Mark Tennant - Abstracts

Recent papers & current research

This paper reports on a number of interviews with designated ‘experts’. The focus is not on the stories of the experts per se, but on the storied nature of expertise, as revealed by the stories that experts narrate. In this approach the stories are not seen as the product of any particular individual, rather they are seen as social and cultural productions into which 'subject positions' (rather than individuals) are inscribed. In a research interview, then, the task is to identify the themes and the subject positions contained in the story, not with a view to determining the 'truth' of the story, but to look at its constructive effects: what it is doing and what it achieves.

With this approach in mind, interviews were conducted with 3 professionals: a medico-legal consultant, a lawyer specialising in internet law, a civil engineer and an architect. The purpose of the study was to map the way in which acknowledged experts account for their professional development, with a particular interest in :

• the way they 'talk about' expertise in the workplace

• the generic and domain specific aspects of expertise

• learning approaches and strategies used to become 'expert'

• the notion of learning how to learn from experience and how this differs from standard conceptions of 'learning how to learn'.

• the relationship between nonformal and formal learning in the develo-pment of expertise

• the role of formal knowledge in workplace learning

• the way in which experiences are 'activated' for learning

• views on learning processes and ideal organisationl supports for learning

• the way general life experience has an impact on the development of expertise (eg. paediatricians becoming parents).

• the life/career course of experts

Overall the interviewees provided thoroughly modernist accounts of the development of their expertise: they were able to describe their enduring personal qualities, they emphasised the important of a good grounding in principles, they talked of the importance of taking advantage of strategic opportunities, they showed and early and sustained interest in their profession, and they were able to point to key moments in their professional development. These modernist accounts however, are arguably co-produced with the reseacher/interviewer - they also contain contradictions which clearly disrupt the continuity and coherence of the stories produced and thus leave scope for other readings.

There is a growing interest, both theoretical and practical, in what may be referred to as ‘working knowledge’ (Boud and Garrick, 1999; Hager, 2000; Beckett and Hager, 2000; Symes and McIntyre, 2000). By this I mean knowledge which is generated through workplace experience. From a practical point of view, universities, in an attempt to be more ‘relevant’ to the workplace, are exploring ways in which the workplace can be more effectively integrated into the university experience . This typically occurs through professional placements in say, architecture, cooperative education arrangements in business and engineering, clinical placements in medicine and nursing, practicum experience in teacher education, and in some instances, workbased learning awards where the work itself forms the basis of the curriculum. In addition, there is now a general acceptance of work-related projects and learning contracts as valid pedagogical tools. The workplace is thus increasingly present as a learning resource and a site of learning in the university sector. In many ways this is to be expected, given the growth in the demand for continuing professional education, and given the high number of mature age students in universities who insist on a curriculum and pedagogy which is relevant to their workplace experiences. This engagement with the workplace has lead to a challenge to the traditional disciplines, partly because workplace problems are not neatly packaged into disciplinary areas, and partly because knowledge is increasingly acknowledged as being ‘produced’ in the workplace. Indeed the idea of knowledge being produced in the academy and subsequently ‘applied’ to work, family and community life, is no longer the sole way of depicting the relationship between the academy and the workplace.

The idea of the workplace as a site for the production of knowledge is supported, directly or indirectly, by earlier work on ‘practical intelligence’ (see Scribner 1984a, 1984b, 1986, 1982; Sternberg and Wagner, 1984 ), the development of expertise (see Chi et al, 1988; Glaser, 1987, 1985; Eraut, 1994) and work on ‘situated learning’ (Billett, 1994, 1996; Lave and Wenger, 1991). This literature has in common the idea that working life produces valuable knowledge and skill. In the expertise and practical intelligence literature the typical approach has been to compare experts with novices, or to show how people can easily carry out practical tasks in the workplace which demand cognitive skills which they otherwise fail to demonstrate on pencil and paper tests. But there is very little attention given to how experience is utilised to become expert – which of course is of great interest to educators. To some extent the situated learning approach addresses this issue.

Situated learning refers to a broad collection of work, which shares an emphasis on the importance of context in acquiring knowledge and skill. The situated learning approach of Billett (1996) acknowledges that different forms of social practices lead to different ways of appropriating and structuring knowledge. His working out of this idea is quite elaborate, but basically he is saying that there are a variety of knowledge sources in a community of practice (such as other workers, hints, reminders, explanations, observations, listening, dealing with authentic problems, one's personal history), and that these have an impact on the way knowledge is appropriated and structured.

For Lave and Wenger, the essential thing about learning is that it involves participation in a community of practice: which is essentially a community engaged in a common set of tasks, with its associated stories, traditions, and ways of working. Indeed it is a compelling argument that learning and knowledge is socially and historically situated, and to the extent that we can talk about ‘working knowledge’ as a separate kind of knowledge, it is thoroughly 'situated'. Adopting such an approach puts a different slant on the question of the development of working knowledge. A potentially fruitful way of looking at such development is to understand it as a lifelong learning ‘project’ in which the person incorporates experiences and events into an ongoing narrative about the self .

This is my point of departure for what follows, which is an analysis of my own experience over 25 years as an academic with a background in psychology (both general and developmental), and a scholarly and practical engagement with adult education (which covers a range of settings in which adults learn: training and staff development in commerce, industry and government departments; community education, education for social action; literacy, TESOL, and numeracy ). My purpose is to examine the story of my pedagogical practices as an academic engaged in teaching psychology to adult educators. In this story I identify two broad moves: firstly the move from disciplinary knowledge to applied/instrumental knowledge, to what may be termed ‘working knowledge’; secondly the move from the subject of psychology (and of pedagogy) being regarded as the rational, autonomous, essential self; to the socially constructed self; and then to the relational self. These moves are described in terms of :

• prevailing institutional values
• the way the subject of psychology (and pedagogy) is configured
• the relationship between theory and practice (or context)
• the way competing paradigms in psychology are seen

But the question must be asked ‘are the above moves the result of an academic engagement with the literature or a practical engagement with pedagogy?’. I argue that the latter predominates in the sense that my pedagogical experiences provide a foundation for a theoretical engagement with the idea of ‘working knowledge’ and the ‘relational self’. To avoid too much self referential confusion I focus throughout on exploring my changing pedagogical practices as my primary ‘work’ so to speak.

For a variety of reasons explored elsewhere in this book, institutions such as universities are increasingly under scrutiny to provide education that is more 'relevant' and pertinent to the needs of employers, which often means learning which is less abstract and discipline-bound and closer to the issues found in work contexts. We are told that the contemporary workforce needs to be highly-skilled, adaptable and flexible. Such an ‘adaptable, multiskilled and flexible workforce’, implies one which can quickly and willingly apply existing knowledge and skills to new situations, and one which is prepared and capable of engaging in new learning as circumstances warrant. There is an expectation that both formal education and workplace training should produce the kind of learning which allows this adaptability and flexibility.

Largely because universities no longer have a monopoly on accreditation and the production and distribution of knowledge, and because commerce and industry are becoming more sophisticated in providing learning opportunities in the workplace, the university sector is by becoming more market oriented, focussing on professional and vocational practice with new forms of 'flexible’ delivery designed to capture expanding global and local student markets. Indeed the university sector is beginning to reconfigure itself within a lifelong learning framework, with a focus on learning rather than education, workplace problems rather than traditional disciplines, and a recognition of multiple re-entry points and sites of learning across the lifespan. Within this context new partnerships between universities and public and private sector organisations have emerged which attempt to address their workforce learning needs: a common element in such partnerships being 'learning in the workplace'; which may vary from using workplace experiences to provide a context for academic study to a much more radical model of workbased leaning where the work itself becomes the curriculum. My interest in this chapter is in how the changing nature of education and its interface with the workplace produces, presupposes or otherwise shapes new learner identities and pedagogical practices.

As an adult educator working predominantly in higher education I have engaged with a range of adult educators working in community, commercial, industrial, and government settings. With an academic background in developmental psychology and a broad understanding of adult education practice, a problem with which I constantly struggle is how best to assist my students, who are all adult educators, to critically reflect on their practice from a developmental point of view. Why have I posed this as a problem? Initially it comes from the observation that adult educators are almost always engaged in promoting learning for personal change. Sometimes this is made explicit, for example in programs which aim to improve self-esteem, or self-concept, or which help people discover their "authentic" self. Sometimes it is more implicit; for example in programs which address significant social issues such as gender stereotyping, racial discrimination, migration, domestic violence, environmental concerns, and perhaps health issues: the idea being that individual change is inextricably linked to broader social change. In the workplace too most changes imply a reorientation of individuals' values or attitudes or the way they see themselves, for example in learning how to implement a new innovation, or a new technology, or a new set of procedures in the workplace, education plays a role in influencing new worker identities. In all such programs, I argue, our pedagogical practices expose our theorizations concerning the nature of the self, its development or capacity for change, and the way the self relates to others or to society more generally. An assumption I adopt is that by engaging with theorizations concerning development and self-change, practitioners will better be able to analyze their own assumptions and make explicit their theoretical position.

This chapter then, explicitly sets out to theorize adult education as a vehicle for self-development and change and to explore how such theorizing has consequences for practice as an adult educator. Historically, the most dominant theorizations have come from developmental psychology. In particular the psychological literature on adult development has been seen as a source of understanding the dynamics of change in adult life, and as such has been screened for its pedagogical implications. Although this literature is quite diverse, by and large it has in common the quest to discover universal principles and processes of adult development and change. Furthermore it supports the conventional view that adult education can lead to a greater awareness of self through cultivating a self which is independent, rational, autonomous, coherent, and which has a sense of social responsibility. Such a view of the self has been strongly challenged in recent years from a range of different theoretical positions, largely because it is seen as overly static and essentialist, and thus ignoring the socially constructed nature of selfhood. At the very least the increasing pluralization of society has challenged any pretence that universal social and normative frames of reference can provide unchanging anchoring points for identity. Indeed, increasing social and cultural mobility has begun to erode the possibility of developing a self built on any singular and stable socio-cultural community. This has meant that the fashioning of "self" has become an individual reflexive enterprise, a lifelong learning project in which the subject incorporates experiences and events into an ongoing narrative about the self. (See Giddens, 1991; Beck, 1992). The argument presented in this chapter is that the focus on the self as text or narrative offers new possibilities for understanding learning and its relation to self-development and change. The chapter commences with some general observations about the nature and limitations of some well-known theorizations of adult development. The narrative approach to understanding self development and change is then explored, followed by an analysis of the pedagogical implications of adopting such a perspective within a relational view of the self.

Tennant, M. and Morris, R. Adult education in Australia: shifting identities. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 2000 (invited paper under review).

There are many points of entry and multiple options for describing and analysing adult education in Australia over the 20 year period up to the end of the millennium. It is possible to make the case that it is ‘business as usual’ among providers, programs, and the organisation and position of adult education in Australian society. In 2000 most of the providers that were active in 1980 still remain: the Evening Colleges, Community Adult Education Centres, Neighbourhood Houses, the Colleges and Institutes of Technical and Further Education, the universities with their continuing education divisions or extra mural programs, the WEA, and the large providers such as the Council of Adult Education in Victoria. The issues too remain the same: the paucity of government funding for general adult education and for programs addressing areas of social need, the ongoing debate about identity of the ‘sector’, the tension between vocational and ‘non-vocational’ programs, the tension between volunteerism and professionalisation, and the fight for recognition beyond mere marginal status in Australian education. Contrary to this position it is possible to argue that the many changes associated with globalisation, the organisation of work, technological change, the information superhighway, and the position of Australia both socially and economically have all fundamentally changed the role of education in society and the place of adult education. And indeed some of the largest government funded providers in 1980 have all but disappeared in 2000: such as the Adult Migrant Education Service (AMES) and the Trade Union Training Authority’s (TUTA) programs.

We open this paper by sketching some of the more obvious contextual changes in this period and then examine a selection of ongoing issues embedded in the following framework: the scope and definition of adult education, the vocational/non-vocational debate, the question of participation, and the relationship between adult education and the universities. We argue that adult education provision in 2000 is much the same as it was in 1980, but that it is more widely recognised, inclusive of more activities, more central, better managed, more abundant, and that it has recognisably responded to the changing context in which it is located.

The desire to make sense of one’s life is both powerful and widespread. What makes me the same person today as I was yesterday, last year, or perhaps twenty or thirty years ago? Have I developed and changed? In what important ways do I differ from when I was a younger? In what ways has my identity remained stable? Have there been milestones or critical events which have shaped my life, perhaps even transformed my identity? Or has my development been piecemeal and gradual, one phase of life merging imperceptibly into another? Indeed does it make sense to think of my life in terms of phases and stages? What have been the major influences in my life, those people and events which have shaped my beliefs, attitudes and values? And how do I see the continuity between my past, present and future self?

This chapter reviews the psychological literature on adult development and puts forward a view that contemporary narrative approaches offfer the best way forward in understanding issues of identity and change. In this repsect identity is best understood as the self's sense of continuity, coherence and meaning. Identity work or 'selfing' is an ongoing project in the adult years and it involves the construction and continual reconstruction of narratives or stories about one's life. Such narratives are jointly authored by the individual and his or her culture. These narratives may reveal different concerns at different stages or phases of life, but these differences are strongly linked to cultural and historical differences. Ultimately, any practices which impact or intervene in the process of identity work, such as education, counselling and various kinds of therapy, must necessarily make judgements about what constitutes the 'good' life story.

There is an expectation that both formal education and workplace training should produce the kind of learning which allows this adaptability and flexibility. Formal educational institutions are under scrutiny to provide education that is more 'relevant', that is, pertinent to the needs of employers, which often means learning which is less abstract and discipline-bound and closer to the problems and issues found in work contexts. In terms of workplace training, the expectation is that it eschew narrowly skills based learning (which is specific only to the particular job at hand), in favour of learning which is more broadly applicable. A common issue then, for both formal education and workplace training, is how to ensure that the learning which occurs is transferred or applied to new contexts. This is what is meant by 'transfer of learning', it is concerned with 'how knowledge acquired in one situation applies (or fails to apply) in other situations.' (Singley and Anderson, 1989, p1).

Knowledge and skill which applies across a range of situations (ie. that 'transfers') is said to be more 'generic' than knowledge and skill which is confined in some way to the context in which it was acquired. From an educational perspective, the practical interest in transfer is to identify the conditions under which generic, transferable knowledge, is more likely to occur.

This chapter begins with an overview of psychological research on the transfer of learning. The question initially posed is: does transfer occur? The answer is 'yes' if the concept of transfer adopted allows the possibility of some learning and assistance in the new or 'transfer' situation. The second question posed is 'what is the source of transfer?'. This question is addressed implicitly by exploring three different perspectives: cognitive psychology, 'situated learning', and the perspective offered by the literature on practical intelligence and expertise. Finally a view of transfer is presented which draws on both the situated and cognitive perspectives, and which offers a range of strategies for the practitioner.

Research in understanding learning in the workplace is still in its infancy; and considerable theoretical and empirical work that needs to be done. In the meantime, the best approach for the practitioner is to be familiar with the debates and to extract from the evidence and their particular 'community of practice', those principles and strategies which, on balance, are good candidates for enhancing transfer.

Using this approach, transfer is more likely to be enhanced when: 1. Learners are exposed to 'authentic' activities, with the opportunity to access the full range of learning resources. 2. Learners are exposed to multiple situations and multiple examples. 3. Attention is drawn to the potential for transfer by highlighting the generic nature of the skill being acquired. 4. The higher order skills and principles being acquired are identified and made explicit. 5. A supportive climate exists in the transfer context (eg supervisor support, opportunity to use learning, peer support, supervisor sanctions, positive personal outcomes, encouragement of further learning). 6. There is a capacity to 'learn how to learn from experience' ie. practice in analysing experience and developing strategies for learning. 7. There exists a community of discourse (ie. a common way of talking) in which all members are actively engaged in learning through communicating. 8. Learners have 'lifelong learning' skills and dispositions (the capacity to be self directed and control and regulate one's own learning).

Each of the items in the above list is, of course, problematic, and can be elaborated or represented in different ways according to one's theoretical orientation. The issue of transfer goes to the heart of the educational enterprise, because it has to do whether we can learn anything in a general way, an if so, how this is made possible. The difficulty with research and theory in this area is that it is politically charged: questions about the nature and sources of knowledge cannot be separated from questions about the control and legitimation of knowledge. These broader issues are never far away from the theoretical debates, and for this reason alone, it would be very naive to imagine that the issue of transfer will ever be resolved in any final sense.

Adult education has a long history of interest in the development and transformation of the self. As such it is useful to consider a range of adult education programs as belonging to and extending the lineage of 'technologies of the self' identified by Foucault (1988). In all such programs, even the most individualistic, there are implicit or explicit theorisations concerning the nature of the self and the way the self relates to others or to society more generally. The purpose of this paper is to explore the postmodern critique of the dominant theorisations of the self in adult education: the psychological/humanistic and the sociological/critical; and to comment on the 'solution' proferred by a postmodern theorisation.

The postmodern critique is valuable in drawing attention to the difficulties of theorising some kind of originary, core, true, stable, or ahistorical self. Nevertheless it is important to acknowledge that in many of the sites in which adult educators work, the pursuit of a coherent, continuous self is indispensable to transformative (and thereby resistant) adult education practice.