Advancing the conceptualization of learning trajectories: A review of learning across contexts

Abstract

In contemporary society, school is only one of the contexts in which people learn throughout their lives. Therefore, in recent years studies and conceptual proposals that seek to understand how children and young people learn in different activity contexts have proliferated. In this article we present a systematic review of the recent literature on learning across contexts, and specifically on learning trajectories. The objective is to narrow down and define the notion of learning trajectory by reviewing the existing proposals on the term itself and on other similar concepts, and placing it within the framework of other relevant theoretical and practical constructs. We reviewed 59 articles and book chapters, both theoretical and empirical, in which the concept of learning across contexts is discussed. The results show that personal learning trajectories are conceptualized as a multidimensional and dynamic concept that makes it possible to analyse learning across contexts on two planes: the connections between contexts and activities that occur due to a person's participation in different learning contexts; and the subjective perspective of continuity between the learning experiences that a person reconstructs discursively with other people or with artefacts.