Learning and the Psycho-Societal Nature of Social Practice: Tracing the Invisible Social Dimension in Work and Learning

Abstract

This paper introduces a psycho-societal approach to empirical learning research combining a materialist theory of socialization with a hermeneutic interpretation methodology. The focus is on individual subjectivity as well as subjective aspects of social interaction. The term “approach” indicates the intrinsic connection between the theorizing of an empirical object, the research process and the epistemic subject. The practical method is an interpretation procedure based in interview transcripts or field observation notes. By interpreting articulations and interactions in the perspective of the subjective meaning for agents and interlocutors, it seeks to understand learning as a subjective process of experiencing social reality. In particular, this methodology is interested in the relation between what is “visible,” i.e., a conscious level of knowing and learning by participating in social interaction, and “invisible,” i.e., collective unconscious meanings that can be traced in texts and interaction by sensitive interpretation.

Keywords

• podejście psychospołeczne
• metoda jakościowa
• teoria uczenia się
• socjalizacja
• doświadczenie
• gra językowa
• neo-marksizm