Informal Learning and Work: From Genealogy and Definitions to Contemporary Methods and Findings

Abstract

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 developing 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.