Zones of Intervention: Teaching and Learning at all Places and at all Times

This article identifies four distinct zones in which workplace problems can be addressed through education and training. These zones enable educators to address workplace learning more widely and broadly. Very often, problems arising in the workplace are dealt with through training in the classroom, but other options exist. The theoretical framework is drawn from social learning literature (e.g., Wenger, 2000) and is created by examining the intersections of two tensions -classroom intervention vs. community intervention, and classroom context vs. systemic context. These intersections produce different arenas (zones) through which the problem can be addressed in educationally innovative ways: (1) applying classroom interventions to address the classroom context, (2) applying community interventions to address the classroom context, (3) applying classroom interventions to address the systemic context, and (4) applying community interventions to address the systemic context. A significant implication of this approach is that nearly all actions taken by administrators and supervisors, including policy formation, are “teaching acts” and should be viewed as such. Overall, the strength of this concept is that it significantly broadens the playing field when attempting to mitigate work-related problems through education and training.