Experience-based learning, learning from experience and feminist challenges. Supporting professional identity development through collective reflective practices

Journal title EDUCATIONAL REFLECTIVE PRACTICES
Author/s Alessandra Romano, Francesca Bracci, Loretta Fabbri, Teresa Grange
Publishing Year 2018 Issue 2018/1
Language Italian Pages 16 P. 9-24 File size 212 KB
DOI 10.3280/ERP2018-001002
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The article presents findings from an intervention research designed to support undergraduate female students and educators of early childhood education and care services to reflect critically on the relationships between gender, career expectations, trajectories of professional development and work practices. The research project involved fifty-four female students of the third year of the degree in education sciences that, in the academic year 2017-2018, followed a laboratory entitled Supporting Development of Professional Identity, and forty-three female educators of the early childhood care and education services who participated into training activities promoted by a Lombard social cooperative. The goals were: 1. to develop knowledge and insight on what it means to be a professional practitioner in the education sector; 2. to support trajectories of professional development from a gender perspective; 3. to help participants become aware and question taken-for-granted and culturally assimilated assumptions about professional practices, identity, and role of the educator; In the laboratory path, were adopted action methodologies based, respectively, on experience-based learning (Andresen, Boud & Cohen, 2000; Boud, Keogh & Walker, 2013), learning from experience (Argyris & Schön, 1978; Lave & Wenger, 1991; O’Neil & Marsick, 2009), and post-structuralist feminist perspective (Francis & Skelton, 2005; Gherardi & Poggio, 2006). The aim is to present a methodological framework useful to elaborate, within project-based paths, models of collective action to promote individual and organizational learning through the construction of reflective knowledge.

  1. Andresen L., Boud D., & Cohen R. (2000). Experience-based learning. Understanding adult education and training, 2: 225-239.
  2. Argyris C., & Schön D. (1978). Organizational learning: a theory of action perspective. Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley.
  3. Atwater L.E., Brett J.F., Waldman D., et al. (2004). Men’s and women’s perceptions of the gender typing of management subroles. Sex Roles, 50(3-4): 191-199.
  4. Barus-Michel J., Enriquez E., Lévy A. (a cura di) (2005). Vocabulaire de psychologie. References et positions. Edizione italiana a cura di Kaneklin C., Olivetti Manoukian F., Dizionario di psicosociologia. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.
  5. Bierema L.L., & Cseh M. (2003). Evaluating AHRD research using a feminist research framework. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 14(1): 5-26.
  6. Bird S.R., & Erickson K.A. (2010). A constructive controversy approach to “Case Studies” . Teaching Sociology, 38(2): 119-131.
  7. Boud D., Keogh R., & Walker D. (Eds.) (2013). Reflection: Turning experience into learning. New York: Routledge.
  8. Bracci F. (2018). Storie di genere, culture organizzative e traiettorie trasformative. Una ricerca intervento. In Federighi P. (a cura di). Educazione in età adulta: ricerche, politiche, luoghi e professioni. Firenze: Firenze University Press.
  9. Cranton P. (2006). Fostering authentic relationships in the transformative classroom. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 109: 5-13.
  10. Cranton P., & Taylor E.W. (2012). Transformative learning: seeking a more unified theory. In: Taylor E., Cranton P. (a cura di). The Handbook of Transformative learning: Theory, Research and Practice. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 3-19.
  11. Davies B., & Harré R. (1990). Positioning: The discursive production of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 20(1): 43-63.
  12. DeFilippi R. (2001). Project-based learning, reflective practices and learning outcomes. Management Learning, 32(1): 5-10.
  13. Fabbri L. (2007). Comunità di pratica e apprendimento riflessivo. Roma: Carocci.
  14. Francis B., & Skelton C. (2005). Reassessing gender and achievement: Questioning contemporary key debates. New York: Routledge.
  15. Gherardi S. (2012). How to conduct a practice-based study. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
  16. Gherardi S., & Poggio B. (2006). Feminist challenges to mainstream leadership through collective reflection and narrative. In: Boud D., Cressey P., Docherty P. (Eds.). Productive reflection at work. London/New York, N.Y.: Routledge.
  17. Gherardi S., & Murgia A. (2015). Imagine being asked to evaluate your CEO…: Using the constructive controversy approach to teach gender and management in times of economic crisis. Management Learning, 46(1): 6-23.
  18. Gilardi S., & Lozza E. (2009). Inquiry-based learning and undergraduates’ professional identity development: Assessment of a field research-based course. Innovative Higher Education, 34(4): 245-256.
  19. Grange T. (2006). Il laboratorio come luogo di costruzione delle competenze. In: Paparella N., Perucca A. (a cura di). Le attività di laboratorio e di tirocinio nella formazione universitaria (Vol. 2). Roma: Armando Editore, pp. 63-97.
  20. Harding S. (1987). Is There a Feminist Method? In: Harding S. (a cura di). Feminism and methodology. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1-15.
  21. Hoggan C.D. (2014). Lessons from breast cancer survivors: The interplay between context, epistemology and change. Adult Education Quarterly, 64(3): 191-205.
  22. Hoggan C.D. (2016a). Transformative learning as a metatheory: Definition, criteria, and typology. Adult Education Quarterly, 66(1): 57-75.
  23. Hoggan C.D. (2016b). Researching Transformative Learning: Using the Typology of Transformative Outcomes as a Research Tool. In: Nicolaides A. & Holt D. (Eds.). Engaging at the Intersections. Proceedings of the XII International Transformative Learning Conference. Tacoma, Washington, Pacific Lutheran University, 133-139.
  24. Landman M. (2006). Getting quality in qualitative research: A short introduction to feminist methodology and methods. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 65(4): 429-433.
  25. Lave J., & Wenger E. (1991). Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  26. Lundgren H., Bang A., Justice S.B., Marsick V.J., Poell R. F., Yorks L. (2017). Conceptualizing reflection in experience-based workplace learning. Human Resource Development International, 20(4): 305-326.
  27. Kaneklin C. L., & Scaratti G. (a cura di) (1998). Formazione e narrazione. Costruzione di significato e processi di cambiamento personale e organizzativo. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.
  28. Kaneklin C., Scaratti G., & Bruno A. (2006). La formazione universitaria. Pratiche possibili. Roma: Carocci Editore.
  29. Katila S., & Eriksson P. (2013). He is a firm, strong-minded and empowering leader, but is she? Gendered positioning of female and male CEOs. Gender Work and Organization, 20(1): 71-84.
  30. Korthagen F., & Vasalos A. (2005). Levels in Reflection: Core Reflection as a Means to Enhance Professional Growth. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 11(1): 47-71.
  31. Marsick V. J., & Maltbia T. E. (2009). The transformative potential of action learning conversations: Developing critically reflective practice skills. In: Mezirow J., Taylor E.W. (Eds.). Transformative learning in practice: Insights from community, workplace, and higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 160-171.
  32. Marsick V. J., & Watkins K. (1990). Informal and incidental learning in the workplace. New York: Routledge.
  33. Mezirow J. (2000). Learning to think like an adult. Core concepts of transformation theory. In: Mezirow J. and Associates (Eds.). Learning as transformation. Critical perspectives on a theory in progress (pp. 3-33). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
  34. Mezirow J. (2003). Transformative learning as discourse. Journal of Transformative Education, 1(1): 58-63.
  35. Nicolini D., Gherardi S., & Yanow D. (2003). Introduction: toward a practice-based view of knowing and learning in organizations. In: Nicolini D., Gherardi S. and Yanow D. (Eds). Knowing in Organizations: A Practice-based Approach. New York: M.E. Sharpe, pp. 3-31.
  36. O’ Neil J., & Marsick V.J. (2007). Understanding action learning. New York, NY: AMACOM.
  37. O’Neil J., & Marsick V.J. (2009). Peer Mentoring and Action Learning. Adult Learning, 20(1&2): 19-24.
  38. Poell R.F., Yorks L., & Marsick V.J. (2009). Organizing Project-Based Learning in Work Contexts. A Cross-Cultural Cross Analysis of Data From Two Projects. Adult Education Quarterly, 60(1): 77-93.
  39. Revans R.W. (1982). What is Action Learning? Journal of Management Development, 1(3): 64-75.
  40. Schön D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books, tr. it. 1993, Il professionista riflessivo. Per una nuova epistemologia della pratica professionale. Bari: Dedalo.
  41. Schön D. A. (1987). Educative the reflective practitioner. Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, tr. it. 2006, Formare il professionista riflessivo. Per una nuova prospettiva della formazione e dell’apprendimento nelle professioni. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  42. Shani A. B., Guerci M., Cirella S. (a cura di) (2014). Collaborative management research. Teoria, metodi, esperienze. Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.
  43. Taylor E.W. (2002). Teaching Beliefs of Graduate Students in Adult Education: A Longitudinal Perspective. In: Cervero, R. M., Courtenay B. C., Monaghan C. H. (Eds). Comps. The Cyril O. Houle Scholars in Adult & Continuing Education Program Global Research Perspectives University of Georgia, 2, 120-131.
  44. Taylor E.W., & Cranton P. (2012) (Eds.). The Handbook of Transformative learning: Theory, Research and Practice. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
  45. Thompson B. (2016). Gender, management and leadership in initial teacher education: Managing to Survive in the Education Marketplace? Berlin: Springer.
  46. Tisdell E. (1998). Poststructural feminist pedagogies: the possibilities and limitations of a feminist emancipatory adult learning theory and practice. Adult Learning Quarterly, 48(3): 139-156.

  • Collaborative practices for inclusive perspectives and beliefs in preservice teachers. The case of the training course for teachers for special needs students Alessandra Romano, in EDUCATIONAL REFLECTIVE PRACTICES 2/2020 pp.19
    DOI: 10.3280/ERP2019-002002
  • Tradurre l'orientamento in pratica: laboratori per lo sviluppo delle prefigurazioni professionali degli studenti e delle studentesse Francesca Bianchi, Nicolina Bosco, Caterina Garofano, Alessandra Romano, in EDUCATIONAL REFLECTIVE PRACTICES 2/2021 pp.5
    DOI: 10.3280/erp2-2021oa12112

Alessandra Romano, Francesca Bracci, Loretta Fabbri, Teresa Grange, Experience-based learning, apprendimento dall’esperienza e sfide femministe. Supportare lo sviluppo dell’identità professionale attraverso pratiche riflessive collettive in "EDUCATIONAL REFLECTIVE PRACTICES" 1/2018, pp 9-24, DOI: 10.3280/ERP2018-001002