ABSTRACT

The second paper discusses the relationship between learning and work from the perspective of individuals' agentic action and intentionalities. It proposes that a greater acknowledgement of the interdependence between individual and social agency is warranted within current conceptions of learning throughout working life, and in associated policies and practices. The contributions of both social agency-through cultural practices and norms and the situated experiences of the workplace-and individual agency in the form of intentionality, gaze and engagement are held to be interdependent. There is mutual reliance for sustaining their respective continuities and development: i.e. the remaking and transformation of culture and individuals' capacities. Central to forms of continuity and their interdependence is the role of self in forming and energising this interdependence. On the basis of a study of five individual cases this paper investigates how individuals engage in their working lives and the role played by their agency, intentionality and sense of self in their work and work-based learning. It argues that while governments, education institutions and organizations are keen to mobilise workers as learners throughout their working lives, such mobilisation equally needs to account for how they are mediated though individuals' sense of self and intentionalities: their agency.