Apprendre à déceler le potentiel de développement des situations de travail : l’exemple de conseillers agricoles face aux enjeux de l’agro‑écologie

• Main Authors: Sophie Duhamel, Paul Olry, Marianne Cerf
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Association Recherche et Pratique sur les Activités 2021-04-01
• Series: Activités
• Subjects: peer exchanges; situation of potential development; agricultural advice; agro-ecology
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/activites/5983

For professionals who work with and for others and whose activities and situations evolve and are not yet stabilized, one of the challenges is that of reconstructing, with their beneficiaries, the purpose of their activities and of reconfiguring their work situations. This is the case for agricultural advisors who are in the position of accompanying farmers in a change of practices in order to cope with environmental problems. A system was designed to support exchanges between advisors so that they can collectively rethink the efficacy of their action, and dare to act differently. We conducted a participatory observation within this system. We studied the way in which, individually and collectively, the participants grasp the two “milieus” designed by the facilitators in relation to an emblematic advisory situation for crop production: the field tour. Our illustrations and analyses show the different ways that the advisors grasp the developmental potential of these designed situations in order to change their own activity in real work situations. We discuss the professional development that this creates. Finally, we highlight possible avenues for improving the facilitation work to better cope with the diversity of the participants and of their workplace.