Between Blackboxing and Unfolding: Professional Learning Networks of Pastors

In this article the author will analyse professional learning of pastors. Pastors can be an example of a value-oriented profession being both a keeper of traditions and an innovator facing the challenges of globalization and secularization. The analysis of pastor networks is therefore an interesting case of professional learning in a changing society. The author presents an ethnographic study of five pastors from the Church of Norway doing their everyday work. The author asks: What characterize the professional learning networks of pastors between blackboxing and unfolding? The analytical perspectives of Actor-Network Theory and Bruno Latour (1987) are employed, as the author argues that professional learning is a process of moving between “blackboxing” and “unfolding”. Thus, the author brings a socio-material perspective into the value-oriented field of education. The case of pastors can contribute to elaborate the tools for analysing professional learning The findings illuminate the challenges many professionals have today, namely to handle different modes of learning.