Work, training, and professional skills
Reminder of the project's focus
From a sociological perspective, the aim is to understand the dynamics of actors (individuals and groups) in work situations and their interactions with the institutional, organizational, and human environment.
From an ergonomic perspective, we seek to contribute to the design of professional training programs based on the analysis of real-life activities, in particular by constructing simulation situations to develop an approach to learning situations rather than just learning knowledge.
To this end, the research area has three main objectives:
- The first objective is to understand the work by analyzing it both in terms of what is required, i.e., what needs to be done, and in terms of the actual activity, i.e., what the actors actually do to meet the requirements. We start from the initial observation, based on numerous studies in ergonomics, that there is a permanent and inevitable gap between the prescribed task and the actual activity, revealing the full complexity of the work. Work activity can never be reduced to the application of instructions or pre-established rules, and always goes beyond the task.
- The second objective is to understand learning and development at work by analyzing vocational training activities (those of trainees and trainers) in various settings closely linked to real-life work situations (field situations, practice analysis, simulation, video training, serious games, "innovative" situations, etc.). The aim is to try to establish how the skills and knowledge acquired in these vocational training situations are sources of inspiration, creativity, and new learning in real work situations. The conditions for professional development are studied in particular through the understanding of processes of mimetic immersion, reflexivity, and cooperation. Professional development is understood in terms of becoming, processes, and the relationship between the actor, the environment, and others through the analysis of transformations in work and/or training activities. The results of these studies contribute to a technological program aimed at designing, validating, modifying, and enriching existing or new training environments.
- The third objective is to understand professional identities in the process of formation (beginners), established, or evolving by examining the intersecting discourses of actors about their work, their experiences, the contexts in which they operate, and their rationales (actor-system). Talking about professionalism means considering both the acquisition/stabilization of the professional skills necessary to practice the profession and the unique, partly shared, "way of being in the profession" that mobilizes a strong identity dimension. In fact, this approach takes into account the dynamics of professional identities and the issues of recognition that contribute, individually and within groups, to the meaning given to the action.
2020-2021 Program
This year, two projects are being launched that should result in two collective writings summarizing our debates and work within the research area:
- Representations, uses, and practices of self-confrontation interviews
- The problems of linking heterogeneous data and the issue of inter-level.
2.5-hour session – mornings from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and afternoons from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Session 1 on September 18, 2020, afternoon
(room to be announced in early September)
1) Presentation of the theme and roundtable discussion with participants
2) Seminar operating procedures: in-person, remote (all or part)
3) Understanding learning and development at work by analyzing vocational training activities: Joint participation in high-fidelity simulation for midwives: Hélène Bouchot on her thesis; Valérie Courtin on training activities; Claudine Dos Santos with her thesis co-supervisors Frédéric Saujat and Serge Leblanc. Postponement of the session of June 19, 2020.
Session 2 on October 9, 2020, morning
(room to be announced later)
Understanding professional practices in construction, whether established or evolving: insights into an epistemological positioning
- Conference-debate devoted to the concept of "identity in action" by guest speaker Isabelle Vinatier, Professor Emeritus of Education Sciences at the University of Nantes.
Session 3 on November 20, 2020, afternoon
(room to be announced later)
Knowing and understanding work, and knowing and understanding learning and development at work
Understanding to transform and transforming to understand in the context of technological research: the case of F.Art.Eq. Guillaume Azéma & Sylvie Perez. Postponement of the session scheduled for April 3, 2020
Adjustment of the programming of the content of the two "available" sessions for the year 2021.
Session 4 on December 11, 2020, afternoon
(room to be announced later)
Knowing and understanding the work
- Representations and uses of simple and cross-referenced self-confrontation interviews of members of the axis.
- Presentation of an example of self-confrontation between two researchers, Serge Leblanc and Aurélie Chesnais, and a mathematics teacher: Analysis of the experience from a disciplinary perspective in mathematics education and from an "activity" perspective. Postponement of the session scheduled for May 29, 2020.
Session 5 on January 15, 2021, morning
(room to be announced later)
Knowing and understanding the work
Seminar dedicated to young doctors and doctoral students:
1) Presentation of Mélanie Secheppet's thesis
2) Presentation of Anne-Marie Mottaz's thesis
3) Presentation of Alexandra Maurine's thesis work (pending)
Session 6 on February 12, 2021, afternoon
(room to be announced later)
Session 7 on March 12, 2021, morning
(room to be announced later)
Understanding professional practices in construction, whether established or evolving
- Multi-level research: what can be "held together"?
- Problems related to the articulation of heterogeneous data and inter-level issues based on the socio-ethnographic input of the F.Art.Eq. research (training of equestrian artists) by Tizou Perez-Roux and Eric Maleyrot
Session 8 on April 9, 2021, afternoon
(room to be announced later)
Knowing and understanding the work
Frédéric Torterat will illustrate and discuss an approach to contemporary changes in work by analyzing the discourse of social actors and organizations (including institutions). The challenge here is to reflect on the tension between individuation and socialization that accompanies the construction of professionalism (in the fields of education, social work, and childcare).
Session 9 on May 7, 2021, morning
(room to be announced later)
Knowing and understanding the work
Seminar for doctoral students:
1) Presentation of Delphine Rivier's thesis work (pending)
2) Presentation of Kannany Ag Hartata's thesis work (pending)
3) Presentation of Pierre Cieutat's thesis work (pending)