Informal learning and work is a topic that over the last decade or so has exploded onto the research scene. It is increasingly the subject of myriad large and small-scale empirical efforts, as well as policy and practice across governments and a range of organizations. In this chapter I review the key issues relevant to develo** a comprehensive understanding of informal learning and work. To do so, I present a brief history of the origins of the informal learning concept arguing that key principles—namely, the importance of personal experience, flexibility, local/indigenous knowledge, control/power and learning recognition—embedded in this genealogy still inform scholarship today. Following this, I review leading models of learning and work (from Livingstone, Eraut and Illeris) endorsing an eclectic range of theoretical points of emphasis which sees formality and informality as a continuum and not dichotomous categories. I take some time to review a major critique of the informal learning concept, before turning to a review of the leading methods of investigating informal learning and work and the key findings they have offered to date.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andersen, L.; Boud, D.; Cohen, R. 1995. Experience-based learning. In: Foley, G., ed. Understanding adult education and training, 2nd ed., pp. 225–39. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Barab, S.; Kirshner, D. 2001. Guest editors’ introduction: rethinking methodology in the learning sciences. The journal of the learning sciences, vol. 10, nos. 1–2, pp. 5–15.
Billett, S. 1995. Workplace learning: its potential and limitations. Education and training, vol. 37, no. 5, pp. 20–27.
Billett, S. 2002. Critiquing workplace learning discourses: participation and continuity at work. Studies in the education of adults, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 56–67.
Billett, S.; Somerville, M. 2004. Transformations at work: identity and learning. Studies in continuing education, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 309–26.
Bjørnåvold, J. 2000. Making learning visible: identification, assessment and recognition of non-formal learning in Europe. Thessaloniki, Greece: CEDEFOP.
Colley, H.; Hodkinson, P.; Malcolm, J. 2003. Informality and formality in learning: a report for the Learning and Skills Research Centre. Leeds, UK: University of Leeds.
Dominice, P. 2000. Learning from our lives: using educational biographies with adults. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass
Doray, P.; BĂ©langer, P. 2002. Changing working conditions, lifelong learning and biography in a new economy. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto, Centre for the Study of Education and Work. (WALL Working paper series.)
Eichler, M. 2005. The other half (or more) of the story: unpaid housework and care work and lifelong learning. In: Bascia, N. et al., eds. International handbook of educational policy, pp. 1,023–42. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer.
Engeström, Y.; Middleton, D. 1998. Communication and cognition at work. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Eraut, M. 2004. Informal learning in the workplace. Studies in continuing education, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 247–73.
Eraut, M. et al. 2000. Development of knowledge and skills at work. In: Coffield, F., ed. Differing visions of a learning society, vol. 1, pp. 231–62. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
Fenwick, T. 2001. Socio-cultural perspectives on learning through work. New directions for adult and continuing education, no. 92, winter. (Special issue.)
Foley, G., ed. 1995. Understanding adult education and training, 2^nd ed. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin.
Fox, R.D.; Mazmanian, P.E.; Putman, R.W., eds. 1989. Changing and learning in the lives of physicians. New York, NY: Praeger.
Freire, P. 1973. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: The Seabury Press.
Illeris, K. & Associates. 2004. Learning in working life. Fredricksberg, Denmark: Roskilde University Press.
Illich, I. 1971. Deschooling society. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Illich, I. 1973. Tools for conviviality. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Jackson, N. 2005. What counts as learning? A case study perspective. Toronto, Canada: Centre for the Study of Education and Work, University of Toronto. (WALL working paper series.)
Lave, J. 1990. The culture of acquisition and the practice of understanding. In: Stigler, J.; Shweder, R.; Herdt, G., eds. Cultural psychology, pp. 259–86. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Lave, J.; Wenger, E. 1991. Situated learning: legitimate peripheral participation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Livingstone, D.W. 1998. Education jobs gap. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Livingstone, D.W. 1999. Exploring the icebergs of adult learning: findings of the first Canadian survey of informal learning practices. Canadian journal for the study of adult education, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 49–72.
Livingstone, D.W. 2005. Expanding conception of work and learning: research and policy implications. In: Leithwood, K. et al., eds. International handbook of educational policy, pp. 977–96. New York, NY: Kluwer Publishers.
Livingstone, D.W.; Sawchuk, P.H. 2004. Hidden knowledge: organized labour in the information age. Toronto, Canada: Garamond Press.
Luff, P.; Hindmarsh, J.; Heath, C., eds. 2000. Workplace studies: recovering work practice and informing system design. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
McCall, M.W.; Lombardo, M.M.; Morrison, A.M. 1988. The lessons of experience: how successful executives develop on the job. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
Putnam, R. 2000. Bowling alone: the collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Sawchuk, P.H. 2003a. Informal learning as a speech-exchange system: implications for knowledge production, power and social transformation. Discourse and society, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 291–307.
Sawchuk, P.H. 2003b. Adult learning and technology in working-class life. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Sawchuk, P.H. 2006. Adult learning theories: an inter-disciplinary map** of analytic power and politics. In: Fenwick, T.; Nesbit, T.; Spencer, B., eds. Learning for life: Canadian readings in adult education. Toronto, Canada: Thompson Educational Press.
Schugurensky, D.; Mündel, K. 2005. Volunteer work and learning: hidden dimensions of labour force training. In: Bascia, N. et al., eds. International handbook of educational policy, pp. 997–1,022. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer.
Scribner, S. 1985. Vygostky’s use of history. In: Wertsch, J.V., ed. Culture, communication and cognition: Vygotskian perspectives, pp. 119–45. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Slotnick, H.B. 1999. How doctors learn: physicians’ self-directed learning episodes. Academic medicine, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 28–34.
Suchman, L.; Jordan, B. 1990. Interactional troubles in face-to-face survey interviews. Journal of the American Statistical Association, vol. 85, no. 409, pp. 232–41.
Tough, A. 1967. Learning without a teacher: a study of tasks and assistance during adult self-teaching projects. Toronto, Canada: OISE Press.
Tough, A. 1971. The adult’s learning projects. Toronto, Canada: OISE.
Work and Lifelong Learning. 2005. Basic findings of the 2004 Canadian learning and work survey. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto, Centre for the Study of Education and Work. (WALL working paper series.) <lifelong.oise.utoronto.ca/papers/WALLBasicSummJune05.pdf>
Waring, M. 1988. If women counted: a new feminist economics. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row.
Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Williams, R. 1983. Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, rev. ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sawchuk, P.H. (2009). Informal Learning and Work: From Genealogy and Definitions to Contemporary Methods and Findings. In: Maclean, R., Wilson, D. (eds) International Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-5281-1_21
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-1-4020-5280-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-5281-1
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)