A Comparative Approach to Educational Forms and learning Processes

Abstract

Craft apprenticeship among tailors in Liberia is a complex educational form which calls into question the school‐centric, simplistic dichotomy (formal and informal education) which pervades comparative research on education. Likewise, comparative analysis of apprenticeship and schooling shifts the focus from differences in the organization of teaching, to the rich variety of learning processes that are integral to every form of education. Noting a tendency among the other authors to suggest we pursue new directions by first becoming apprentice psychologists, the author suggests that an anthropological emphasis on learning as quintessentially contextualized, socially organized, activity, has much to offer. APPRENTICESHIP, CULTURAL TRANSMISSION, LEARNING PROCESSES, COMPARATIVE MODELS OF EDUCATION.