What is apparent in these four presentations of the pedagogic function of the
collective and the ranging perspectives of context are fundamentally different
ontological orientations. Those inhabiting a realist world (which appear evident, albeit
to different degrees of reflexivity, in the themes of individual acquisition, levels of
learning, network utility, and co-participation/co-emergent) assume that the real
existence of objects, activities, people and associated occurrences of learning should not
be confused with human perceptions of these things. Those adopting a constructivist
orientation (which arguably might include the themes of individual in community and
individual development) assume that individuals’ meaning-making in work is the most important focus in questions of learning; objects and activities are separate from but not
theorized as part of these constructed meanings. And those working within the logics
and languages of social constructionism (evident in certain writings grouped here as
themes of communities of practice and sensemaking) assume that all things in work –
objects, ideas, subjectivities, practices and the learning processes through which they
come into being and become adapted and transformed – are constructed through shared
meaning-making, and that there is no ‘real’ beyond these constructions. The argument
here is that these are not simply examples of different perspectives, but of different
ontologies. Those of us studying workplace learning are often witnessing the enactment
of distinct phenomena in fundamentally different realities, that all are referred to as
learning. They are messy objects that sometimes overlap and inhabit each other’s
presence.