Abstract
This chapter uses historical and anthropological sources to account for how the learning of occupations has occurred across human history before and outside of schooled societies and educational institutions. It provides accounts from Mesopotamia, Hellenic Greece, Early Imperial China and other countries and eras in an attempt to identify and describe the processes that supported the learning of occupations across human history. In particular, the process of teaching appears largely to be a product of modernity and, in particular, a consequence of the formation of modern nation states and the requirements of industrialisation and the advent of mass schooling (i.e., education). Up until that point, the development of occupational competence was centred very much upon the learning rather than the teaching process. This chapter offers the beginnings of a framework and set of bases through which a comprehensive account of learning through practice can progress.
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Notes
- 1.
This comment was made by the librarian at the Joseph Needham Centre at the University of Cambridge, John P.C. Moffett.
- 2.
Prof Nigel Wood from the University of Oxford.
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Billett, S. (2014). Learning Through Practice Across Human History. In: Mimetic Learning at Work. SpringerBriefs in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09277-5_2
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