Problematising vocational education and training in schools: using student narratives to interrupt neoliberal ideology

ABSTRACT

In Australia, like many western countries, there has been a convergence of education policy around a set of utilitarian and economistic approaches to vocational education and training in schools. Such approaches are based on the assumption that there is a direct relationship between national economic growth, productivity and human capital development resulting in the persuasive political argument that schools should be more closely aligned to the needs of the economy to better prepare ‘job ready’ workers. These common sense views resonate strongly in school communities where the problem of youth unemployment is most acute and students are deemed to be ‘at risk’, ‘disadvantaged’ or ‘disengaged’. This article starts from a different place by rejecting the fatalism and determinism of neoliberal ideology based on the assumption that students must simply ‘adapt’ to a precarious labour market. Whilst schools have a responsibility to prepare students for the world of work there is also a moral and political obligation to educate them extraordinarily well as democratic citizens. In conclusion, we draw on the experiences of young people themselves to identify a range of pedagogical conditions that need to be created and more widely sustained to support their career aspirations and life chances.     

Special education students in the labour market: four case studies

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the employment status of 10 young men 10 years after leaving classes for the socially maladjusted. On the basis of their work careers, they were placed in one of 4 labour market sectors using the criteria (1) employed/unemployed at the time of the interview, and (2) history of long‐term/short‐term employment. Half of the young men were unemployed, 4 were working and 1 in prison. The large percentage of unemployed respondents was due to the exceptionally difficult economic situation prevailing in Finland at the time the interviews were carried out, as a result of which the national unemployment rate approached almost 20 per cent. Despite a lack of vocational education, all the young men but one had a positive attitude towards work, and those unemployed were actively seeking a job. There was almost no relation between the young men's school career and their work career, since those who had the longest‐lasting jobs were those young men who had had the most difficulties in school. When measured in terms of length of employment, the attachment of these young men to working life differed greatly: one had been for the entire postschool period (almost 10 years) in the service of the same employer, while another had had several jobs of a few months’ duration interspersed with periods of unemployment.     

Returns to education and economic transition: an international comparison

This paper compares the returns to education in transitional economies in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), such as Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Slovak Republic and the Ukraine in the 1990s, and in China in the 1980s and 1990s. In the pre‐transition period, the returns to education in the six CEE countries were low at about 2–4%, while those in China were even lower at less than 2%. As the process of transition towards a market economy evolved over time, the returns to education steadily increased, and non‐state sector workers and young workers were rewarded with higher returns to their education than their counterparts in the state sector and older age categories. The marginal returns to university education are the highest of all of the marginal returns to various education levels. Moreover, the results show that it took about a decade for the six CEE countries, and two decades for China, to raise their respective returns to education to the 10% level.     

NEETs in Spain: an analysis in a context of economic crisis

This article presents the research results from a study that was conducted on Spanish youths aged 25–29 years who are neither in employment nor education and training (NEET). Their characteristics were analysed as well as the differential aspects in relation to people who are in employment, education or training. A typology of NEETs was also established based on their availability for and attitude towards employment, and the similarities and differences between the diverse subgroups were analysed. A mixed methodology was used: a quantitative perspective, which enabled a statistical and regression analysis using data that were obtained through questionnaires, and a qualitative perspective based on a biographical interview, which made it possible to focus on perceptions and processes. The results enable us to identify the common characteristics of the NEET population as well as the perceptions and determining factors of the three typologies.     

高等教育市场化的经济学分析与政府规制问题研究

市场化是国际高等教育发展的基本趋势.高等教育市场具有其他市场的共同特性,但在市场主体行为、产品、结构及准入和退出机制等方面呈现出独特性.高等教育市场主体表现为学校、学生(家庭)和企业(社会),他们之间形成一个利益攸关的统一体.高等教育市场化本质上就是要引入市场机制,协调政府、市场和大学三者之间的关系,建立政府对高等教育市场中办学主体的竞争机制、破府调控机制、大学自治机制、社会参与机制的规范和完善,使高等教育运行具有市场性、开放性、竞争性和有效性.     

Learning from the Past: An account of an oral history project for students in an early childhood teacher education program

Engagement of student-teachers with the community of practice they are entering is central to the formation of their identity as an educator. This paper outlines a teaching and research project that enabled early childhood student-teachers to gain insights into the field through interviewing past teachers and reflecting on their practices. In the process, students became aware of the complexities of their chosen profession, alternative teaching practices and different ways of relating with families. Their responses indicated that the experience had an impact on their identity with the profession, their learning about the nature of history and their understanding of research processes.     

Massification of higher education and youth transition: skills mismatch,informal sector jobs and implications for China

This study adopts a nationwide survey data set between 2005 and 2013 (Chinese General Social Survey) to explore the influence of the massification of higher education on the transition of Chinese youth into the labour market. Data analysis reveals two major findings. First, the economic returns to college education of recent cohorts of university graduates (those who have graduated from universities not more than 3 years ago) are lower than the cohorts who graduated in 2005 and 2006. Second, recent cohorts of college graduates are likely to work in the urban informal sector, unlike their senior counterparts. These findings could partially be explained by skills mismatch in the labour market but a comprehensive understanding of graduate unemployment in China could be obtained by bringing the broader political economy perspective into the analysis.     

The transition from higher education to employment in Europe: the analysis of the time to obtain the first job

This paper investigates the determinants of the transition from higher education to work across Europe using various specifications of duration models and a one-time multi-country survey of university graduates from nine European countries. Results point to differences between the North and South of Europe in the difficulty of getting a first job. They confirm that individual characteristics such as the field/level of studies or the socioeconomic background, and individual job search bear a significant relationship to the probability of finding a job. Evidence of unobserved heterogeneity is also found.     

Guiding documents for environmental education centres: an analysis in the Spanish context

Guiding documents under the ‘PEC’ acronym are commonly used in environmental education centres (EECs) in Spain. They are written documents that are seen as necessary tools to safeguard quality. In this study, we analyse the guiding documents of twenty-three EECs in the province of Girona (Catalonia, Spain) in order to understand their contents and detect strengths and weaknesses. The instrument used for document analysis is a rubric created for this purpose from the literature review. It includes four main sections: identity features, context analysis, formulation of goals and a plan of action. Each of these sections has associated items that have been used to analyse the guiding documents mentioned. The results show a great lack of information regarding evaluational aspects. They also show difficulties in defining the concepts of environmental education or education for sustainability and relating sustainability to the milieu of EECs.     

A comparative institutional analysis on strategies that graduates use to show they are ‘employable’: a critical discussion on the cases of Australia,Japan, and Vietnam

ABSTRACT

Employability has become a key concept that has attracted the attention of scholars and industries in many countries. At the same time, this concept is highly fluid and vague because its nature is not evidenced by real employment and differences in the nature of labour markets from country to country. Thus, it would be more worthwhile to discuss strategies that graduates utilise while job hunting in order to show how employable they are, and then compare these strategies across countries. Therefore, in this study, the aim is to compare the strategic tendencies of graduates entering the labour markets in three countries: Australia, Japan, and Vietnam. To this end, a comparative institutional analysis is performed. Through the investigation, three types of strategy are identified. In Australia, as the market tends to consist of various competitors with different experiences, graduates must differentiate themselves from others. In Japan, the market consists of competitors from the same academic year cohort and employment tends to be more long term, so employment is seen more as a type of membership, where one must match the corporate culture. In Vietnam, as trust in universities is low in terms of their training programmes and little support is provided, university students utilise their human networks for entry into the labour market and demonstrate their capacity for growth during a probation period.     

Social class and participation in further education: evidence from the Youth Cohort Study of England and Wales

This paper examines the class distribution of young people, aged 16–17 years, in colleges of further education (FE) using data from the Youth Cohort Study. It finds that, contrary to popular perceptions of FE colleges as being for ‘other people’s children’, middle‐class students as well as working‐class students are well represented. However, this does not imply that FE colleges are institutions of choice; middle‐class representation is often related to lower achievement and, for low‐achieving working‐class students, leaving education entirely is more likely than entry to FE. These findings are explored using notions of habitus and field. Their relationship with studies of the education of middle‐class children is also discussed, and the paper suggests that research on class in FE colleges must come to terms with middle‐class presence.     

Crossing boundaries: rethinking the ways that first-in-family students navigate ‘barriers’ to higher education

Abstract

This article explores how one cohort of first-in-family students narrated their movement into and through university, proposed as a form of boundary crossing. These metaphors emerged from the stories that students told about their persistence, with references ranging from institutional or organisational boundaries through to those imposed by self and others. Applying the sensitizing lens of boundary crossing, an analysis is provided of how learners navigated their transition into university and the types of persistence behaviours adopted. The focus is on those who traversed these boundaries, considering the nature of incursions and the ways these were negotiated within students’ everyday lives. This cohort all self-identified as being the first in their family to attend university but also acknowledged a variety of additional social, cultural and economic factors that impacted upon their educational journey.     

Conceptualising the sociology of education: an analysis of contested intellectual trajectories

Abstract

This paper presents an account of the development of the sociology of education in the UK, by means of an analysis of papers published in the field’s flagship journal, the British Journal of Sociology of Education and its US equivalent, Sociology of Education. In particular, we examine the representation of two contrasting traditions in addressing social inequalities: ‘political arithmetic’; and the more recent ‘cultural turn’. We find that in the UK, the cultural turn dominates; whilst in the US, it is political arithmetic which does so. In accounting for these contrasting national profiles, we argue that they are underpinned by divergent social infrastructure and organisation. We also discuss some of the implications of the dominance of the cultural turn in the UK, specifically in terms of the relationship between the fields of academic research and policy and the development of a cumulative evidence base to address social inequalities in education.     

Enlarging the social justice agenda in education: an analysis of rural teachers' narratives beyond the distributive dimension

The sustained disadvantages suffered by rural schools place the concept of social justice at the centre of any discussion of rural education. However, too often a one-size-fits-all model is adopted that equates it with distribution of resources. Drawing on Iris Marion Young's work, this paper instead demonstrates the necessity of adopting a plural framework of social justice that includes issues of recognition and participation within the current neoliberal environment. The author draws on findings from a qualitative study with teachers in two rural schools in Victoria, Australia. While the teachers acknowledged the importance of a better distribution of resources, just as significant was their concern for issues of power, respect and participation in their work. The author argues that the distributive dimension offers a useful but limited approach and that a plural framework of social justice better informs teachers' experiences, and contributes to their understanding of the contexts in which they work.     

Study support and the development of academic literacy in higher education: a phenomenographic analysis

This article seeks to understand the process employed, across a university in England, to support the acquisition of academic literacy. Whilst this offers a very specific UK focus, this article draws upon related work in Australian, American and African contexts around study support, academic literacy and academic development. A phenomenographic analysis is used to interpret variation in lived experience of study support of three participant groups: students, tutors and support staff, and the resulting ‘outcome spaces’ are analysed with respect to the role of a variety of study support mechanisms in the development of academic literacy. This study concludes with an examination of how the tensions and conflicts that arise through a lack of shared meaning and aspiration can serve as an indicator of the need for a deeper understanding of both the range of student profiles in higher education and of what we mean by study support.     

Religiosity,the headscarf,and education in Turkey: an analysis of 1988 data and current implications

Previous research highlights the continuing relevance of family culture in explaining educational inequalities in Turkey, especially patriarchal beliefs and practices that discourage investment in the education of girls. We extend that research by introducing two much‐debated, but empirically untested, aspects of family culture – parental religiosity and headscarf preferences. An analysis of a nationally representative sample of 15–19 year olds in 1988 shows that while religiosity had no significant effect on educational attainment, children who lived in families whose fathers expected them to wear a headscarf in public had lower educational attainment, especially girls. The large negative headscarf effect suggests that the government ban on headscarves in schools may be an obstacle to eliminating gender inequality in education. The results are discussed in light of recent trends in Turkish society.     

谁为远程教育付费——从普通培训和专门培训角度

远程教育作为一种特殊的教育形式,是学校教育系统和培训系统之间的桥梁。从在职培训的角度考察远程教育的特点和规律,有利于促进二者的融合。人力资本理论将在职培训分为普通培训和专门培训,认为员工愿意为普通培训付费,而雇主更愿意为专门培训付费。根据对远程教育在职学习者的调查实证发现：整体而言,远程教育普通培训的成分越多,学习者自身为远程教育支付学费的可能性越高,雇主为远程教育付费的可能性越小,这支持了人力资本理论的经典论断。研究发现,那些收入高,年龄大,工龄长,平常支出较少的学习者更有可能自己为远程教育付费。就是说,将远程教育的办学信息有效传递给那些平时消费并不太积极的群体,有利于促进远程教育的发展。     

Enhancing the effectiveness of concept inventories using textual analysis: investigations in an electrical engineering subject

ABSTRACT

Concept inventories (CIs) are assessment instruments designed to measure students’ conceptual understanding of fundamental concepts in particular fields. CIs utilise multiple-choice questions (MCQs), and specifically designed response selections, to help identify misconceptions. One shortcoming of this assessment instrument is that it fails to provide evidence of the causes of the misconceptions, or the nature of students’ conceptual understanding. In this article, we present the results of conducting textual analysis on students’ written explanations in order to provide better judgements into their conceptual understanding. We compared students’ MCQ scores in Signals and Systems Concept Inventory questions, with the textual analysis utilising vector analysis approaches. Our analysis of the textual data provided the ability to detect answers that students identified as a ‘guessed’ response. However, the analysis was unable to detect if conceptually correct ideas existed within the ‘guessed’ responses. The presented approach can be used as a framework to analyse assessment instruments that utilise textual, short-answer responses. This analysis framework is best suited for the restricted conditions imposed by the short-answer structure.     

Gazes in the post-colony: an analysis of African philosophies using Legitimation Code Theory

This article reports on an analysis undertaken in the field of African philosophies using selected conceptual tools from Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory (LCT). In response to calls by South African students for ‘decolonising’ the Humanities curriculum, the practical purpose of the analysis was to generate theoretically-informed guidelines for developing a curriculum for an undergraduate course in a new African Studies major. The field of African philosophies is of theoretical interest because historically it has been premised on responding to and challenging dominant, Western ideas imposed on African intellectuals through processes of colonization and modernization. LCT was employed to uncover principles that legitimate knowledge claims in this field – with a view to determining what content should be selected, recontextualized and pedagogized for the new curriculum. The analysis includes the author’s meta-reflections on the affordances and limitations of LCT for working with knowledge in the South.