Working knowledge

Abstract

This article examines the nature of the knowledge needed for work and its relationship with knowledge that ‘works’ in securing other goals. It suggests that individual, societal and industrial challenges are interwoven, and that individuals should not have to segment knowledge used for different productive and generative activities. Greater connectedness is needed for individuals to construct meaning in achieving various work and non-work life goals, and that meaning comes from interpreting experience and evaluating those constructions for handling further experiences. Individuals seek equilibrium across their various constructions of meaning as they are transformed through experience. A reconciling framework is proposed on which to base reconstructions of existing ideas of the nature and purposes of what are now called ‘vocational’ and ‘general’ education. This framework gives centrality, in the construction of knowledge, to the doing that is involved in activity in pursuit of vocations. Some curriculum implications are outlined.