Abstract:

The paper analyzes the role that pedagogy can play today, but in a completely innovative way (Massa 1978, 1997), conceived to support the subject as worker in the construction of his/her own job-self.

In today’s working environment, a job may change its substance and image (Bauman, 1998): it breaks the traditional and loyal connection between individual and organization (and that was a reciprocal mirroring), it deletes the typical career path (loyalty to a single organization), adopting de-standardized professional development patterns (the valorization of its own professional originality carries quicker and multiple careers changes thus subsequently more jobs), exposing the worker to continuous changes and uncertainty (often selected, but nevertheless suffered). As a consequence of these deep transformations, the professional-self can no longer be seen as a prerequisite to access a new occupation or a career path, but is increasingly the "effect" of the workers’ experience, often temporary and more diversified. The weakening of the safest two ways relationship between identity and work, that characterized the industrial age, is today transforming towards the re-discovery of the pedagogical function of work experience, capable of sending back to the worker the formativity (Pareyson 1988) of his/her experience in terms of skills and construction of its own professional-self. Pedagogy, other than supporting the definition of development and training plans, may be able to recognize the formative effects of a direct participation in work-experience, in order to enhance the “how to behave” and “how to make” learned in the real work place.

In the end, if on one hand the relationship between work and identity (social and professional) weakens, on the other however, the need to build its own job-self is strengthened with a view to reset it on the basis of a fragmented and heterogeneous work experience.

Keywords:

Work experience, identity, professional self, education.