Learning in the circumstances of practiceLearning in the circumstances of practice stands as the commonest and most enduring way occupational capacities have been learnt across human history, and, likely, are currently learnt. Yet, a comprehensive account of this means of learning remains absent, which limits the legitimacy of workplaces as sites of learning, the learning arising from them, and understandings of how to organise, promote and evaluate that learning. When advancing this account, it is necessary to avoid being constrained by the discourse of schooling and orthodoxies of schooled societies, which can distort considerations of learning through practice on its own terms. When reviewed, anthropological and historical literature on learning occupational practices outside of educational provisions offers fresh suggestions including that such an account likely comprise elements of practice curriculum and pedagogies and personal epistemologies, albeit set within particular complexes of cultural, societal and situational factors. A key distinction arising from such a review is the emphasis on individuals' active processes of learning and how these are enacted in the circumstances of practice, rather than on teaching or instruction. Such a distinction runs deep in this literature and has consequences for conceptions of understandings and efforts to promote and improve learning through practice.
Learning through practiceExplaining how adults have and continue to learn through their occupational practice (i.e. work) is central to the project of adult learning and development. Not the least is that much of adults' lives are spent in work and work-related activities and work and occupational subjectivities are central to that learning and development. This paper is part of an ongoing project to understand more fully how people learn occupations through their work. It draws largely upon anthropological and historical literature to identify how that learning occurred before and/or outside of schooled societies and 'schooling'. That literature suggests that humans have lived in settled communities for up to 10000 years and in cities for 5000 years, which has necessitated the development and learning of a range of occupational capacities required by such sophisticated societies. Over the vast majority of that time, the development and learning of occupations serving those communities has occurred in the circumstances of their practice (i.e. places of work). Only in the last few centuries and in schooled societies has the preparation for most occupations come to be undertaken in specialised institutions established for the purposes of promoting this kind of learning. Yet, despite these longstanding contributions to advancing personal and societal needs, comprehensive accounts of how learning through practice progresses remains elusive. Such an account clearly needs to go beyond description and establish premises for the efficacy of these circumstances for learning and provide guidance for enhancing them are learning en...