Learning in the workplace: reappraisals and reconceptions

Abstract

There needs to be both a reappraisal and reconceptualisation of workplaces as learning environments as the learning of vocational practice in workplaces becomes increasingly legitimised through unfolding conceptions of learning, new pragmatics and a growing interest in learning throughout working lives. Further, the growing interest in workplaces and changing conceptions of learning highlights the urgent need for a workplace pedagogy – a science of understanding how vocational practices can be learnt through work and throughout working lives. Yet, workplaces as learning environments or spaces are burdened by discourses and practices engendered in educational institutions that present selective bases for conceptualising these spaces. Drawing on a programme of research conducted over the last decade, this chapter aims to conceptualise workplaces as legitimate learning spaces on their own terms. It proposes how the initial and ongoing development of vocational practice throughout working lives might best proceed. It proposes and discusses a set of salient and interrelated issues about how workplaces should be conceptualised as learning spaces. Informed by recent theory about learning, these discussions advance bases for: reconceptualising the discourse of learning through work; viewing workplace learning as participation in work practice; and the development of a workplace pedagogy that conceptualises learning through work as participatory practices, and the enhancement of workplace participatory practices. Throughout, and in summary, implications for policy and practice are advanced. There is nothing new about learning in workplaces. They have long been valued and acknowledged as important sites for learning vocational practice, and pre-date educational institutions as sites for learning vocational practice.

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