The aim of this paper is to inject fresh thinking into the above debate about transfer, with special reference to work-based programmes. Instead of following the ‘situative’ critique of the concept of transfer (Greeno, 1997), the paper introduces a new approach based on the concept of ‘recontextualisation’ (Guile et al. forthcoming). At heart, this concept is based on a social practice conception of learning. What differentiates this approach from the work of Greeno and Lave and Wenger (1991) and other advocates of situated learning is that this concept allows us to acknowledge that: (i) forms of knowledge are characterised by different ‘knowledge discourses’ (Bernstein, 2000); the pedagogic challenge to support learners to ‘recontextualised’ (van Oers, 1998) such knowledge discourses as they move between different sites of learning in college and workplaces entails ensuring that there is a ‘learning’ and a ‘teaching’ curricula (Lave and Wenger, 1991); and, (iii) the process of recontextualisation is distributed over different contexts – disciplines, curricula, workplaces, and embodied in different individuals – teachers, supervisors and learners. Hence from our perspective, recontextualisation is, in contrast to transfer, a multi-faceted concept, which acknowledges that concepts and practices change as we use them in different settings. The paper will: (i) outline the way in which ideas from Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, Bernsteinian Sociology and the Philosophy of Mind have been reformulated to provide the underpinning tenets for the concept of recontextualisation; (ii) explore the implications of this new concept by focusing on four expressions of recontextualisation – curriculum, pedagogy, workplace and learner – and the way in which they can iteratively support the development of vocational expertise; and, (iii) raise a number of conceptual and methodological challenges associated with the deployment of the concept to analyse knowledge-based practice in a variety of different contexts. The paper will do so through reference to a case study analysis of a Foundation Degree (FD). FDs are a new type of degree launched by the UK Government in the early 2000s. The offer a flexible framework that employers, educational providers and professional/vocational institutes can use to ‘design’ a degree to reflect sectoral or company-specific skill needs. The FD in aeronautics serves an expanding employment sector characterised by a lack of intermediate skill needs, and has been designed to help experienced workers either to supplement their engineering expertise or to move into a new sector of employment

The data drawn on in this paper was collected over two years through a mix of (i) semi-structured interviews with the designers of the FD, educational and workplace teacher/trainers and learners; and (ii) observations of some the class- and work-based learning activities. A process of triangulation was used to verify the emerging findings. It consisted of: (i) using ‘continued comparative analysis’ to analyse the data (Glaser, 1965) (ii) regular presentation of questions and issues about the design, delivery and learner engagement with the FD arising from this analysis to the above stakeholders; and (iii) the discussion of interim research reports with a Steering Group consisting of industry and HE representatives with experience of designing and researching work-based programmes. Taken in combination, this approach facilitated the identification of the contribution that educational and workplace pedagogic processes make to the development of aeronautical expertise.

By elaborating and extending Barnett’s notion of ‘pedagogic recontextualisation’ (PR) through reference to van Oer’s (1998) notion of ‘progressive recontextualisation’, the paper will shed new light on how to analyse the inter-relation between the organisation, structuring sequencing of different forms of knowledge into, for example, modules, and the decisions about the learning activities to support people to engage purposively with those modules. Furthermore, by viewing curricula and pedagogy within a social practice rather than a technical framework, it is possible to: (i) reveal the challenge of integrating disciplinary and practice-based knowledge in the FD; and (ii) decide which learning activities best support people to engage with and see the relation between these different types of knowledge. It will also demonstrate that although integration processes often start with PR, workplace environments fundamentally affect how knowledge is put to work in different work practices.