The concept of “recontextualization”: implications for professional, vocational and workplace learning

Abstract

Abstract The paper argues that writers from a variety of socio-cultural and -cognitive perspectives have sought in a number of ways to close the assumed longstanding gap between theory and practice in Professional, Vocational and Workplace Learning (PVWL). In contrast, the paper adopts a different stance: it seeks to dissolve that gap, in other words, show it is only a feature of extant theorisation rather than an a priori given. To do so, the paper extends and elaborates the concept of “recontextualisation”, which was originally formulated by van Oers (1998) to clarify why Vygotsky operated with a contextual conception of knowing and learning. It accomplishes this extension and elaboration by identifying three principles to reveal why the concept of recontextualization allows us to appreciate why there is a relationship rather than a gap between theory and practice. Secondly, introduces a holistic framework to encapsulate the mediated relationship between theory and practice in the development of professional and vocational expertise. The paper concludes by arguing that recontextualization is an open concept which writers who draw on socio-cultural and -cognitive traditions could chose to incorporate into their conceptual repertoire to address issues that currently are excluded from, or are marginal concerns within, their research.