Working Knowledge and Work-Based Learning: Research Implications. Working Paper.

The research implications of the concepts of working knowledge and work-based learning were examined. A research agenda for work-based learning arising from the analysis of "working knowledge" was presented. The agenda listed questions pertaining to the following areas: (1) the conditions bringing about work-based learning; (2) the nature of working knowledge; (3) knowledge formation and learning at work; (4) academic institutions and their knowledge codes; (5) contemporary knowledge formation; and (6) working identity. The impact of the "embeddedness" of learning in the workplace on attempts to research how knowledge is produced in workplaces was discussed, focusing on the following items: (1) what employees deem to be learning practices and how they understand these practices by their various conceptions of learning; (2) the work relationships and social learning that occur among employees and their influence on formation and modification of worksites' learning practices; and (3) the organizational culture that provides a context for learning. The following factors conditioning a learning culture were explored in an analysis of the problem of researching how an organizational "learning culture" is produced in enterprises: environments pressing the organization to change; organizational systems promoting learning; and practices securing employee commitment. (Contains 18 references.) (MN)