Contributions of the “Pedagogy of the Tool” to the Pedagogy of Work

Abstract

“Pedagogy of the Tool” is part of the title of a thesis that analyzed the strategies used by the tool makers of a metallurgical industry to produce, mobilize, and formalize tacit knowledge. This article highlights the strategies used by the tool makers to mobilize their knowledge and proposes a debate on a Pedagogy of Work founded on the view of work as an educational principle and on the view of education as polytechnicity. The “Pedagogy of the Tool” contributes to a Pedagogy of Work in that it reiterates the ontological and epistemological dimension of work and the presence of a use of oneself to oneself and to the other in the daily routine of the tool makers. It shows the fragility of the pedagogical proposals that intend to anticipate the knowledge required in the working situations and crystallize them in lists of aprioristic contents that do not question themselves or their articulation with others. It doesn’t let us forget that behind an apparent fixity the working routine is an endless production, formalization and mobilization of multiple forms of knowledge by the individuals who are its protagonists. A Pedagogy of Work based on this evidence would benefit from a permanent dynamics between three poles: the pole of organized and available knowledge, the pole of knowledge invested in work activities, and the pole of the ethical-epistemological demands.

Key words: pedagogy of the tool, pedagogy of work, production, mobilization and formalization of knowledge at work, tacit knowledge.