Considering trade union education as a community of practice

This paper contributes to the continuing discussion about participation and non-participation in formal education by employing the notion of ‘community of practice’ to provide a framework for the study of trade union education. This notion provides a useful form to take account of social context and an appropriate vehicle to mediate the transformation of perspectives. This is a study that demonstrates the importance of social context and participant perspectives as important features of individual transformation. This paper draws on evidence from a local study of trade union education to explore the transformation of non-participants into learners. This transformation was the consequence of engagement by the participants in their trade union practice.     

Fugitive and codified knowledge: implications for communities struggling to control the meaning of local environmental hazards

The purpose of this qualitative research was to determine the ways that knowledge is constructed and used by emergent citizen's groups (ECGs are grassroots, action‐oriented, problem‐solving groups) engaged in environmental conflicts, and by a state government environmental regulatory agency that interfaced with them. Four historical‐organizational/observational case studies of conflict dynamics involving ECGs and the government were undertaken. Case studies in a qualitative research paradigm were used since they particularize information in a complex, process oriented manner that reports life experiences. All of the grassroots groups in the study cited ‘education’ as a goal of their organizations. The research documented the struggle for who controls the meaning of hazardous scenarios. ECGs were cultural producers at the local level, developing the intellectual and moral faculties of the community, especially through collective education and collaborative and social learning. The state agency, on the other hand, constructed intellectual and moral capacity from a bureaucratic locus. As such, both were instrumental in community learning, as well as sites of contest. The results show that regulators most frequently relied on ‘codified’ or ‘official’ knowledge that reproduced the status quo. ECGs constructed ‘fugitive’ knowledge that escaped the control of institutional specialists, and that reinforced their local (and at times global) interests. Bureaucrats seldom used local knowledge to make environmental decisions. Citizens responded with rebellious collective action, quiescence and at times despair.     

The Relationship Between In-Session Significant Events and Session Outcome for Prepracticum Counselor Trainees and Their Volunteer Clients

The relationship between the number of task, interpersonal, and hindering events and session outcome was examined for prepracticum trainees. Implications for counselor training are discussed.