Anthropologist Trevor Marchand did more than observe. He worked alongside minaret builders in Yemen and the mud masons of Djenné in Mali, and he followed fine-woodwork trainees in London.
In the British Journal of Educational Studies, Marchand draws on that long fieldwork to describe how apprentices learn. Much of it happens without words. Crafts, like sport and dance, are largely communicated, understood and negotiated between practitioners through the body. Apprentices learn by observation, imitation and repeated practice.
That leads Marchand to a broader idea of knowledge — one that reaches beyond propositions and language and centrally includes the body and skilled performance. He calls for more interdisciplinary study of how people communicate and understand through the body, drawing on linguistics and neuroscience.
His second point reaches further still. Apprenticeship teaches technical skill, and it grounds the formation of the person. On the building site, young people develop character along with competence.
Marchand closes with a call to Western education systems: recognize skilled practice as intelligent, and give apprentice-style learning the status and credibility it deserves.
Sources
Marchand, T. H. J. (2008). Muscles, morals and mind: Craft apprenticeship and the formation of person. British Journal of Educational Studies. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8527.2008.00407.x
