The role of learning within the community of practice

Eraut lists the components of responsibility to be found within the professional domain:

 A moral commitment to serve the interests of clients;

 A professional obligation to self-monitor and to periodically review the effectiveness of one’s practice;

 A professional obligation to expand one’s repertoire, to reflect on one’s experience and to develop one’s expertise;

 An obligation that is professional as well as contractual to contribute to the quality of one’s organisation;

 An obligation to reflect upon and contribute to discussions about the changing role of one’s profession in wider society. (Eraut, 1992, p.9)

In line with these recommendations, The Institute of Career Guidance requires two ongoing commitments from practitioners who seek inclusion on the Professional Register. One is to practise by the Institute’s code of ethics, the other is to undertake continued professional development (CPD). The importance of CPD for the individual is that it ensures practice keeps up with innovation; the importance of CPD for the profession is that the sharing of such learning ensures the development of the collective knowledge base, the next generation of learning for the profession (Engeströmet al., 1995).

In order to transfer what they have learnt from solving a problem in one context to a problem presented in another context, the individual practitioner will need to reflect on their practice and on what they have learnt from it. Winter (1991) lays emphasis on the upward spiral where a learner reflects on their working practice, identifies a learning outcome which then feeds into their professional practice, which is in turn the object of further reflection. The practice is no longer predicated on a fixed body of knowledge, but on a continuous development of the theory which underpins the practice it develops. Fish (1991, p.23) identifies four strands of reflection within the Schön (1987) model of reflective practice. She identifies these strands of reflection as essential to the effective supervision of practice in health visiting and initial teacher training. They are:

a) Factual - description of situation, then of practitioner’s feelings; b) Retrospective - wholist reflection on what was new, what discovered; c) Sub-stratum - cultural or contextual assumptions, and

These strands are not linear or necessarily sequential, but the professional can weave them together in reflecting on a learning interaction either with a patient/pupil or with their supervisor. Whilst Fish offers these insights into professional formation, she is adamant that they are not recommendations: ‘as that would be the technical/rational school of professionalism’ and she prefers the ‘professional artistry model’ (Fish, 1991, p.79). Eraut argues the importance of critical control of ‘largely intuitive aspects of practice’ (1989, p.184) is essential for the transfer of knowledge practice to a wider range of situations, and is desirable for the improvement of performance in familiar situations. Lave (1991, p.64) depicts learning as ‘a social phenomenon constituted in the experienced, lived-in world’ and argues that within a community of practice there is a relationship between those who are well established and those coming into the profession. She argues that these two ends of the practice spectrum should be depicted not as teacher/pupil or expert/novice, but as oldtimers and newcomers (Lave, 1991, p.68). She also indicates the essential iteration within a community of practice, a circle of life where ‘newcomers’ enter the community, are accepted and become ‘oldtimers’. She goes on to identify as a third category those who have completed this circle; the ‘newcomers-become-oldtimers’. The relationship between oldtimers and newcomers is one of mutual [emphasis added] dependency; ‘the newcomers (are dependent) in order to learn, and the oldtimers in order to carry on the community of practice...success of both new and old members depends on the eventual replacement of the oldtimers by newcomers-become- oldtimers themselves’ (Lave, 1991, p.74). Underlying this mutual dependency is a tension which permeates the learning process.

Engeström (1994, p.11) states that there is a misconception about learning, which assumes that learning is receiving knowledge, and practising skills by repeating the same tasks. He argues that ‘learning is constructing’ (Engeström, 1994, p.12) rather than repetition and storing and distinguishes three levels of learning. First order learning (Engeström, 1994, p.15) is a form of conditioning, typically imitating. In

first order learning the focus is limited to the immediate task. Second order learning (Engeström, 1994, p.16) identifies general patterns and covering laws for good behaviour, and it embraces some investigative learning. Third order learning (Engeström, 1994, p.17) happens when the learner questions the task and transforms the context itself. This questioning can occur as cognitive conflict, which is often the stimulus or basis for deep learning;

‘ Cognitive conflicts as a source of motivation creates a context of criticism

[original emphasis] at the beginning of the process of investigative learning. Students become aware of limits and contradictions in their practice and in the knowledge and tools they routinely use. Such a critical stance lays a vitally important groundwork for the construction of new knowledge and new forms of practice.’ (Engeström, 1994, p.24)

Whilst this relates primarily to the individual’s learning, there must be some widening from the individual to the collective to develop the knowledge base shared by the community of practice, and the impetus of conflict for learning is found in this wider context too. The ‘collective zone of proximal development’ (Engeström, 1994, p.44) is the contested area between traditional practice and alternative future directions.

This research demonstrates such cognitive conflicts across both samples. Such conflicts seem more particularly experienced, and certainly more explicitly articulated by those practitioners who have practised for longer; those who have achieved mastery of their practice. Perhaps an outcome of the pressure on guidance professionals, if given the time and space to reflect, would be the development of shared knowledge.

One respondent made the comment that the policy initiatives failed to understand what careers guidance can do for clients:‘I am depressed that it has not, apparently, been possible so far to suggest to Government agencies that a more enlightened

approach to control of careers guidance activities is necessary and can work’

(X28). She went on to comment on the role of the professional body; although the only voice to bring the professional body into the debate, her comment was plaintive:

‘I feel, perhaps unjustifiably, there has been a failure/betrayal by our own

professional bodies’ (X28).

There is clear evidence of conflict within the sample, and evidence of a ongoing struggle to make sense of the way things are in careers guidance, coupled with an anticipation that further policy changes presage more change and adjustment from practitioners. Within this playing out of conflict lies an opportunity for investigative learning for the whole careers guidance profession.

SECTION 3