ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the aporia in professional practice and investigates its consequences for the politics of learning and professional knowledge in contemporary society. It demonstrates how the aporia in professional practice rests on different ontological assumptions about the nature of knowledge and learning. There are different variants of the practice-based view on professional knowledge and learning, and they offer different accounts of how normativity manifests in practice. The rule-based and practice-based views of professional knowledge and learning are both present in contemporary policy initiatives in relation to professionalism. The traditional way to link ontology and advocacy would be to hold a rule-based view of knowledge and learning and embrace traditional science-centered policies for the education of professionals. The rule-based conception of professional practice and the use of knowledge is not only based on an incorrect conception of facts and values, but also on doubtful epistemology.