Theorising the Co-occurrence of Remaking Occupational Practices and Their Learning

Occupational practice arises through, is transformed by and co-occurs with human learning and development. As such, these practices offer a useful platform to consider and appraise perspectives of practice theories and their applicability to learning. Proposed here is that occupational practice arises through history, culture and is manifested in particular circumstances (e.g. workplaces). Yet, its existence, enactment and advancement are shaped by how individuals engage with, remake and transform history and culture. Hence, accounts of the geneses, manifestations and advancement of these practices needs to include contributions of institutional (i.e. those of the social world) and personal factors (i.e. those pertaining to individuals’ development), and, also brute facts (i.e. those of the natural world, e.g. ageing) that shape the needs for occupations and how humans engage with, enact and learn through them. The implications for learning , development and societal change here are powerful and enduring. Sites and circumstances of practice , and individuals’ engagement in them, have been the key source of that learning across human history. The case made here emphasises the importance of the personal within these relationships and contributions. It does so by drawing upon empirical work and conceptual precepts that have arisen through a focused programme of inquiry informed by contributions from philosophy, social cultural theory, cognitive science, anthropology, sociology and historical studies, but framed broadly within what might be termed cultural psychology, and attempts to understand further the relations between cognition and culture.Arts, Education & Law Group, School of Education and Professional StudiesNo Full Tex