Safety in Third Space Informal Learning Environments: An Ethnographic Study of Professional Discussion Groups

• In Event: Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: Novel Forms of Communication in Professions Education

Abstract

In this study we explored the critical nature of safety in an informal learning environment for working professionals. Using ethnographic methods incorporating video recorded observations and qualitative interviews, we investigated two professional discussion groups with 53 participants over a one year period. We integrated a Third Space conceptual framework based on cultural hybridity and “third-as-othering” to analyze the data. We found that when participants felt safe within the discussion groups, they freely shared opinions, expressed disagreements, and turned counterscript into opportunities to engage in collective sense-making of terms and concepts. The safety experienced by participants within the discussion groups enabled an in-between space—a Third Space—between the participant’s professional and personal lives to flourish.

Authors

• Robert Anthony Jordan, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

• Susan M. Land, The Pennsylvania State University