Negotiation of Epistemic Territories and Collaborative Learning in Workplace Interactions: The Case of Requests for Assistance

Abstract

Vocational learning processes within interaction are poorly documented in the scientific literature. Difficulties lie in the need to identify "observables" that provide access to the interactional ingredients of learning processes as well as to the dynamic transformation of practices. In line with research work that focuses on epistemic asymmetries within interaction, we propose here to examine situations where novice professionals encounter difficulties and thus call upon their colleagues, more or less experienced, to ask for help. Building upon research work on the critical concept of "epistemic territories" as it has been developed within Conversational Analysis, we will highlight how request sequences for assistance project upcoming possible instructional activity. We are therefore interested in informal vocational learning situations that take place independently of a curriculum, and in the interactional processes that constitute them.