Concevoir des formations facilitant l’émergence de nouvelles significations face à des évènements inédits et critiques

Abstract

Our research is part of a technological research program in adult education conducted in relation to the “course of action” program. Using the activity-sign hypothesis of this program, training situations are viewed as opportunities to perturb/relaunch the participants’ dynamics of meaning. Our contribution aims to (i) improve the conceptualization of training situations that are designed as aids to the understanding and transformation of the participants’ situations, and (ii) derive cross-cutting design principles that allow the enactment of these training situations in different contexts. We rely on the analysis of training programs aimed either at the management or at overcoming events experienced as unprecedented and critical by the individuals concerned. Depending on the case, these training programs have a “restorative” aim (resolving impasse situations), or have a “preparatory” aim (prefiguration of crisis situations). The design principles of these training programs and their effects are analyzed with the conceptual tools developed within the course-of-action, integrating two additional dimensions: fictional and event-driven. The conditions for the emergence of new meanings are described in terms of abduction, either for reparative purposes (resolution of deadlock situations) or for preparatory purposes (prefiguration of crisis situations). The contribution to the course-of-action program and to research on adult education is discussed through the prism of the hypothesis of activity‑sign.

Keywords

• adult education
• activity-sign
• abduction
• impasse
• design-based research