Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory on Didactics, Education, and Training

Sébastien Chaliès

University Professor

Research Topics

My scholarly work aims to contribute to a “research program” focused onthe construction of the self in the workplace and/or in training. More broadly, it contributes to what an anthropology of professional life might look like—professional life within professions that are undergoing change in light of major societal challenges (ecological, social, and related to solidarity).

From a theoretical perspective, my work falls within the framework of what is known as “culturalist” anthropology, drawing heavily on the philosophical and anthropological work of L. Wittgenstein and his numerous interpreters (notably J. Bouveresse, C. Chauviré, P. De Lara, S. Laugier, P. Steiner, S. Cavell, and C. Taylor). The subject of professional life is approached through key concepts such as “way of life,” “(in)expressivity,” “normative and anthropological capacities,” “background (rules, language games, values),” “experience,” “activity,” “techniques,” and/or “intention.” The conditions of its construction—particularly with regard to work circumstances and/or training—are, for their part, explored through concepts such as “ostensive/ostensible teaching,” “guidance,” “regimes of reflexivity,” “degrees of consciousness,” and “normativity.”

From a methodological standpoint, a transformative approach—based on a relationship of consubstantiality between scientific and technological objectives—is favored. Tools for collecting and processing data—which is often composite and mixed—are utilized.

The development of the professional topic is addressed in connection with the following topics:

  • Resilience and Vulnerability: Learning, Development, Competence, Satisfaction, Occupational Health, Fragility, Precarity
  • Dynamics and Trajectory: Career Transition, “Career Breaks,” Entry into the Profession; Lifelong Learning
  • Situations, Spaces, and Time: Situational Continuum, Alternation, Pedagogical Guidance, Mentoring
  • Tools, techniques, and technologies: video training, simulation, artifacts
  • Singularity and Genericity: Individual, Collection, Collective, Community, Territory
  • Field: Heritage (intangible and tangible)—practice, formalization, preservation, transmission, transition, transformation

Lessons

Practices and Engineering in Adult Education, Training in and Through Research, Training of Trainers, Initial Teacher Education

Responsibilities

  • Director of LIRDEF
  • Deputy Director of the Faculty of Education at the University of Montpellier—Diversification of academic programs, outreach to and engagement with society
  • Head of the "Training Practice and Engineering" Specialization
  • Director of the Master's Program in "Transitions, Training Engineering, and Professional Transformation (TransForM)"
  • Co-leader of the TFP research area
  • Laboratory Board Member