Learning from tacit knowledge: the impact of the internship

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of an internship on its participants in an educational administration program.Design/methodology/approach – The study analyzed the interns' reports or reflections on their internship experience to decipher what was learned by the participants based on Nonoka and Takeuchi's knowledge creation model (tacit to explicit knowledge).Findings – The study found that tacit knowledge was both contextual and released spontaneously to capture the nuances of the task/issue/problem at hand. It was contextual because the situation provided meaning and connectedness. The tacit knowledge was externalized in the process of solving a particular problem or in response to a particular issue. It was spontaneous because the actions or conversations were not predetermined, or structured; they were provoked or emerged through deductions and inductions as interns and principals worked together to find solutions.Research limitations – The findings of this research sho...

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