Informal Learning as a Speech-Exchange System: Implications for Knowledge Production,Power and Social Transformation

Abstract

Most empirical investigations of ‘informal learning’ either arbitrarily operationalize the term or take common sense notions of the term as the basis for their claims. Few studies to date have problematized the phenomenon itself with reference to its accomplishment in moment-bymoment interaction. This article draws on detailed analysis to make claims about the nature of informal learning as a distinct speech-exchange system with features of both formal pedagogical communication and everyday conversation. The analysis shows how two novice computer users can collectively construct a Zone of Proximal Development for their learning. I discuss ambiguities of informal learning, the difficulties of computer-mediated learning interaction specifically, and the political significance of shared control over turn-allocation. I conclude that analysis of informal learning as a speechexchange system is useful and that learning can be understood outside of expert–novice relationships. The broader social implications of this are that hierarchical knowledge/power relations are not necessarily definitive of the learning process. This, in turn, provides support for the claim that informal learning may be a means of transforming rather than reproducing knowledge forms.