Becoming a Professional in the Childrens’ Workforce

Roger Harrison and Ann Pegg, Open University, UK

In this paper we describe the early stages of a research project which takes a socio- cultural perspective in examining factors which enable practitioners working with young people to become professionals. We will be discussing the conceptual and methodological choices we have taken in designing the study and hope to have some early indications of the kind of data which is emerging.

The project is situated within a context of changing definitions of what it means to be a professional, and expansive views of the nature of the childrens’ workforce.  National policies are driving the provision of training and development opportunities for practitioners at the same time as curriculum development imperatives within Higher Education seek to reconfigure the relationships between learning and working. The nature of higher education courses, the specification of learning outcomes and the qualifications available to, and required by, practitioners are all the subject to policy level change.  A key feature of these changes in the organisation of professional formation is the expectation that practitioners will do much of their learning in the workplace, combining knowledge and skills gained from formal training courses with informal learning from social interaction with colleagues and young people.

It is the way that these different conceptions of learning are combined in the workplace which is poorly understood.  Our research questions are located in this area where there are both new professionals and new modes of learning and ask:  How do the learners make sense of the world around them? How do these workers shape their actions according to both experience, new policy initiatives and new learning?  How do workers understand these different ways of learning and what it means to be a professional in this workforce? What degree of agency and interpretation do these new professionals use in making sense of the different modes of learning?

The project will be using ethnographic approaches to examine learning as a situated phenomena occurring at the intersection between policy change, formal episodes of learning, individual reflection and social relations in the workplace.  The project will explore how volunteers, part-time and full time paid workers understand and are able to access opportunities to learn in and for the workplace and how this learning shapes their understanding of what it means to be a professional in this newly unified children’s workforce.

Key words: Professionalism, learning, workforce development.