Advisory practices in adult education and training and anticipation problems
Adult advisory services often include dimensions related to anticipation of future developments for beneficiaries and professionals in this field. For beneficiaries this involves establishing new configurations of themselves and their own futures, while for professionals it is a question of supporting the establishment of these configurations by opening up to possibilities without being able to completely anticipate the outcome.
Adult advisory services are characterised by two key elements. Firstly, there is a service relationship between a service provider and a beneficiary involving significant linguistic interaction based on various modes of signification. Secondly, it is an activity which essentially focuses on the future for the actors involved.
While the dynamic of anticipation is a constituent part of everyone’s experience because “it is impossible not to anticipate”, it is especially prevalent in advisory situations for both beneficiaries and professionals. Anticipation is therefore one of the main elements of the work, focus, concerns and activities of both the advisors and advice recipients. The question raised for participants in the advisory situation is knowing how to shift from current experience to future activity while managing the uncertainty of the unknown and trying out intermediate configurations which can “guide” the emergence of new scenarios and enable participants to learn “how to adopt an enterprising approach.”
Based on these premises, the study aims to analyse – from the perspective of the problem of anticipation – a range of advisory practices which are current topics of study at the Professional Development and Education and Training Research Unit at Agrosup Dijon (Institut National Supérieur des Sciences Agronomiques, de l'Alimentation et de l'Environnement de Dijon – National Higher Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Food and Environment of Dijon).
In relation to these practices, the study aims to: a) identify the transversal and distinctive elements of these various forms of advice, b) to identify, within the dynamic of signification of the individuals concerned, the ways in which anticipation of the future is expressed, what its constitutive elements are and how everyone’s experience is manifested taking account of their status (advisor or advice recipient).
This study was carried out from the perspective of the analysis of work and human activity. The methods used to collect and analyse the data make reference to ethnographic approaches and the semio-logical analysis of the activity, inspired by the semiotics of Peirce, which enable the dynamics of the signification of the actors concerned to be identified.
The results of the various field studies and discussions with the professors of the host institution enabled the field of study concerning the relationship between advisory practices and the dynamics of anticipation to be consolidated. As a result, a summary was produced of the studies on the concept of anticipation, included in the articles and presentations carried out, the elements used by advisors involved in the field studies to help advice recipients to give their future plans sharper focus (professional development advice) were identified and a transformation process the outcomes of which are still uncertain (agricultural advice) was supported. More generally, the key relationships between the dynamics of anticipation and life-long adult education and training processes (found in associated publications) were identified more precisely. All of these elements were taken into account in the planning and development of training for advisors and trainers in adult education.