Self‐employed and online: (re)negotiating work‐learning practices

Purpose – In order to explore how informal pedagogical moments are being renegotiated by the technology woven into people's lives, this paper aims to focus on online communities as sites of learning; more specifically, the informal work‐related learning practices of self‐employed workers in these cyberspaces.Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on the notion of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) from situated learning theory in order to examine the development of work‐learning practices online. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with own‐account self‐employed workers (contractors and consultants who do not have staff) about their engagement in online communities for work learning.Findings – Findings indicate that these self‐employed workers were learning work practices, the viability of doing particular work, how to participate in online communities for work learning, and how to participate in fluid knowledges. The significance of developing a work‐learning practice is emphasized, ...

[1]  Theories and methods for research on informal learning and work: towards cross-fertilization , 2008 .

[2]  Shauna Butterwick,et al.  Hard/Soft, Formal/Informal, Work/Learning: Tenuous/Persistent Binaries in the Knowledge-Based Society , 2008 .

[3]  Nancy Baym,et al.  The new shape of online community: The example of Swedish independent music fandom , 2007, First Monday.

[4]  Johan Lundin,et al.  Talking about tools – investigating learning at work in police practice , 2007 .

[5]  Sharan B. Merriam,et al.  Qualitative research and case study applications in education , 1998 .

[6]  Stewart Clegg,et al.  Becoming (a) Practice , 2009 .

[7]  Katherine Nicoll,et al.  Mobilizing workplaces: actors, discipline and governmentality , 2004 .

[8]  S. Barley,et al.  Gurus, Hired Guns, and Warm Bodies: Itinerant Experts in a Knowledge Economy , 2004 .

[9]  Tony Huzzard,et al.  Communities of domination? Reconceptualising organisational learning and power , 2004 .

[10]  Thomas Ryberg,et al.  Challenges and Potentials for Institutional and Technological Infrastructures in Adopting Social Media , 2008 .

[11]  Drew A.R. Ross.  Backstage with the Knowledge Boys and Girls: Goffman and Distributed Agency in an Organic Online Community , 2007 .

[12]  Noriko Hara,et al.  Knowledge-sharing in an online community of health-care professionals , 2007, Inf. Technol. People.

[13]  Karen Guldberg,et al.  Adult learners and professional development: peer‐to‐peer learning in a networked community , 2008 .

[14]  Harry F. Wolcott,et al.  Transforming Qualitative Data: Description, Analysis, and Interpretation , 1996 .

[15]  Phil Hodkinson,et al.  Informality and Formality in Learning: a report for the Learning and Skills Research Centre , 2003 .

[16]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation , 1991 .

[17]  D. Livingstone.  Adults' Informal Learning: Definitions, Findings, Gaps, and Future Research. NALL Working Paper #21. , 2001 .

[18]  S. M. Smith,et al.  Where does the learning take place? Learning spaces and the situated curriculum within networked learning , 2010 .

[19]  W. Neuman,et al.  Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches , 2002 .

[20]  David Beer.  Sooner or later we will melt together: Framing the digital in the everyday , 2005, First Monday.

[21]  Mark J. W. Lee,et al.  Social software and participatory learning: Pedagogical choices with technology affordances in the Web 2.0 era , 2007 .

[22]  Sarah Cornelius,et al.  Online informal professional development for distance tutors: experiences from The Open University in Scotland , 2008 .

[23]  Patrick Carmichael,et al.  Talk in virtual contexts: reflecting on participation and online learning models , 2007 .

[24]  Andrew Cox,et al.  What are communities of practice? A comparative review of four seminal works , 2005, J. Inf. Sci..

[25]  David Boud,et al.  “I don’t think I am a learner”: acts of naming learners at work , 2003 .

[26]  S. Gherardi.  Introduction: The Critical Power of the `Practice Lens' , 2009 .

[27]  Jan Nespor,et al.  Knowledge In Motion : Space, Time And Curriculum In Undergraduate Physics And Management , 2014 .

[28]  L. Farrell,et al.  Points of Vulnerability and Presence: Knowing and learning in globally networked communities , 2004 .

[29]  Etienne Wenger,et al.  Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity , 1998 .

[30]  Barbara Allan,et al.  The impact of membership of a virtual learning community on individual learning careers and professional identity , 2006, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[31]  T. Clark,et al.  Within and Beyond Communities of Practice: Making Sense of Learning Through Participation, Identity and Practice , 2006 .

[32]  Elizabeth Stacey,et al.  Sustaining an Online Community of Practice: a Case Study , 2008 .

[33]  P. Atkinson,et al.  Making sense of qualitative data , 1996 .