work where remuneration plays a crucial role in maintaining internal social relations between employees and employers (Karlsson, 2004). In reference to this type of work, learning is viewed as an almost concurrent process to working (Eraut, 2004), and highly integrated into daily work activities (Cross, 2007;Billett, 2022), which makes them difficult to separate (Jeong et al., 2018). Subsequently, intrapreneurial learning should also be viewed as part of the work or workrelated activities of employees. ...
... Most of the activities in which the entrepreneurial behaviour of employees is manifested (e.g., experimenting, generating, and implementing ideas which are supposed to result in organizational changes) are significantly underpinned by learning through work experiences (Colombo & Grilli, 2005;Grilli, 2022;Lackeús et al., 2020). These experiences are shaped by individual employees' epistemologies, encompassing their prior conceptual knowledge, procedural capacities to achieve goals as well as values, covering dispositions, intentions, and interests (Billett, 2022). To learn to be intrapreneurial, employees should be exposed to learning opportunities ( Figure 2.1), the pursuit of which would assist them in the recognition/creation and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities for their employing organizations. ...
... Indeed, different occupational roles and the work tasks associated with them provide employees with different opportunities for problem-solving, experimenting, observing others, interacting with others, searching for feedback, reflecting on their own experiences, and thereby learning (Billett, 2001;Hager, 2013). Employees involved in work tasks with rich affordances are likely to be exposed to more learning opportunities, which they may react to and act upon (Billett, 2004(Billett, , 2022. ...
The present chapter attempts to expand the conceptual frontiers of intrapreneurial learning by integrating previous theoretical and empirical work on entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, entrepreneurial learning, and workplace learning. The process of intrapreneurial learning is modelled as an integral part of performing work tasks by employees in existing organizations. The model identifies and links the core elements of intrapreneurial learning by employees and specifies the enabling role of work tasks and their characteristics in this process. Based on the discussion of the model components, opportunities for further scholarly inquiry as well as managerial implications are outlined.
Keywords: Intrapreneurial learning; Entrepreneurial learning of employees; Intrapreneurship; Entrepreneurial employees; Work tasks; Affordances
... Regarding hierarchy, barriers can occur on the individual, team or organizational level. Research indicates that motivational factors (Nouwen et al., 2022), social interactions (e.g., Mishra, 2020), the general structure or equipment of the workplace (Billett, 2022;Goller and Paloniemi, 2022) and further career development (Matusik et al., 2022) can all be learning barriers. In turn, these barriers can be external, internal or refer to problems with organizational fit. ...
... Based on these considerations, a number of other concepts were emerged and divided into workplace learning (Billett, 1995) and work-related learning (Streumer and Kho, 2006). Billett (2022) assumes that workplace learning and actions follow a structure based on work experience. In this context, learning activities are neither formal, nor incidental, nor unstructured, nor spontaneously directed. ...
... Workrelated learning is considered to be a predominantly explicit process that is guided by predefined learning objectives. In turn, learning itself is understood as a cognitive and rational process that takes place in an environment characterized by a certain structure (Billett, 2022). Guidance and control of knowledge access are passed on and reviewed by authorities, and the result of this process is a competent individual increase in knowledge and skills. ...
While facilitating factors to learning at the workplace have been well investigated, throughout the past decade less has emerged about the barriers that occur when approaching a learning activity at the workplace. Barriers to learning at the workplace are factors that hinder the initiation of successful learning, interrupt learning possibilities, delay proceedings or end learning activities much earlier than intended. The aim of this study is to develop and validate an instrument that measures barriers to informal and formal learning at the workplace. An interview pre-study asked 26 consultants about their learning barriers based on existing instruments. Using this data as groundwork, a novel measuring instrument of barriers to informal and formal learning was developed. The instrument is comprised of five factors with items on individual barriers, organizational/structural barriers, technical barriers, change and uncertainty. To validate the scales, a cross-sectional questionnaire with 112 consultancy employees and freelancers was conducted. The validation included exploratory factor analysis, internal consistency assessment, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and convergent validity assessment. The results generated a three-factor scale barrier measurement for formal learning and a two-factor scale barrier measurement for informal learning. All scales featured Cronbach’s alpha values ranging between 0.80 and 0.86. With this developed and validated scales it is intended to help offer insights into factors that hinder individuals from learning at the workplace, and show organizations their potential for change.
... Following this issue, investigation of the learning processes and approaches, method-wise, can be seen to require a particular focus on the individual, as they are the actors who enact the processes and realise the outcomes of learning (Billett, 2022). This does not detach the individual from the social interdependencies and environments for which the individual interacts on and interprets information from but calls for methods to examine variance on the level of individual compared to variable-level. ...
This study uses a person-centered approach to investigate construction workers’ learning at work, focusing on their approaches to learning, self-efficacy beliefs and work engagement and how these vary according to their goal orientation profiles. Survey data were collected from Finnish construction sector employees (N = 1,280) in June 2021. The data were analysed using latent profile analysis (LPA). Analyses revealed four goal orientation profiles: Disengaged (19.1%), Avoidance-oriented (2.1%), Performance-oriented (43.0%) and Mastery-oriented (35.7%). Profiles based on high learning orientation (Performance-oriented, Mastery-oriented) had higher emphasis on a deep approach to learning, as well as higher self-efficacy and work engagement. The profiles differed less regarding unreflective approach to learning. The results illuminate construction workers’ learning processes in terms of learning strategies and motivation and how they compare to those of the more extensively studied student population. The results also encourage finding ways to support workers’ mastery orientation to benefit not only learning but also well-being by enhancing more reflective learning approaches.
... For example, collaboration between educational institutions and the workplace throughout basic and secondary education is seen as one strategy to prepare students for their future life (Ministry of Education and Research 2021). In addition, learning in, through, and for work helps students develop the capacity to fully engage in adult life and meet their personal and economic needs (Billett 2022). Discussions are increasing worldwide on how to achieve a better match between formal education and work-life, how formal education can better contribute to the smooth transition of youth to work, and how the participation of students in authentic working environments can contribute to the development of key competencies (Timoštšuk et al. 2023). ...
A better match between formal education and work-life is seen as one approach that can help students acquire competences and knowledge necessary for successful participation in their future lives. However, emphasis is often placed on exploring practices targeted at students nearing entry into a work-life pattern, whereas promoting key competencies and positive attitudes toward work should start at an earlier stage. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 Estonian primary school teachers, recognized by their colleagues for outstanding practices to explore their understanding and experiences of integrating work-life and students’ work-related experiences in classroom learning. While teachers involve the work-life and professions of the students’ family members, they often overlook the potential of their local community. Teachers perceived the primary school context as generally supportive, with the national curriculum and cooperative relationships with families being supportive factors. Teachers often viewed students’ work-related experiences as limited to tasks like maintaining tidiness, with few recognizing broader experiences, such as taking on different roles or participating in after-school activities. There is significant potential to purposefully connect work-life and classroom learning, enabling students to take on roles that promote their key competencies and agency, while personalizing learning based on their work-related experiences.
... These barriers can arise at the individual, team, or organisational level, impeding progress and advancement. They encompass obstacles related to literacy acquisition, such as social interactions (Mishra, 2020), workplace design or equipment (Billett, 2022;Goller and Paloniemi, 2022), motivating elements (Nouwen et al., 2022), workplace structure or equipment (Goller and Paloniemi, 2022), and ensuing career advancement (Matusik, Ferris, and Johnson, 2022). These obstacles might be categorised as being internal, external, or connected to problems with organisational fit (2018) Johnson, Robertson, and Cooper and Nel and Linde (2019) have also highlighted the presence of barriers to workplace literacy learning, emphasising their external, internal, or organisational fit nature. ...
Global literacy efforts have started taking a new trend over the past years as a result of a rapidly changing global society. Due to the resent global pandemic, close to 24 million learners across the world were envisaged to be likely never to be able to return to formal education. Expectedly, 11 million of this number are projected to be girls and women. In her effort towards ensuring that no one is left behind, UNESCO is calling the attention of the world to the need to “enrich and transform the existing learning spaces through an integrated approach, and enable literacy learning in the perspective of lifelong learning” (UNESCO, 2022).
Therefore, the International Literacy Day (ILD) for the year 2022 was celebrated across the world under the theme, Transforming Literacy Learning Spaces, with the hope that this would create an opportunity to rethink the current use of learning spaces across the world, in order to build resilience and make sure everyone has access to quality, equitable and inclusive education. In the light of this, the Department of Adult Education, University of Ibadan, and the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education, Abuja decided to publish this book titled “Transforming Literacy Learning Spaces: Exploring Opportunities, Possibilities and Creativity”. A book intended to serve as a platform to showcase the various opportunities, possibilities, creativity and innovations as far as enriching and transforming the existing learning spaces are concerned. Thus, scholars, researchers, practitioners, educators and policy makers in the area of adult literacy and related fields have contributed chapters in this book showcasing their experiences and ideas toward creating an opportunity to rethink the use of current literacy learning spaces in Nigeria.
The book contains fifteen well-written chapters. Chapter one discusses ways of enhancing waste recycling and waste-to-wealth in Nigeria, and how this crucial for transformation of environmental literacy learning spaces. The author argues that waste is everyone’s business, and that billions of tons of waste are producing every year, which are generated from different sources such as agriculture, industrial and municipal locations. The author, therefore, discussed different measures and strategies that have been adopted to discard waste in our houses and streets by the government and individuals. Strategies such as incineration, recycling, ocean dumping, landfills, open dumps and waste exporting; and how these measures adopted seem not to have yielded the expected outcome due to lack of awareness, high rate of illiteracy, quest for increase economic growth, industrialization, urbanization and increase in population growth.
Chapter two is on reading habits for total child development. The author conceived reading as one of the receptive skills needed for information retrieval and transfer in any human; and as the ability to induce meaning from written or printed words. He also argues that reading shapes the mind, gives broader and enriched vocabulary, helps in character creation, widens the mental horizons and provides other benefits. The author, on the other hand, defined habit as an acquired mode of behaviour that is done regularly without much awareness. Thus, explaining that the need for information and knowledge motivates people toward reading; and that reading habits will enable students to have effective study skills, knowledge of different information resources, and effective retention capacity.
Chapter three focuses on ergonomics of library buildings and optimum performance of personnel in Nigerian libraries. The author argues that personnel job performance is important to an organisation and the personnel as individuals in an organisation, because it has a direct bearing on the achievements of the vision and goals of the organisation. She also maintains that the job performance of library personnel is key to the overall performance of the library in terms of service delivery which goes a long way to determine the quality of teaching and learning in schools. The author in this chapter revealed how libraries in Nigeria unlike its counterpart in many parts of the world are underdeveloped, thus, pointing out the urgent need to research on how the standard could be improved.
Chapter four is on transforming political literacy, and how this can bring about a paradigm shift for citizens’ participation in democratic governance in Nigeria. The author highlighted the observed downward trend of citizens’ participation in democratic elections in Nigeria, and how worrisome this is. Especially when viewed alongside the fact that the Nigerian political system lacks a virile democratic culture as characterised by general political apathy and voter apathy among the non-literate adult population in particular. Thus, as the need for active political participation among the adult citizens becomes more pertinent and necessary in today’s democracy in Nigeria, finding effective ways to transmit political education has become highly imperative. It is, therefore, the stand of the author in this chapter that the necessity to incorporate political education into the curriculum of adult and non-formal education is informed by the need to institutionalize and entrench the right type of values and attitudes which would serve as democratic culture in the country.
Chapter five discusses community involvement in the transformation of rural literacy learning spaces. The authors maintaining that the word ‘rural’ is hard to define, stated that one can only picture a cartographic milieu ascribed as ‘rural’; and also envisioned some characteristics of an environment of a small community with low population density, a small number of people living together with an intimate face-to-face relationship. These characteristics, they argued, address the multifaceted signification of the rural communities with a series of images which sometimes are positive, negative or historical. Also, the authors linked the term with such concepts as justice and truth, which is relative, adding that many people have definitions of the term rural, which is not often at par. They explained further that as a quantitative measure, rural space includes the entire territory, population groups and housing units located outside of urban areas or urban agglomerations. The major discussion in this chapter focuses on how involvement of these rural communities in the transformation of rural literacy learning spaces.
Chapter six is on the role of local communities in the transformation of rural literacy learning spaces. The authors argue that Nigeria still faces a number of urgent issues, such as a dearth of efficient rural literacy learning spaces, despite overtaking South Africa as the continent's largest economy in 2014. Explaining that Nigeria is not an exception when it comes to the global concern of providing the rural people with affordable, top-quality education, the authors stated that the majority of rural transformation initiatives are geared toward improving living conditions of people who reside in rural and sparsely populated areas. Thus, in fostering inclusive engagement in rural community schools and the desire for all-encompassing community development, improving rural literacy rates is one of the key pillars.
Chapter seven focusses on adopting digital technologies for sustainable continuing education programmes in Nigeria. The authors argue that by exploring new ways, educators come up with a better and advanced form of teaching, which helps in creating engagement and makes learning a fun activity. According to them, this has made learning flexible. Thus, learners can attend classes from anywhere and can study anytime, which helps in increasing productivity. The authors also explain that digital education encourages an in-depth discussion by combining face-to-face interaction with digital or online learning. This is a perfect blend of digital tools, content, and instructions from the educator, and offers various advantages to learners like exposure to new opportunities, personalised learning, high engagement, overall development, and better results. This, in the authors’ views has wholly transformed the traditional chalk and blackboard (chalkboard) culture.
Chapter eight discusses the place of innovative tech-driven facilitator training in the move towards transforming literacy learning spaces. The authors began from the standpoint that global literacy efforts have started taking a new trend over the past years as a result of a rapidly changing global society. And the fact that due to the resent global pandemic close to 24 million learners across the world were envisaged to be likely never to be able to return to formal education. Hence, the need to create an opportunity to rethink the current use of learning spaces across the world, in order to build resilience and make sure everyone has access to quality, equitable and inclusive education. The authors also argue that the world has become complex with rapid scientific and technological advancements, which has brought about a lot of changes, including what it means to be literate. This calls for a truly integrated approach to literacy learning, built on the principles of lifelong learning. The chapter argues that to achieve this, efforts must be made towards building the capacity of literacy facilitators through innovative tech-driven facilitator training towards facilitation skills enhancement.
Chapter nine is on virtual transformation of literacy learning spaces through exchanging knowledge across borders by the means of Open Education and Open Educational Resources. Here the authors explained how open education can be a means to opening up the education landscape to give access opportunities to all. They described open education as a way of carrying out education, often using digital technologies, with the aim of widening access and participation to everyone by removing barriers and making learning accessible, abundant, and customisable for all. This offers multiple ways of teaching and learning, as well as, building and sharing knowledge. They argued that this provides a variety of access routes to formal and non-formal education. Thus, individuals and organisations can create OERs which can include materials like presentation slides, podcasts, syllabi, images, lesson plans, lecture videos, maps, worksheets, and even entire textbooks, among others.
Chapter ten examines the potentials of blended learning in transforming literacy learning spaces and skills acquisition in a new normal world. The author presents how the COVID-19 pandemic has opened several doors into how we now go about organizing, planning, and delivering educational contents. The COVID-19 epidemic gave modern educational practices a new dimension and created several chances for learners and facilitators to interact. The author defined blended learning as the combination of traditional classroom teaching techniques alongside online learning for the same set of learners, studying the same material in the same course. This combines in-person and online learning in a meaningful way. The chapter also discusses the fact that there are also blended programs, where learners take some classes in traditional classroom settings and others entirely online. Thus, other than over adopting a single learning delivery method, blending offers a number of advantages. This and how it could help transform literacy learning spaces is the focus of this chapter.
Chapter eleven focuses on transforming literacy learning spaces in the context of workplace literacy. Following an examination of the changes occurring in literacy learning contexts, the author in this chapter proposes a transformation in workplace literacy practice. Thus, the chapter advocates leveraging workplace literacy for organisational progress and development. Particularly in accordance with the demands and benefits of the digital age. The author argues that foundational for workplace literacy, traditional school settings must be expanded and literacy education integrated into the context the workplace. Thus, people can be helped to learn to read and write not just via formal schooling but also through hands-on experience, thereby acquiring certain workplace literacies.
Chapter twelve, titled transforming literacy learning spaces in Nigeria: towards a roadmap of implementation, was written to suggest the roadmap for transforming literacy learning spaces in Nigeria in line with the resolution of the ILD’s theme for the year 2022. It began with a clarification of the concept of literacy learning spaces with the argument that the foundation of transforming literacy learning spaces arose from UNESCO’s Strategy for Youth and Adult Literacy (2020-2025) approved by the UNESCO’s General Conference at its 40th session in November 2019. The chapter further discussed the reasons justifying the need to transform literacy learning spaces globally and in Nigeria. The chapter recommends the roadmap of implementation for transforming literacy learning spaces in Nigeria which included, among others, the re-conceptualization of literacy learning within the framework of lifelong learning, development of multi-sectoral literacy policy and governance structure creation of diverse or multiple literacy learning spaces, provision of alternative literacy learning modes, development of inclusive and gender responsive digital learning space for all, and leveraging digital technologies to expand access and literacy learning outcome.
Chapter thirteen focuses on facilitators’ training and literacy learning spaces transformation in the 21st century. It argues that this is imperative to realise and identify with the significant role of training in any organisation that has the intention of staying in the business. In this chapter, the author maintains that it is obvious that literacy centres are also business organisations and therefore the facilitators or resource persons anchoring literacy programmes should endeavour to key vehemently into training and retraining programmes in order to improve and transform the means or channels available for learning new knowledge, skills, ideas and innovations that can aid progress and development of the citizens. The author noted specifically that it is only when the facilitators are adequately and appropriately trained, that the learning spaces will be transformed to accommodate 21st century adaptation and compliance.
Chapter fourteen is on food and nutrition literacy: a panacea for improving children and adolescents’ health status in Nigeria. In this chapter, the authors maintain that childhood is a key stage exhibiting rapid changes in physical growth, psychosocial development and behavioural modifications. Thus, unhealthy eating habits can predispose children to chronic disease and weaken their learning capacity. The authors also argue that the growth of children is seriously threatened by malnutrition caused by poor dietary quality. In addition, unhealthy eating behaviour can result in exceeded diet, and one per five deaths worldwide occurs due to unhealthy nutrition.
Chapter fifteen discusses developing a framework for adult facilitators in Nigeria: lessons from other countries. In this chapter, the authors argue that Nigeria as a nation has put in place a number of mechanisms to improve the non-formal education sector, in order to equip adult literacy facilitators towards effective literacy delivery. However, there are some shortcomings in the sector that need urgent attention, including the absence of standardised training programme for the facilitators, insufficient duration of time for trainings, inadequate attention to contextual challenges militating against the facilitators’ welfare, lack of proper evaluation and monitoring of the sector, and a lack of appropriate training and teaching-learning materials/tools/aids. Thus, a dire need to develop a framework for the sector, especially in the area of capacity building for the adult literacy facilitators who are directly in-charge of literacy delivery in Nigeria based on experiences from around the world.
Chapter sixteen is on digital technology as a tool for transforming learning spaces for workers’ training in Nigeria. The author argues that workers are an essential part of the organisational system because they represent the human capital resources that drive all other factors or parts of the system in a bid to achieve the organizational goal. Thus, in order to keep the workers abreast of changes and to ensure acquisition of requisite skills needed for optimal performance, there is always the need to engage the workers in training and retraining from time to time. Meanwhile, organising trainings for workers come in different forms, which could be on-the-job where workers are exposed to learning components while on duty at work, or off-the-job, where training takes place outside the workplace so workers can acquire additional skills. This chapter discusses the various ways the digital technology could, be maximised for such training programmes.
Chapter seventeen examined transforming the social sector learning space: andragogical training for second-career occupations in Nigeria. In this chapter, the authors argue that recently, there is a sustained interest among university administrators and scholars about the relevance and future of Adult Education in Nigeria. They explained that Adult Education has undoubtedly evolved over the years as an interdisciplinary field of study and contributed immensely to adult literacy and continuing education in the country. The concern, however, is not about the survival but viability of the field of study as a discipline and professional practice in the face of global technological revolution. This chapter, therefore, showcases the intrinsic value of adult education as a discipline, for self-sustenance, as it has deployed different platforms to address gaps in adult learning through technology-mediated learning capabilities in the recent past with correspondence education, open distance education, and virtual education.
With the forgoing, here is a fact that cannot be overemphasised: this book is very loaded. So, I present to you a very rich book with contemporary titles centred around innovating and transforming literacy and other learning spaces in Nigeria. I am sure each time you pick up the book to read, you will always have that conflict of which chapter to read first, as each chapter is well-loaded and well-written for all to understand. Therefore, I recommend this book for all.
Joining a new employer is an exciting but also challenging experience. To learn more about new employees’ transition into a new work environment, we interviewed newcomers in a medium-sized German IT service provider about the challenges they experienced during organizational entry and how onboarding helped them cope with these. Analyses revealed that participants predominantly experienced professional challenges. A combination of activities – especially social support and integration into everyday work – helped the new hires overcome the challenges they experienced. Findings also showed that opportunities to participate and contribute to the new work environment gain relevance as socialization progresses. These insights into newcomers’ experiences may enable organizations to design an employee-centered onboarding strategy that contributes to newcomers’ successful organizational socialization.
Zusammenfassung
Der gegenwärtige Wandel in der Arbeitswelt führt auch zu neuen Anforderungen an die Kompetenzen und damit an das Lernen der Menschen. Neben der Gestaltung formaler Weiterbildungen rücken zunehmend Formen arbeitsintegrierter Lernunterstützung in den Fokus der Erwachsenenbildung. Der vorliegende Beitrag nimmt diese Situationsdiagnose zum Anlass, um Möglichkeiten aufzuzeigen, das Lernen im Arbeitskontext empirisch fundiert weiterzuentwickeln. Als Grundlage dient eine explorative Studie, in der erwerbstätige Personen nach Lernherausforderungen und deren Bewältigung gefragt wurden. Die so gewonnenen Einsichten wurden systematisiert zu aufgabenbezogenen, sozialen, personenbezogenen und organisationalen Herausforderungen. Durch diese Systematisierung sowie die Rekonstruktion individuell genutzter Formen des Lernens konnten Maßnahmen zur pädagogischen Unterstützung von arbeitsbezogenem Lernen konzipiert werden. Darüber hinaus verweisen die empirischen Einblicke in die Allgegenwart des Lernens im Kontext von Arbeit auf die Notwendigkeit, das Augenmerk nicht nur funktional auf die Bewältigung von Arbeitsaufgaben zu richten, sondern die Einzelnen auch auf ihren je individuellen Lernwegen zu unterstützen.
Working life is a dynamic trajectory of personal and social worklife transitions, sequenced transformations of self and practice. Through these transitions workers learn and live their membership in the labour market and their need of employment. As such, worklife transitions are both the contexts in which individuals negotiate their lives and the processes by which those negotiations are enacted. Worklife transitions are the increasingly familiar and common experience of contemporary societies and economies that have arguably never been so volatile, the rate and nature of change never so dynamic. The chapter advances that better understanding worklife transitions and the kinds of work and learning support they require, can follow from understanding workers’ as engaged in a range of socio-personal negotiations that comprise their work, learning and transition practices. Drawing on interview data from extensive participant responses in a research project that examined the working life trajectories and experiences of more than 60 Australian workers, the chapter outlines and illustrates a set of five transition trajectories that workers may enact in their movement from one perceptibly significant work state to another. They are descriptively named: (1) incremental steps, (2) spinning plates, (3) project management, (4) carousel and (5) full renovation. The discussion that follows from the outline of these five transition trajectories considers (i) the question of the value of worklife transition through the lens of two concepts – value claiming and value creation, and (ii) the kinds of learning support each of the trajectories suggests may be foundational to considerations of public policy and provision initiatives that could support worklife transition process and outcome.KeywordsTransitionTrajectoryWorklife transitionWorklife trajectoriesSubstantial transitionWork-learningSocio-personal practiceNegotiationEmployabilityValue claimingValue creationMembershipParticipationActionMediationUnemploymentOccupational practicePersonal agency
The article develops a model for how an academic discipline like Political Studies can embrace work-integrated learning (WIL) to the benefit of students, the discipline, and wider society by interpreting WIL in relation to discipline-specific forms of knowledge and knower. The model is of a new Master’s in WIL in Political Studies (WIPS) at University West, Sweden, an institution that is experimenting with the idea of WIL as a discipline beyond the mainstream framing of WIL as pedagogy only. In this innovative context, three ideas are central to WIPS. First, the content of WIPS is about research knowledge, rather than Political Studies knowledge. Second, drawing on political philosophy, the important relationship between theory or science (episteme) and practice (techne) is framed in terms of an additional concept of practical knowledge (phronesis) regarding the particulars of political action to equitable ends and wisdom (sophia) in regard to the philosophical and ethical nature of those ends. Third, WIPS re-thinks student learning in ontological ways that focus on the capabilities of the political knower. In sum, WIPS frames WIL as “reflective practice on research-intensive political work”, offering a novel and enriched theoretical model of higher education learning of interest to other academic disciplines looking to embrace WIL.
This chapter discusses how many of the contributions to this edited volume infer, emphasise or directly state that interdependencies between societal and personal factors shape how individuals work and learn, but also of the relations between working and learning. Hence, when taken as a central explanatory concept, interdependencies seem ubiquitous to much of the discussion, theorisations and accounts of work and learning and the boundaries between them found within this volume. For this reason, it is necessary to elaborate what constitutes interdependencies and the ways in which they constitute a comprehensive explanatory account of processes of working and learning. This elaboration is achieved through defining and delineating the central role of interdependencies in both work and learning, and the relations between them, followed by a set of three premises upon which such an explanation is founded. Then, an elaboration is advanced of these interdependencies in terms of the suggestion and projection of the social world and also the personal process of construing and constructing what is experienced and in responding to it in personally agentic ways. Central to this interdependence is the active and engaged participation by individuals in both work and learning. This intentional and often agentic participation stands as a key mechanism that both creates and of that interdependence. Throughout, and in making this case, the contributions to this volume are drawn upon and discussed in terms of how interdependencies are central to their accounts of the relations between working and learning.
A key priority for research on professional development is elaborating how employees become and remain high-performing workers who are able to effectively respond to the changing requirements of their work. This chapter focuses on how workers develop such high performance at work. It is proposed that current accounts of professional expertise development lack a consideration of the variety and breadth of work-relevant experiences necessary to generate expertise, including employees who deliberately contribute to that development. Although deliberate practice as originally conceptualised by Ericsson et al. (1993) may not be readably identifiable in work contexts, certainly analogous processes and other agentic efforts shape the quality of workplace learning. It is illuminated how employees can deliberately influence their expertise development by seeking additional work experiences and proactively securing information and feedback.
What the field of adult education research is and how it can be described has been a debated issue over the decades. Several scholars argue that the field today is heterogeneous, borrowing theories and methods from a range of disciplines. In this article, we take such statements as a starting point for empirical analysis. In what ways could it be argued that the field is pluralistic rather than monolithic; heterogeneous rather than homogenous? Drawing on bibliographic data of the top cited articles in three main adult education journals between 2005 and 2012, we illustrate how the citation patterns have tendencies of homogeneity when it comes to the geographical country of authorship, since the USA, UK, Australia and Canada dominate, as well as the research methods adopted, since qualitative approaches have near total dominance. Furthermore, there is a tendency to adopt similar theoretical approaches, since socio-cultural perspectives, critical pedagogy and post-structuralism represent more than half of the articles in our sample. At the same time, the results of our analysis indicate signs of scholarly pluralism, for instance, in terms of authorship, since both early career researchers and established researchers are represented among the top cited publications. We conclude the article by arguing that empirical analysis of publication and citation patterns is important to further the development of reflexivity within the field, not least for early career researchers, who might benefit from knowledge about what has been recognized among peers as worth citing in recent times.
This paper discusses what constitutes the didactics of practice: learning in the circumstances of work. Learning through practice has and continues to be the principal process through which the occupational capacities upon which human society and individuals depend have been developed. Currently, there is an increased interest in this method of learning for extending experiences in educational programs, sustaining workers’ employability across lengthening working lives and assisting the transformation of work and occupational practices. These are important goals for societal purposes, communities, workplace continuity and workers’ employability and development. It seems timely, therefore, to outline an explanation of the qualities and characteristics of learning through experiences in practice settings, such as workplaces, and how these experiences can be used and enriched to support effective work-related learning across working lives: the didactics of learning through practice. It is proposed here, that practice-based curriculum and pedagogy, and workers’ personal epistemologies are the key framing elements of such didactics. However, these institutional and personal practices are also framed by global, cultural, societal and situated factors that shape individuals’ engagement in and their learning through work, and, hence, the didactic qualities and potential of learning through practice. Here, these elements, factors and their consequences are discussed in terms of understanding and enhancing learning experiences in the circumstances of work.
Research funding, promotions, and career trajectories are currently increasingly dependent on the emerging economy of publications and citations across the globe. Such an economy encourages scholars to publish in international journals that are indexed in databases such as Scopus and Web of Science. These developments place an increased emphasis on the question of who is allowed to publish in the journals listed there and whose research counts as valuable. Based on bibliographic data from articles submitted to three main journals in the field of adult education research between 2005 and 2012, we scrutinize the extent to which the emerging economy of publications and citations is dependent on national and regional boundaries. Our results show how four Anglophone countries dominate the field in relation to both published articles and the share of most cited articles and where the publication pattern of these authors are national and regional rather than international.
The paper presents a critical exploration of the treatment of subjectivity and power in sociology through an examination of recent developments in labour process theory. This is introduced through a discussion of dualism and the study of power. It is then argued that the exposure of the neglect of subjectivity in the response to Labour and Monopoly Capital has not been matched by effort to remedy this deficiency. Originating in Marx, the intellectual history of this neglect is explored through a review of key contributions to the post-Braverman literature. Our argument draws upon the work of Foucault to suggest a more adequate appreciation of processes of subjugation in which subjectivity is fetishised in identity. This thesis is articulated and illustrated through a critique of the influential empirical studies of Burawoy and Cockburn.
Gothic cathedrals like Chartres were built in a discontinuous process by groups of masons using their own local knowledge, measures, and techniques. They had neither plans nor knowledge of structural mechanics. The success of the masons in building such large complex innovative structures lies in the use of templates, string, constructive geometry, and social organization to assemble a coherent whole from the messy heterogeneous practices of diverse groups of workers. Chartres resulted from the ad hoc accumulation of the work of many men.
Identifies factors that shape how learning proceeds in workplaces. Focuses on the dual bases of how workplaces afford opportunities for learning and how individuals elect to engage in work activities and with the guidance provided by the workplace. Together, these dual bases for participation (co-participation) at work, and the relations between them, are central to understanding the kinds of learning that workplaces are able to provide and how improving the quality of that learning might proceed. The readiness of the workplace to afford opportunities for individuals to engage in work activities and access direct and indirect support is a key determinant of the quality of learning in workplaces. This readiness can promote individuals’ engagement. However, this engagement remains dependent on the degree by which individuals wish to engage purposefully in the workplace.
This article begins with the practical problem of the failure of training in safe work practices to result in changes to the rate of accident and injury in mining workplaces. A review of the literature in workplace training and workplace learning suggests that there has been little investigation of the relationship between how trainers train, and what learners learn in the workplace. Interviews and participant observation were carried out with 20 mine workers in a coal-mining organisation and seven trainers in a Mines Rescue Service about masculine work cultures and teaching and learning safety in the mining industry. In this article we analyse the cultures of mine work in which trainers and mine workers operate and specifically,their responses about their teaching and learning practices. Analysis suggests that even though trainers and workers do not work in the same organisation or geographical location, they co-participate in the ongoing construction of a community of practice that reinforces strong implicit masculine storylines. Mine workers were found to learn safety through the experience of doing their work, while trainers report safety training using simulated environments and codified practice. Understanding how mine workers learn safety in the workplace, within a community of practice, is critical to attempts to improve safety training and safety records.
The paper considers apprenticeship as a model of education that both teaches technical skills and provides the grounding for personal formation. The research presented is based on long-term anthropological fieldwork with minaret builders in Yemen, mud masons in Mali and fine-woodwork trainees in London. These case studies of on-site learning and practice support an expanded notion of knowledge that exceeds propositional thinking and language and centrally includes the body and skilled performance. Crafts – like sport, dance and other skilled physical activities – are largely communicated, understood and negotiated between practitioners without words, and learning is achieved through observation, mimesis and repeated exercise. The need for an interdisciplinary study of communication and understanding from the body is therefore underlined, and the paper suggests a way forward drawing on linguistic theory and recent neurological findings. It is argued that the validation and promotion of skilled practice as ‘intelligent’ is necessary for raising the status and credibility of apprentice-style learning within our Western systems of education.
A working apprenticeship can be a microcosm of almost every affirming principle of human life, a conservatory for the great existential struggle of our teens and twenties . ... [Unfortunately, however,] the standardisation of education [in the West] ... often fails to answer individual need. (Frank Wilson, 1998 WACQUANT, L. 2004. Body and Soul: Notes on an Apprentice Boxer, Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar] (neurologist and author))
Notational systems are useful devices for recording the movements of craftspeople, dancers, and artists. Because of the predominantly haptic nature of their skills, these practitioners experience difficulty in verbalizing descriptions of their work and instructions to fellow artisans. For lace‐makers, notation is an effective way of sharing information about the ways a given design is made across generations and community boundaries. But because notation separates procedure from practice and extricates craftwork from its geographical, social, and historical context, it has direct consequences for the ways lace‐makers understand skill, proficiency, and design composition. By making craft practice the subject of conversation, notation implicates lace‐making in a political economy of knowledge that assigns differential values to different stages of the production process, thereby elevating some ways of knowing above others. Indeed, notation and codification call into question the very agency of the craftswomen as professionals and carriers of local cultural tradition. Based on continuing ethnographic fieldwork among lace‐makers in Central Slovakia, this paper analyses the impact of notational use on lace‐makers' thinking about their craft knowledge and skill, and, by extension, issues of local style and cultural heritage.
Résumé
Les systèmes de notation sont des instruments utiles pour enregistrer les mouvements des artisans, des danseurs et des artistes. De par la nature principalement haptique de leurs compétences, ces praticiens ont des difficultés à verbaliser leur travail et leur instructions à leurs collègues. Chez les dentellières, la notation est un moyen efficace de partager des informations sur la manière de réaliser un dessin donné, d’une génération à l’autre et au‐delà des limites de la communauté. Mais parce qu’elle sépare la procédure de la pratique et extrait l’artisanat de son contexte géographique, social et historique, la notation a des conséquences directes sur la manière dont les dentellières comprennent la compétence, la maîtrise et la composition des dessins. En faisant de la pratique artisanale un sujet de conversation, la notation implique la dentellerie dans une économie politique des connaissances qui attribue des valeurs différenciées aux différentes étapes du processus de production et élève ainsi certaines manières de savoir au‐dessus des autres. De fait, la notation et la codification remettent en question l’agencéité même des artisanes en tant que professionnelles et porteuses d’une tradition culturelle locale. Basé sur un travail de terrain ethnographique en cours chez les dentellières du centre de la Slovaquie, l’article analyse l’impact de l’utilisation de la notation sur la façon dont les dentellières pensent leur savoir et leurs compétences et, par extension, sur les questions de style local et de patrimoine culturel.
Sociocultural Studies of Mind addresses the primary question: how is mental functioning related to the cultural, historical, and institutional settings in which it exists? Although the contributors speak from different perspectives, there is a clear set of unifying themes that run through the volume: 1. One of the basic ways that sociocultural setting shapes mental functioning is through the cultural tools employed. 2. Mediation provides a formulation of how this shaping occurs. 3. In order to specify how cultural tools exist and have their effects, it is essential to focus on human action as a unit of analysis. This landmark volume defines a general approach to sociocultural psychology, one that we hope will be debated and redefined as the field moves forward. Sociocultural Studies of Mind is crucial reading for researchers and graduate students in cognitive science, philosophy, and cultural anthropology.
Learning in the circumstances of practice stands as the commonest and most enduring way occupational capacities have been learnt across human history, and, likely, are currently learnt. Yet, a comprehensive account of this means of learning remains absent, which limits the legitimacy of workplaces as sites of learning, the learning arising from them and understandings of how to organize, promote and evaluate that learning. When advancing this account, it is necessary to avoid being constrained by the discourse of schooling and orthodoxies of schooled societies, which can distort considerations of learning through practice on its own terms. When reviewed, anthropological and historical literature on learning occupational practices outside of educational provisions offers fresh suggestions including that such an account likely comprise elements of practice curriculum and pedagogies and personal epistemologies, albeit set within particular complexes of cultural, societal and situational factors. A key distinction arising from such a review is the emphasis on individuals’ active processes of learning and how these are enacted in the circumstances of practice, rather than on teaching or instruction. Such a distinction runs deep in this literature and has consequences for conceptions of understandings and efforts to promote and improve learning through practice.
This article discusses some of the consequences of collectivization and subsequent privatization of handicraft in China in the second half of the 20th century on ways of learning and modes of apprenticeship. It argues that, after the privatization of the ceramics workshops of Dingshu, Jiangsu province, an ethos of sharing previously introduced by collectivization continues to determine the paths of transmission of practical knowledge and facilitates exclusion of access to knowledge from community outsiders.
The ontology presupposed in discursive psychology takes persons to be originating centres of activity. Since they are ontologically elementary they have no internal psychological complexity. As with the elementary charges and poles that ground the ontology of physics, they are specified wholly in terms of their dispositions and powers. A second important feature of the social constructionist strain in discursive psychology is the thesis that cognitive processes are properties of discourses, and hence have their primary mode of being in interpersonal symbolic interactions. Persons are singularities and each has its unique attributes. Singularity of personhood is tied up with singularity of embodiment, deeply involved in the human sense of self. In a similar manner the discursive thesis that emotion displays are embodied expressions of judgements also brings the fact of embodiment to the centre of psychological theory. These considerations dispose of the greater part of Fisher's (1995) criticisms of the discursive/constructionist position. We are embodied beings and the rules of discourses are not arbitrary.
The American Diabetes Association currently recommends that all youth with type 1 diabetes over the age of 7 years follow a plan of intensive management. The purpose of this study was to describe stressors and self-care challenges reported by adolescents with type 1 diabetes who were undergoing initiation of intensive management. Subjects described initiation of intensive management as complicating the dilemmas they faced. The importance of individualized and nonjudgmental care from parents and health care providers was stressed. This study supports development of health care relationships and environments that are teen focused not merely disease-centered and embrace exploring options with the teen that will enhance positive outcomes.
This book, which is designed for human resource practitioners and students in courses on professional development and adult and vocational learning, examines strategies for effective practice in workplace learning. The introduction discusses interest in and ambivalence toward workplace learning and key premises of workplace learning. The following are among the specific topics discussed in the book's six chapters: (1) working and learning (conceptual bases of workplace learning; workplace and individual influences on learning); (2) expertise at work (understanding performance at work, the cognitive view of the knowledge underpinning performance; the cognitive view of expertise; situating expertise in workplaces); (3) learning vocational expertise at work (workplace activities and guidance); (4) a workplace curriculum model (developing and legitimating the workplace curriculum); (5) guided learning at work (guided learning in the workplace, in practice, and for transfer); and (6) organizing and managing workplace learning (support for guided learning in the workplace; encouraging participation; selecting and preparing guides; preparing workers/learners, external assistance). The following items are appended: questions to identify the pathway from peripheral to full participation; a form to determine which employees are performing specific tasks; and a form to identify learning pathways and difficult-to-learn tasks. (Contains 12 tables/figures and 173 references.) (MN)
This book proposes a theory of human cognitive evolution, drawing from paleontology, linguistics, anthropology, cognitive science, and especially neuropsychology. The properties of humankind's brain, culture, and cognition have coevolved in a tight iterative loop; the main event in human evolution has occurred at the cognitive level, however, mediating change at the anatomical and cultural levels. During the past two million years humans have passed through three major cognitive transitions, each of which has left the human mind with a new way of representing reality and a new form of culture. Modern humans consequently have three systems of memory representation that were not available to our closest primate relatives: mimetic skill, language, and external symbols. These three systems are supported by new types of “hard” storage devices, two of which (mimetic and linguistic) are biological, one technological. Full symbolic literacy consists of a complex of skills for interacting with the external memory system. The independence of these three uniquely human ways of representing knowledge is suggested in the way the mind breaks down after brain injury and confirmed by various other lines of evidence. Each of the three systems is based on an inventive capacity, and the products of those capacities – such as languages, symbols, gestures, social rituals, and images – continue to be invented and vetted in the social arena. Cognitive evolution is not yet complete: the externalization of memory has altered the actual memory architecture within which humans think. This is changing the role of biological memory and the way in which the human brain deploys its resources; it is also changing the form of modern culture.
This article analyzes two viewpoints concerning the relation of agency and culture. One viewpoint construes agency as a personal trait that operates outside of culture and is designed to liberate the individual from cultural constraints. I explore this viewpoint in the work of several eminent cultural psychologists. I critique it as a regression to asocial individualism which cultural psychology was designed to correct. I propose an alternative conception of agency as a cultural phenomenon. Espoused by Durkheim, Marx, Boas, and Bhaskar, this conception holds that agency depends upon cultural processes for its realization, forms culture, and has a cultural form. Agency is the active element of culture. Being a cultural phenomenon means that agency is a historical project which must be realized through humanizing society.
This article argues that medieval craft guilds emerged in order to provide transferable skills through apprenticeship. They prospered for more than half a millennium because they sustained interregional specialized labor markets and contributed to technological invention by stimulating technical diffusion through migrant labor and by providing inventors with temporary monopoly rents. They played a leading role in preindustrial manufacture because their main competitor, rural putting out, was a net consumer rather than producer of technological innovation. They finally disappeared not through adaptive failure but because national states abolished them by decree.
This chapter presents gender as a concept and perspective by discussing learning and doing gender at workplaces. The focus is on workplace change, particularly technological change, and its implications for workers' subjectivity and construction of masculinity. The empirical base is a study on mine workers in an underground iron ore mine in Kiruna, in the very north of Sweden.
Changes at the underground mine in Kiruna during the last 50 years, with new technology and new qualification demands, have step by step challenged the local hegemonic masculinity rooted in the old type of mining work and identity. This has been met by restoring responses. Still there are a lot of old and new masculine `hero stories' around that the male workers use to construct identities and to learn and to restore the connection between mining work and masculinity. This can be seen as an identity lag, as an asymmetry between structural changes and cultural changes. But it is not only a question of defending and restoring the old culture or identity. Workplace change necessitates the remaking of work practices and work identities and provides a space, and probably a need, for renegotiation of gendered identities. Some of this is done within the prevailing gender order, but there are also new types of masculinities (and femininities) that share the space with the old and perhaps fading macho-masculinity.
This paper elaborates the role and development of personal epistemologies when learning through and for work. It does this by drawing on explanatory propositions from psychology, sociology and philosophical accounts. The aim here is to go beyond conceptions of epistemological beliefs and to position personal epistemologies as being active, intentional, derived in personally particular ways through the unique set of socially derived experiences that comprise individuals’ life histories or ontogenies. In this way, they are held to be comprehensive and encompassing as a conception to explain individuals’ learning and as constructed through social experiences, albeit in person-specific ways. Given their active and constructive character, these epistemologies are placed centre stage in the dual processes of learning and remaking culturally derived practices, such as with paid work. These propositions are discussed and elaborated through a consideration of engagement and learning in forms of work that provide, respectively, relatively weak and rich forms of direct social guidance, and which require the enactment in different ways of individuals’ personal epistemologies in the conduct of and learning through paid work.
The following re-conceptualisation of vocational expertise is premised on reconciling contributions from cognitive psychology with those from social and cultural theories of thinking and acting. Relations between the individuals acting and the social practice in which they act are proposed as bases for knowing and performance — knowing in practice. Domains of knowledge are held to be products of reciprocal and interpretative construction arising from individuals' engagement in social practice, rather than being abstracted disciplinary knowledge or disembedded sociocultural tools. The construction of the individuals' domains of vocational practice is constituted reciprocally through their participation at work. Some implications for curriculum are also proposed.
