Informal learning in formal organizations: The case of volunteer learning in the hospital

Abstract

The sociology of education has much to gain from an organizational perspective on learning processes. This is especially true for ‘informal learning’ – that is, learning beyond traditional educational settings such as schools and universities. The present article addresses this gap by providing a theoretical and empirical account of the informality of learning situations in formal organizations. Following the insights of the ‘situated learning’ literature and interaction-based analysis, the article investigates the role and place of informal learners in formal organizations by analysing the learning experience of volunteers who have chosen to take part in the German national voluntary service. The author grasps the complexity of their learning experience over time by using a mixed methods design that combines ethnographic protocols with a series of narrative interviews with German voluntary service participants in hospitals. Since the volunteers observed in the hospital context were constrained to routine tasks that do not require medical skills, their scope of learning new things is indeed limited. Learning thus comes with the necessity of challenging the boundaries of their volunteer role, which in turn requires the cooperation of the regular staff. The article reveals the social mechanisms underlying the individual learning experience of hospital volunteers. It does so by focusing on their boundary work and by identifying the limits of their participation in the communities of practice that they are ‘trying to help’.