Professions and Professionalisation: Sociological Perspectives and the case of

learning/participation

Education in Arts & cultural settings, King’s College London 2013/2014

Module: Art, Culture & EducationHelen Charman & Anwar Tlili

18 March 2014

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Aims

• What do we mean by a profession and professionalism

• The nature of professional knowledge

• The circumstances surrounding the professionalization of occupations

• The case of educators/education in arts and culture

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The idea of a profession

- Occupation vs. profession- The idea of profession, strictly

speaking, is very recent- The professional claim and ‘the

professional project’ (Larson 1977)

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Professional Traits• Public trust• Autonomy• a representative body (professional org)• collegial control and self-regulation• Accreditation (of institutions/individuals) and

credentialled education• Professional knowledge/expertise (propositional

knowledge + craft knowledge)• A service for widely demanded tasks oriented towards the

public interest; well-being• Dealing with people: an interpersonal relation/rapport

with service users• a code of ethics; or at least an ethical framework (a value

base)

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Two questions• To what extent professionalism is a matter of a

successful campaign for professional recognition? The importance of the process of professionalization (Larson 1977; MacDonald 1955)

• To what extent professions owe their recognized professionalism to some features and traits intrinsic to certain types of work?

- the necessary and sufficient conditions for a profession: specific forms of theoretical and practical knowledge required for the conduct and delivery of the work in question

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Professional Expertise• This approach is represented by Eraut,

Winch, Freidson and others:• Expertise is the ‘prime source’ of

professionalism• expert knowledge base with control vested in

the experts themselves (as no-one else can evaluate the efficacy of the provision).

• Knowledge as the core with experts who mediate the knowledge - this lies at the heart of the power of the professions

• Plus ‘core values’ concerning both technical and occupational aspects of the profession.

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Professional knowledge• A body of knowledge is usually known as

‘theory’• Relatively systematic, relatively general and

relatively abstract.• Broadly speaking, theories are either empirical

or normative.• Empirical theory is ultimately based on factual

evidence.• Normative theory: specifies norms for practice

(the professional knows that such and such are the norms and has the practical ability to interpret them, and to put them into practice)

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Professional knowledge (continued)

• Professional knowledge contains two dimensions: • - propositional knowledge (also known as

declarative/theoretical/disciplinary knowledge; knowing-that (based on Ryle’s distinction); knowledge about x, y and z facts/events/tendencies etc.)

• Craft knowledge (or practical knowledge) – non-discursive; non-declarative; implicit; tacit; embodied

• How about knowledge about values/principles and the ability to act in ethically adequate ways in response to new challenging situations requiring sound ethical reasoning to negotiate ethical dilemmas

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The example of teaching• Subject knowledge• Applied subject knowledge: pedagogy or pedagogic

knowledge• Knowledge about teaching and learning: such

knowledge derives from the work of psychologists, sociologists and linguists: they have developed theories of intelligence, development, verbal deficit, acquisition devices, generic skills etc. (the problem of knowledge vs. belief)

• Knowing how to translate that knowledge into teachable/manageable bits

• An ethical framework

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The case of education/educators in arts and culture

• what they are NOT:• An artist: using a technique, creatively

manipulating form to a) put across a message; b) create ‘affects’ and ‘percepts’ (Deleuze and Guattari 1994; Sutton and Jones 2008)

• An educator: facilitating the relay and acquisition of knowledge, understanding and learning-to-learn/enquiry competence

• The role of learning/participation in arts and culture is neither one nor the other, and overlapping both at the same time but something extra involved

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Continued• To relay messages via ‘affects’ and ‘percepts’; create new ‘affects’

and ‘percepts’• To facilitate the process of people becoming creators of ‘affects’

and ‘percepts’; unlocking the creative potential of unrecognized creators?

• In addition to:- Facilitating acquisition of cultural capital and social capitalThus art becomes: an object of learning; a resource; a negotiated,

decentred and experimental process of self-expression or ‘subjectivation’ (Guattari 2006) (the product secondary);

Deconstructing the pedagogical as well as the aesthetic relationship

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Further Thoughts

• Learning and participation as a profession in the making exists in a double-bind or a paradoxical relationship: their aim is to make themselves no longer needed

• Relational art practices; or ‘relational aesthetics’ (Bourriaud 2002)

• Learning right at the centre of cultural organisations.

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The empirical side: a preliminary typology of aptitudes/skills

Ongoing research project – exploring the professional knowledge base for Learning staff (but note the problem of nomenclature!):•Affective – value-rational commitment to the work (in Weber’s sense; a life-task as an end in itself); faith in the social mission of art• Propositional knowledge – about art’s contexture -- not used for itself; as a springboard to dialogue and relational aesthetics

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• The aim is not to facilitate the acquisition of that knowledge as an end in itself, but rather to support extracting knowledge from art and dialogue through and around art; to facilitate informed critical engagement.

• Translation skills: translating art into a mode of intersubjectivity: the ‘collaborative elaboration of meaning’ – the learning facilitator as translator.

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Other aspects/aptitudes.

• Interpersonal • Advocacy • Negotiation • Creative responsiveness to unique encounters• Inter-organizational/inter-professional

awareness• Awareness about multiplicity of audiences

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References

• Bourriaud, N. (2002) Relational Aesthetics. Paris: Les Presses du Réel.

• Deleuze, G & Guattari, F. (1994) ‘Percept, Affect, and Concept’, in What

is Philosophy (Chapter 7, pp. 163-199). London: Verso.

• Eraut, M. (1994). Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence.

London: Falmer Press.

• Freidson, E. (2001). Professionalism: The Third Logic. Cambridge: Polity

Press.

• Guattari, F. (2006) ‘Chaosmos: an Ethico-aesthetic paradigm’ [extract], in

Bishop, C. (2006) Participation (Documents of Contemporary Art).

London and Cambridge, MA: White Chapel Gallery and the MIT Press,

pp. 79-82 (original: Chaosmosis: An Ethico-aesthetic Paradigm.

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Refs (continued)

• Indiana State University).

• Larson, M. S. (1977). The Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.

• Macdonald, K. M. (1995). Sociology of the professions. London: SAGE.

• Sutton, D. & Jones, D. M. (2008) Deleuze Reframed: A Guide for the Arts Student. New York: I. B. Tauris.

• Winch, C. (2010). Dimensions of Expertise: A Conceptual Exploration of Vocational knowledge. London: Continuum.

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