Phil Hodkinson

Careership: a sociological theory of career decision making

Abstract In the current discourse on the transition from school to work, career decision‐making has a pivotal but paradoxical position. Sociological literature emphasises the dominance of socially‐structured pathways, whilst policy‐making operates on assumptions of individual freedom to choose. In this paper we draw on the work of Pierre Bourdieu to present a new model of career decision‐making, given the shorthand title of ‘careership’. There are three completely integrated dimensions to the model. These are (i) pragmatically rational decision‐making, located in the habitus of the person making the decision; (ii) the interactions with others in the (youth training) field, related to the unequal resources different ‘players’ possess; and (iii) the location of decisions within the partly unpredictable pattern of turning‐points and routines that make up the life course. This model avoids the twin pitfalls of implicit social determinism or of seeing (young) people as completely free agents.

Learning Careers: continuity and change in young people's dispositions to learning

Despite an extensive literature on the subject of learning, very little has been written about the ways in which young peoples dispositions to learning transform over time. This article draws upon a longitudinal research project which focused on such transformations. The article centres on the case of Amanda Ball and considers the implications which her story holds for our understanding of learning. It is shown that dispositions can transform in a short period of time and that such transformations are often linked, in complex ways, to wider social, economic and cultural contexts.

The interrelationships between informal and formal learning

This paper summarises some of the analysis and findings of a project commissioned to investigate the meanings and uses of the terms formal, informal and non-formal learning. Many texts use these terms without any clear definition, or employ conflicting definitions and boundaries. The paper therefore proposes an alternative way of analysing learning situations in terms of attributes of formality and informality. Applying this analysis to a range of learning contexts, one of which is described, suggests that there are significant elements of formal learning in informal situations, and elements of informality in formal situations; the two are inextricably inter-related. The nature of this inter-relationship, the ways it is written about and its impact on learners and others, are closely related to the organisational, social, cultural, economic, historical and political contexts in which the learning takes place. The paper briefly indicates some of the implications of our analysis for theorising learning, and for policy and practice.

Improving schoolteachers' workplace learning

This paper is set in the context where there is a policy emphasis on teacher learning and development in a number of countries as a means towards school improvement. It reports on a longitudinal research project about the workplace learning of English secondary school teachers, carried out between 2000 and 2003. This was part of a Teaching and Learning Research Programme network of projects looking at learning in a variety of workplaces. The paper contrasts some key features in the teacher development and workplace learning literatures, which highlight different understandings of learning—as acquisition, participation and/or construction. We argue that insights from the literature and the research, including insights from other projects in the network, enhance our understanding of teacher learning. The paper describes some of the main ways in which experienced teachers learn, and then identifies three dimensions which interact in influencing the nature of that learning. The dimensions are: the dispositions of the individual teacher; the practices and cultures of the subject departments; and the management and regulatory frameworks, at school and national policy levels. Based upon the findings, we argue that current policy approaches to teacher development in the UK are over‐focused on the acquisition of measurable learning outcomes, short‐term gains, and priorities that are external to the teachers. They also assume and strive for impossible and counterproductive universality of approach. Instead, our findings suggest that teacher learning is best improved through a strategy that increases learning opportunities, and enhances the likelihood that teaches will want to take up those opportunities. This can be done through the construction of more expansive learning environments for teachers. We examine briefly some barriers to this approach, and give some suggestions of what could be done.

Moving beyond the metaphor of transfer of learning

This paper argues that much contemporary educational policy makes assumptions about learning that are directly contradicted by the best research and theorising of learning that has occurred over the last decade and more. This worrying mismatch is largely attributable to adherence by policy makers (and other key stakeholders such as employers), to ‘common sense’ notions of learning transfer. In fact, these ‘common sense’ notions of transfer have increasingly been discarded even in the learning transfer literature. However, we go further in arguing that transfer is a totally inappropriate metaphor for thinking about most learning, but especially for vocational learning. Accepting that thought about learning inevitably involves metaphors, we consider the merits and otherwise of various other learning metaphors including participation and construction. We conclude that the conceptual flaws of transfer can be avoided by employing alternative metaphors. The value of our recommended alternative is illustrated by...

The significance of individuals' dispositions in workplace learning: a case study of two teachers

This article about workplace learning examines the relationship between, firstly, individual learners positions and dispositions, and secondly, their working and learning within the workplace community and practices. Drawing on research with secondary school teachers, it presents case study accounts of two teachers from the same school to illustrate the significance of these relationships. In order to understand these relationships from a broadly participatory perspective, the article then presents a theoretical discussion, extending Lave and Wengers work on communities of practice, through the use of Bourdieus concepts of habitus, capital and field. It concludes that such a combination offers a valuable means of understanding these relationships, in a wider social, economic and political context. It is necessary to offer an account of learning for work which acknowledges the independence of individuals acting within the interdependence of the social practice of work. (Billett, 2001, p. 22)

Research as a form of work: expertise, community and methodological objectivity

Recent years have witnessed the rapid rise of a new educational research orthodoxy in the UK and the USA. Central to that orthodoxy are the assumptions that method can ensure objectivity in research, and that more objective ‘safe’ research to inform practice is needed. But educational research is a field made up of overlapping communities of practice. This field has rules, but they are largely unwritten, and modify and change as part of a contingent tradition. Within the field, knowledge formation develops through the making of embodied judgements, which can only ever be partly rational, and are related to developing researcher identities. The new research orthodoxy entails deliberate attempts to restrict and modify practices in this field. This is unlikely to completely succeed, but centralised sources of funding for educational research make many researchers vulnerable. In resisting these tendencies, it is helpful to view research as contributing to better understanding, in ways that owe more to the qua...

Understanding learning cultures

This paper sets out an explanation about the nature of learning cultures and how they work. In so doing, it directly addresses some key weaknesses in current situated learning theoretical writing, by working to overcome unhelpful dualisms, such as the individual and the social, and structure and agency. It does this through extensive use of some of Pierre Bourdieus key ideas—seeing learning cultures operating as fields of force. This makes clear the relationality of learning cultures, and the fact that they operate across conventionally drawn boundaries of scale. The paper argues that this approach also paves the way for the full incorporation of individual learners into situated learning accounts.

The significance of individual biography in workplace learning

Abstract In this paper we address a perceived gap in the workplace learning literature, for there is very little writing which successfully integrates the issues of individual learners into predominantly social theories of learning. The paper draws upon data from four linked research projects to address this problem. Following an analysis of the theoretical problems and a possible solution, the paper identifies and discussed four overlapping individual dimensions to workplace learning. They are: workers bring prior knowledge, understanding and skills which contribute to their learning; the habitus of workers influences the ways they co-construct and take advantage of opportunities for learning at work; the dispositions of individual workers contribute to the co-production and reproduction of the workplace culture; and belonging to a workplace community contributes to the developing identity of the workers themselves.

Reconceptualising the relations between college‐based and workplace learning

Purpose – This paper seeks to problematize common assumptions in the existing workplace learning literature, to the effect that college‐based and workplace learning are inherently different.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on empirical data from four different research projects, two focusing on the workplace and two on college. The approach is one of arguing that the differences between college‐based and workplace learning are exaggerated by the theoretical and conceptual stances that are often adopted.Findings – From a rather different theoretical approach, many significant similarities between learning in the two types of location are revealed. The paper advances a way to reconceptualize the relationship between the two, based on this approach. There are two parts to this: changing ones view of the learner progression from one location to another, and studying the nature of the relationship between sites of workplace and educational learning, within their wider field(s).Practical implic...