The nature of education as a social process in workplace settings outside of schools was explored over 3 years at 35 intern settings for an alternative high school program in a large city. The experiences of students at the 35 sites were compared to identify essential features of work tasks and the social means to accomplish these tasks. Two categories of task features were examined: logical-technical and pragmatic. Tasks not only accomplish part of the organization's mission but also serve social functions. Pragmatic features include: someone else's work may be affected by completion of a work task, and certain qualifications/attitudes are needed to perform job duties. The social means used to do work may be described by the following three segments or phases: establishing, accomplishing, and processing. It was found that workers in various situations used very different means for doing tasks in these phases, and that the means chosen were linked to the forms of knowledge the intern encountered. In addition to examining the historical dimensions of the student's experience in the placement site, attention was directed to understanding how the experience was integrated at progressively higher levels. (SW)