The project will develop an interdisciplinary approach to the study of apprenticeship and skilled work by capitalising upon anthropology’s fieldwork tradition and focus on social interaction, and the expertise of educational studies in vocational learning. As a model of learning, apprenticeship has been resilient over many centuries throughout the world, providing the framework for teaching and learning in occupations spanning traditional crafts and trades and occupations in journalism, medicine and law. In their seminal book, Situated Learning (1991), cultural anthropologists Lave and Wenger employed case studies of apprenticeship to argue that people learn through purposeful participation in ‘communities of practice’. Their deliberate focus on apprenticeship legitimises forms of learning and knowledge that lay outside formal educational institutions, and celebrate ‘skilled’ work as a practice which combines different types of knowledge (codified, tacit, personal), judgment, and creativity.

The minimum entrance requirement for research degree at SOAS is a UK Masters degree or equivalent recognised by the School. Candidates should have an undergraduate and/or master level degree in Anthropology, with a merit or equivalent in the Masters Degree and a MA dissertation grade of 65% or higher. Existing fieldwork experience and knowledge of the literature on apprenticeship, vocational learning, craft and work would be beneficial.
The successful candidate will engage in an uninterrupted period of intensive fieldwork in Africa or Asia to gather original ethnographic data in occupational communities of practice. They will also actively engage with Marchand and Unwin in a unique cross-cultural comparative study that synthesises the multi-sited work of all three researchers.

Scholarship Application Deadline:31 May 2011

Further Scholarship Information and Application