Learning Through Verbal Interactions in the Workplace: The Role and Place of Guidance in Vocational Education and Training

Abstract

The recent literature in the field of workplace learning has stressed the importance of guidance in the process of learning in and from practice. Workers do not only learn just by conducting specific tasks individually; they learn when adequate resources are afforded to them and when more experienced workers are able to assist them in their practice. Hence, there is considerable importance to investigate the specific qualities of guidance at work and to understand how novice workers engage with these resources. In this particular context, the chapter advances two main ideas. The first idea is to consider that a close examination of the conditions under which mentors and students engage in face-to-face interactions provides a relevant theoretical basis for exploring the relational interdependences between these actors. These interdependences may be described and analysed as “interactional participatory configurations”. The second idea the chapter puts forward is that recent research developed in the Francophone world and borrowing concepts from a wide range of disciplinary traditions such as anthropology, sociology, sociolinguistics and discourse analysis provide useful insights for investigating these issues. These resources, it is proposed, bring complementary contributions to the understanding of the importance of participation and guidance in vocational and professional learning as it occurs in the workplace. Transcripts of video data collected in the field of vocational training of early childhood educators are used as empirical illustrations of the proposed analytical frame.