The context of learning in professional work environments

Any understanding of the learning that takes place in a professional work environment demands a focus on aspects of learning that are often dichotomized: formal and informal, theory and practice. Indeed one of the central challenges facing all those involved in developing understandings of workplace learning is that of conceptualizing how these aspects of learning actually come together within the experience of the learners. This chapter outlines key aspects of our research into the accountancy profession which aims, amongst other things, to assist in the re-engineering of the learning experience within accountancy, into something more ‘integrative’. We believe a focus on context, power and perspective, within an understanding of the ‘disciplinary ways of being’ at the heart of modern learning, is fundamental to understandings of learning and also to the process of change management within education and training. We offer an analysis of our template for change within education and training in the accountancy profession framed within a discussion of those aspects of context, power and perspective salient in this case.