“I have learned – It is about something that happened in the past!” – Time, space and human interaction in different perceptions of learning at work

Preparing for a new comparative study in the research network on workplace learning, researchers tested different ways of asking people about their learning at work. In one of the pilot projects, a very interesting conversation about learning took place right after asking the question about learning at work. It seemed that all participants in this conversation had different perceptions of what learning is. In this article, this conversation is analysed in order to understand how different understandings of learning have been constructed by two persons from the respective workplace. By using participatory photo interview (Kolb, 2008) in this paper I try to come as close as possible to persons’ lived experiences and personal reflections about their own learning (van Manen, 1991). By capturing learning moments in everyday activities at work in a way a person perceives these as learning moments, and telling about these moments to the researchers, the two persons allow us to get an insight into their unique, practical, emotional and symbolic life in the concrete historical context (Kramsch, 2009). Thereby, the paper can contribute to a more advanced understanding of human learning processes. The study is based on constructivist worldview, i.e. that human beings are actively constructing their own subjective “realities” according to their own identity in their particular situation. In other words, individuals develop subjective meanings of their experiences (Creswell, 2007). These meanings are varied and multiple and are developed and negotiated socially and historically. Therefore, in this study we consider human learning as experience and adapt the notion of experience as both personal and social (Dewey, 1938). Learning is understood from the ecological, spatial, socio-cultural perspective, with a focus on spatial dimensions of learning (time, place and interaction). The ecological perspective implies that “activity in a meaningful environment generates affordances for enhancing that activity and subsequent activities” (van Lier, 2004, 80). The ecological view on learning entails that the context (physical, social, symbolic) is a central element in learning (van Lier, 2004). Learning is an extremely complex multidimensional process that happens differently to everyone and involves a host of subjective parameters, such as perceptions, emotions, attitudes and values. Learning, aside from being a cognitive process, is also an emotional and social process. This happens in the interaction between people and their environment on the basis of their experiences (van Lier, 1996, 2010). The socio-cultural perspective implies that historical, cultural and symbolic activities provide resources for learning and action. The perspective of social ecology provides a way into understanding the complexities of factors that impact on learning in the workplace, through the interplay factors, structures, processes and environments (Evans, Waite, Kersh, 2011). This interplay is not restricted to the workplace and can include all other life spaces of the individuals. By employing spatial analysis it is possible to indicate the differences across physical and virtual spaces, explore the relationship between structure and agency, and the relationships between social processes at different scales, as well as to interrogate some of the taken-for-granted assumptions about education and learning (Brooks, Fuller, Waters, 2012).