Session Information
18 SES 04, Effective Professional Learning in Sport and Physical Education
Paper Session
Contribution
There is consensus across multiple occupations that the ‘hallmark of a true profession’ (Brunetti, 1998) is access to a well developed continuing education programme. Indeed, a professional practitioner is expected to engage in on-going professional learning in pursuit of a relevant and contemporary knowledge base. Yet understanding the mechanisms by which practitioners construct knowledge continues to challenge both researchers and policy makers alike. Moreover, research suggests that many professionals (e.g. teachers and coaches) fail to see the value of formal professional development, and instead, place great value on learning in situ. Coaching and teaching is a case in point, where practitioners attribute their construction of knowledge through the social learning practices of the workplace.
Contemporary research in professional learning has begun to acknowledge learning as the outcome of organisational culture, social structures, and personal agency (Griffiths & Armour, 2010, Daniels, 2012). From this perspective, learning is an embodied and cultural experience. Therefore, in investigating the workplace learning of elite sports coaches, this study adopted a cultural approach to the understanding of learning. Hodkinson et al (2008) note the value of adopting such an approach in that it bridges the troubling dualisms encountered by many contemporary learning theories (i.e. agency-structure, cognitive-social, acquisition-participation). In the context of this study, a theory of cultural learning served to offer greater insight into workplace learning through identification of influential socio-cultural factors. The aim of the study was to examine the workplace learning of elite sports coaches. To address this aim, the following research question was constructed:
- What is the impact of organisational culture on individual learning engagement?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Brunetti, G. (1998) Teacher education: A look at its future. Teacher Education Quarterly, 25 (4): 59-64 Charmaz, K. (2006) Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. London: SAGE. Daniels, H. (2012) Institutional culture, social interaction and learning. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 1(1): 2-11 Griffiths, M. and Armour, K. (2012) Mentoring as a formalised strategy with community volunteers. Studied in Continuing Education, 27(3): 151-173 Hodkinson, P., Biesta, G. and James, D. (2008) Understanding learning culturally: Overcoming the dualism between social and individual views of learning. Vocations and Learning, 1(1): 27-47
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