Tracey Lee

Surveying the scene: learning metaphors, survey design and the workplace context

The skills debate in many European countries has for many years been preoccupied with the supply of qualified individuals and participation in training events. However, recent case‐study work suggests that qualifications and training are partial measures of skill development as most learning arises naturally out of the demands and challenges of everyday work experience and interactions with colleagues, clients and customers. This paper argues that the ‘learning as acquisition’ and ‘learning as participation’ metaphors aptly capture these two competing intellectual traditions. The paper outlines an experiment that was designed to give the ‘learning as participation’ metaphor a firmer survey basis than it has hitherto enjoyed. The results highlight the importance of social relationships and mutual support in enhancing individual performance at work, factors which individual acquisition of qualifications and attendance on courses ignores. The paper also confirms the importance of job design in promoting and facilitating learning at work.

Looking inside the Russian doll: the interconnections between context, learning and pedagogy in the workplace

There is now much awareness of the symbiotic relationship between workplace learning, the organisation of work, level of employee involvement, organisational performance, and the broader economic, regulatory, and social context within which organisations have to operate. This article argues that we have to identify and take serious account of the contextual factors (external and internal) that affect all organisations, as these are central to developing our understanding of the nature of pedagogical practice within any workplace setting. By closely examining the nature and impact of these contextual factors, we can gain greater insight into the phenomenon of why organisations adopt different practices and why they create such different learning environments. The article draws on emerging findings from an ESRC‐funded multisector study in the UK and uses illustrations from two contrasting sectors to highlight the impact of context on pedagogical practice.

Trans(Re)Lations: Lesbian and female to male transsexual accounts of identity

The following article is founded in interview based social research conducted with an opportunistic sample of British and North American lesbians and female to male transsexuals (FTMs). The interviews were concerned with their accounts of experience and identity from childhood, through adolescence to adulthood. Located in relation to a current debate regarding similarity and difference between lesbians and FTMs, the article juxtaposes the identity accounts to facilitate a comparative analysis and suggests that processes of “othering” are utilised as a means through which similar life histories are differentially experienced and accounted for.