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Drawing on findings of a qualitative study exploring the learning processes of individuals working in environments characterised as enterprise cultures, this paper proposes a conceptualisation of work knowing as co-emergence, at the intersection of invention, identity and environment. This conceptualisation is based upon an ecological theory of learning called ‘enactivism’, which holds that human beings, natural objects and cognition emerge together as intertwined systems. This theory appears useful in the examination of work knowledge produced by a growing number of individuals who are entering the ranks of the self-employed, becoming entrepreneurs in the new economy. Three dimensions of enactivist theory in particular are argued to hold heuristic value for understanding knowledge production and subjectivity in the new world of enterprise. First, that knowledge unfolds in systems, whereby cognition co-emerges with environment, individuals and activity. Second, that understanding is embedded in the conduct and relationships among systems and sub-systems, rather than the minds of individual actors. Third, that learning is continuous invention and exploration, linked to disequilibrium experienced in systems. These three dimensions are illustrated with examples from the learning experiences reported by those negotiating the world of enterprise.

Published abstract reprinted by permission of the copyright owner.

This paper is part of a special issue of ‘Studies in continuing education’ containing articles derived from a recent conference on ‘working knowledge’ held at the University of Technology, Sydney, in December 2000. The conference paper by the author is indexed at TD/TNC 67.85. Show less

This paper addresses the nature and process of experiential learning in the development of working knowledge: what some call informal learning. Experiential learning currently tends to be conceptualised in constructivist terms: workers are presumed to engage with their environments through conscious reflection, conferring meaning upon events and relationships to construct individual knowledge. Critics are concerned that workers’ experience, in this conceptualisation of experiential learning, is treated as ‘manageable and in need of management’, involving struggles over how the meaning and significance of experience is interpreted and by whom. Another concern raised by situative theorists is the lack of attention to communities of practice, understanding working knowledge as a dynamic flowing through the process of working activity conducted through relationships. Drawing on findings of a qualitative study exploring the workplace learning of women entrepreneurs, this paper theorises experiential learning as emergent and embedded in community activity. Working knowledge is suggested here to be propelled by a creative process that is enmeshed with issues of changing identity. These issues in turn are shown to be influenced by an individual’s engagement with the discourses of her culture, her changing purposes, and her changing sense of what knowledge counts most. As a business-owner, a woman changes her environment of work as she changes: the community that emerges around her is to a large extent a reflection of her participation in it. This conceptualisation presents working knowledge as co-emergence, at the intersection of invention, identity, and environment.

Entries containing the full list of the papers from this conference may be found from TD/TNC 67.61 to TD/TNC 67.64. Entries for individual papers may be found from TD/TNC 67.65 to TD/TNC 67.100 and from TD/TNC 67.501 to TD/TNC 67.541. Show less

This article is part of a volume, edited by Tara Fenwick, which provides an overview of and introduction to the current themes within research into the sociocultural understandings of work-based learning and working knowledge. These perspectives examine how learning is interrelated with the systems in which people work. The articles range from broader analyses of the contexts and purposes of learning to more specific learning theories. The pedagogical roles and approaches for adult educators practising in the workplace are discussed. Articles are indexed from TD/TNC 70.197 to TD/TNC 70.204.

As an overview of contemporary scholarship in workplace learning using sociocultural perspectives, this article outlines selected themes in this literature and offers questions emerging from their debates for researchers and educators.

Published summary with additional information reprinted by permission of the copyright owner. Show less

This article examines workers’ learning in the context of the worker as the employer. It draws from a qualitative study focusing on Canadian women who had left jobs in organisations to start their own business, often with little business experience and education. Both, cultural sites where women entrepreneurs struggle to win a space for themselves as well as where they don’t struggle and may have been manipulated to take up positions they would not otherwise have chosen are identified. Five themes that are seen as significant sites of struggle among women’s narratives of their entrepreneurial lives, learning and subjectivity are outlined. These are: business plans make a business; business is profit and growth; business is a tough frontier; business is women’s self-determining adventure; and women’s (other) work. The article concludes by discussing pedagogical entry points for educators to empower women. Show less