Luovuus ja oppiminen työssä

Abstract

The interest in, phenomenon and processes of workplace learning has developed in recent times in response to conceptual developments, informed inquiry and imperatives for improving learning for work. This chapter seeks to map these developments and their likely future course through engaging with a range of international and national perspectives yet by addressing special characteristics of recent Finnish discussions about creativity, work and learning. The examination of these developments, their purposes (e.g. development of professional expertise and human resource development) and educational alignments (e.g. vocational and professional education) is framed by a consideration of how best these purposes and alignments can be exercised. In doing so, we also highlight the interconnectedness of work-related identity construction, issues of workers' gender and age and the exercise of power in work practices and workplace learning. Within all of this is the opportunity for and need to understand further the relations between personal and social contributions to that participation and learning. We also aim to provide insights into current and future challenges for the studies in the area of workplace learning. We emphasise recent developments in creativity and innovation at work, and discuss why creativity is needed to be studied in the context of work and workplace learning. In particular, the relations between how creativity and learning may be connected and how creativity may be enhanced in the workplace at a collective and collegial level are discussed. We, thus, aim to arrive at a more elaborate understanding of creative and collaborative processes in general and especially of those processes in instances of contemporary work practice, for instance, in inter-professional work. Such efforts are motivated not just by the achievement of economic growth and more effective work practices, but also by improved job-satisfaction among the members of the groups and communities concerned (Searle 2004).