‘This baby…it isn't alive.’ Towards a community of learners for vocational orientation

The aim of this study is to contribute to the innovation of pre‐vocational education, in particular, students' orientation at possible future occupations. From our theoretical understanding, vocational orientation that makes sense to students requires them to be part of a ‘community of learners for vocational orientation’. In such a community, students are stimulated to learn deliberately while participating in vocational practices. In this article we distinguish four parameters to define a community of learners for vocational orientation. We then present the results of a collective instrumental case study into teaching‐learning processes in four classes in two pre‐vocational secondary schools. Data were collected through classroom observations, a series of interviews with teachers and students. The interviews focused on eight ‘critical incidents’ recorded during classroom observations. The results show that the parameters ‘shared learning’ and ‘meaningful learning’ are more manifest in the teaching‐learning process than ‘reflective learning’ and ‘a focus on transferable learning outcomes’. The article concludes with a discussion of the limits of working in simulated work situations in school for realizing effective pre‐vocational education.     

SOAP in practice: learning outcomes of a cross‐institutional innovation project conducted by teachers,student teachers,and teacher educators

This paper reports on a case study investigating learning outcomes at the individual and organisational level of a cross‐institutional innovation project based on the SOAP approach. SOAP integrates Schooling of teachers, Organisational development of schools, Action‐ and development‐oriented research, and Professional development of teachers. The innovation project was aimed at combining teachers, student teachers, and teacher educators in an alliance to design and develop new competence‐based vocational educational arrangements for pupils. An inductive qualitative analysis of 37 semi‐structured interviews among the participants revealed seven main categories of individual learning outcomes: attitudes, project design and management, collaboration, action theory, teaching practice, educational principles, and developments within secondary vocational education. Three main categories of organisational learning outcomes were identified: institution‐level learning, project‐level learning, and combining institution‐level and project‐level learning. A tension was identified between the participants’ individual interests in learning and personal development, and the need for organisational learning aimed at improving organisational processes.     

Community development as citizen education

Everyday professional discussion often refers to the idea that community development is essentially a learning process. This article sketches a comprehensive theory of community development as citizen education by following the different traditions in community development and by defining the educational aspect of each tradition. Among the traditions described here are traditional community organizations as a social work method, the radical community organization of Alinsky, the neo‐Marxist approach of community action, and the settlement movement. The resulting theoretical framework defines community development as an alternative route for the education of citizens with low levels of formal education in the same way as labour unions and churches often are alternative routes towards active citizenship for low‐income groups. Next, three forms of education are singled out within community development: first, education as training of local leadership; as an action‐oriented and on the job learning process supported informally by the community worker. This form of education resembles the informal vocational education in which an experienced craftsman trains his pupils on the shop floor. Second, education as consciousness raising, which reverses the sequence of learning processes: in this case it is not action which leads to education but education that hopefully leads to action by citizens. There is a whole range of providers of such consciousness raising activities, such as community development organizations, local centres for adult education, churches through their celebrations and adult education classes. A recent development is the ‘new localism’ in social movements, such as the environmental movement, emphasizing consciousness‐raising activities in the local community. Third, education as service delivery: here education is a service for the community in the same way as community development can deliver other services to a community such as affordable housing and health centres. Partly these educational services are ‘survival education’, such as job readiness training programmes and literacy programmes; partly they are ‘leisure education’, typically blurring the borders between ‘pure’ education and recreational and social opportunities for residents.     

The ‘new vocationalism’: Further education and local labour markets

Current policies aimed at promoting a ‘new vocationalism’ through changes in vocational training in further education are based upon a particular functional model of labour market behaviour, which sees the relationships between technical qualifications, training and recruitment to jobs as unproblematic. In fact, however, this model bears little relationship to the realities of actual labour markets, especially given the enormous diversity which exists between economic conditions in different localities. What this implies, therefore, is that there are considerable tensions between the imperatives of a national training strategy, promoted centrally by the Training Commission (and previously by the Manpower Services Commission), and its local implementation mainly by the local education authorities and their colleges of further education. In many local labour markets, far from promoting closer responsiveness to the needs of employers, current policy initiatives may actually be making it more difficult for the colleges to react to employers' demands. These general arguments are illustrated here by reference to a large‐scale empirical study which was specifically designed to investigate the inter‐relationships between the labour market behaviour of employers and the implementation of the ‘new vocationalism’ in further education.     

The Infoshare Module: Using Collaborative Asynchronous Training to Improve Web Search Skills

Abstract

This article discusses the design, development, and implementation of a collaborative learning environment for online training ‘Infoshare on the Web’ It was designed to teach participants how to use and/or improve their use of Web search engines to access information on the Web. Participants collaborated in completing group tasks using asynchronous communication provided by Simon Fraser's Virtual‐U, a Web‐based environment that supports distance education, information sharing, and training. The module was delivered in four weeks, and participants found both advantages and limitations in the use of asynchronous environments for training.     

Perspectives of lifelong education in Portuguese higher education: a critical analysis of learning outcomes

ABSTRACT

Nurturing students’ continuous learning is a current trend in the higher education agenda. Curricula and academic contents should enable students to take part in stimulating learning experiences, as well as promoting both developing and training opportunities in the course of their lives and careers. Despite the relevance given to lifelong learning in the educational system, there are still some open questions: how this concept is understood and put into practice by higher education institutions? The paper aims to analyse the conceptions of lifelong learning as reflected on the learning outcomes proposed in a sample of study programs. A qualitative methodology and a data-driven approach are adopted to explore the content of the learning outcomes proposed in 10% of total study programs submitted to quality accreditation, since 2009. Generally, results reveal that higher education institutions are committed to the lifelong learning paradigm, particularly in master and PhD degrees. Students are expected to ‘invest in personal and professional development through life’, to ‘develop learning competences through life’, as well as to ‘foster lifelong learning’. This study provides a better understanding of the range of perspectives and the relevance given to lifelong learning as a valuable learning outcome.     

Life skills for ‘real life’: How critical thinking is contextualised across vocational programmes

Background: This article presents an analysis of how critical thinking is contextualised in everyday teaching in three vocational education and training (VET) programmes: Vehicle and transport, Restaurant and management, and Health and social care.

Purpose: The main question addressed is: What knowledge discourses permeate different VET-contexts, and hence what kinds of opportunities for critical thinking do they offer students?

Method: The qualitative analysis draws on data from a four-year ethnographic project exploring learning processes that can be characterised as civic education in Swedish vocational education. The analysis presented here used data collected during 85 days of observations of teaching in six VET classes, interviews with 81 students and 10 teachers, and collected teaching material. To explore why some contextualisations provided more opportunities and encouragement for critical thinking than others, we applied Bernsteinian concepts of ‘horizontal and vertical knowledge discourses’ and ‘discursive gaps’.

Findings and conclusions: Overall, teaching that was observed focused primarily on ‘doing’. However, in all three programmes, the analysis identified that there were also situations that touched upon critical thinking. Three major themes were identified: critical thinking related to ‘Personal experiences’, ‘The other(s)’ and ‘Wider perspectives’. It appeared that the frequency and nature of such situations varied with the knowledge discourses permeating the programme. Furthermore, we discuss the manifestations of critical thinking in relation to the wider context of what Bernstein refers to as pedagogic rights; individual enhancement, social inclusion and development of the competence and confidence to participate in political processes.     

Theorising partnerships for site-based education development in vocational education and workplace learning

Abstract

Site-based education development now constitutes a common approach to preparing learners for particular occupations, enabling them to secure employment and at the same time achieve broader social, economic and personal outcomes. New forms of partnerships, other than traditional vendor–client relations, are necessary to achieve such multi-faceted goals. This can be achieved by recognising and appropriately integrating pedagogical contributions in different sites to cater for learning needs. Accordingly, professionals from educational institutions need to actively collaborate and engage with a range of key personnel to form partnerships for the purposes of harnessing and facilitating learning opportunities within the constraints of given sites. An action research process enables participating partners to work towards and achieve agreed outcomes. Outcomes addressing areas causing concern are developed and discussed ‘on site’, forming site-based education development. Using a collaborative action research methodology that addresses issues identified by those in particular sites, solutions can be made visible and problems worked through. This enables the partners to achieve agreed outcomes developed during the life of the partnership. Outcomes and possible training areas are developed and discussed by key partners, particularly those in workplaces. In this article, we draw on intersecting sets of understandings around the philosophy of site-based education development, founded mainly on two overarching theories of workplace learning and practice architectures, to theorise partnerships for site-based education development. Some findings and ideas from two exemplar action research projects are presented to exemplify the key concepts.     

Primary Children's Perspectives on the World of Work: A Cross‐Cultural Comparison

Abstract

This paper presents a ‘political arithmetic’ of women in post‐ compulsory education and training in Wales, illustrating that, although there has been some ‘catching up’ in participation and qualifications achieved, essentially education and training systems are reinforcing the highly rigid pattern of gender segregation that characterises the Welsh labour force. Wales is in danger of consolidating its position as a low wage low skill economy unless this situation is addressed. Changes in the administrative frame work of post‐compulsory education and training in Wales allows the opportunity to develop such a strategy, but so far the main actors in the field appear to be taking a ‘gender‐neutral’ stance.     

User or student: constructing the subject in Edtech incubator

ABSTRACT

This research focuses on ‘sociotechnical imaginaries’ about education and learning emanating from the Edtech research and development sector. MindCet, the first Edtech incubator in Israel, aims to bring ‘disruptive innovation’ to the educational field, mainly by bringing in tech start-ups with their problem solving culture and practices. This centre acts as an intermediary between techno-business and education. Based on Biesta’s notion of ‘the new language of learning,’ my research shows how the learning imagined and constructed in techno-business production casts the student as a ‘user.’ I will argue that the construction of learners as ‘users,’ not ‘students,’ is crucial to understanding education technology production and discourse. This user-focused understanding of learning has implications for the commodification and depoliticization of education, and is an important factor in neo-liberal educational reforms and venture philanthropy interventions, both globally and locally.     

Towards a learning or a certified society? Contradictions in the New Labour modernization of lifelong learning

This paper examines the ‘Learning Society’ goal espoused by the new Labour government and inherited from preceding Conservative administrations. Section one notes the wide‐ranging consensus on this Learning Society target. Agreement reaches further than education and training (learning) policy to include other areas of policy associated with the proposed reform of the welfare state. Whether the social and administrative changes under previous Conservative governments ‐ changes that can be conceptualized in different ways the paper briefly indicates ‐ amount to the end of the welfare state is discussed in section two. The position of post‐compulsory or ‘lifelong’ learning in relation to compulsory or ‘foundation’ learning in the new ‘post‐welfare’ or Contracting State is then discussed in section three. Contradictions in New Labour's programme of modernizing lifelong learning are exposed. In conclusion, the question is posed how far a New Labour government will be prepared to reverse previous Conservative substitution of the market for representative democracy in the new type of Contracting State, or whether it will merely extend and further consolidate it. Throughout, evidence is presented, particularly from post‐compulsory education and training, to argue that the new government is bent upon pursuing the latter option.     

Quality Assurance in Vocational Education: meeting the needs of the nineties

ABSTRACT

The skills base of the workforce in Australia is critical in setting the foundations for micro‐ and macro‐economic resurgence and, consequently, in making the nation internationally competitive. The significance of the quality movement is therefore gaining recognition in vocational education. As with industry, quality is seen as critical and quality assurance is being demanded in skilling the workforce. This paper describes vocational training as a process and depicts how quality can be assured in every aspect of the process. It presents a practical approach to quality assurance in vocational education. In addition, it emphasises the need for a continuous management commitment for the successful implementation of quality assurance in vocational education. The paper describes how the concept of quality assurance can be used to improve the standards of vocational training. It also emphasises that now is the time for meeting the needs of stakeholders and for fostering innovation and improvements in vocational education through quality assurance.     

Bringing Cinderella to the ball: constructing a federal system of technical and further education in Australia, 1971–1975

Australian vocational education has a history dating from the late eighteenth century. As Australian colonies and, later, federated states evolved each constructed its own version of vocational education provision. Generally the systems, consisting of community‐based or state‐controlled colleges for the training of operatives, apprenticeships and professional support personnel, were poorly resourced and lacked powerful sponsors to support and promote the education and training of their mostly working‐class students. By the early 1970s Australian governments had developed commissions to supplement the funding of state‐based elementary, secondary and university education systems, even though under the Australian Constitution education remained state‐controlled matter. A reformist federal Labor government at the time consolidated elementary, secondary and university funding but neglected to consider, or even acknowledge, the 400,000 vocational education students not covered by these commissions. Following pressure from vocational education teacher unions, among others, the Labor government established the Australian Committee for Technical and Further Education (ACOTAFE) to address the needs of these students. At ACOTAFE’s first meeting on 25 March 1973, the Minister for Education Kim E. Beazley said, ‘It will be a renaissance in education when technical and further education cease to be Cinderellas in education. It is the role of your committee to bring Cinderella to her rightful role as princess’. ACOTAFE was to be chaired by Myer Kangan from the Department of Labour and National Service. The committee’s published outcomes were referred to evermore as the iconic ‘Kangan Report’ rather than TAFE in Australia: Report on Needs in Technical and Further Education, its formal title. The report gave Australian vocational education a name (TAFE), a philosophy (access to all through lifelong learning) and much needed capital works and infrastructure funding. The paper will outline the circumstances leading to the formation of the committee, its work and its outcomes. Focus will be placed on the influential role of Chairman Kangan in shaping ACOTAFE’s conclusions. A key theme within the paper is the intersection of biography, politics and the economy in shaping policy construction.     

Vocational education and training and the therapeutic turn

The concept of ‘therapeutic education’ is being increasingly used in contemporary education policy studies to identify learning initiatives which are dominated by objectives linked to personal and social skills, emotional intelligence and building self‐esteem. Contemporary educational goals connected with such strategies have been criticised for encouraging a ‘victim culture’ which marginalises learners and replaces the pursuit of knowledge and understanding with the development of personal values relevant to a life of social, cultural and economic risk and uncertainty. In relation to vocational education and training (VET) and post‐school policy trends in particular, Hayes has argued that preparation for work has abandoned vocational/occupational knowledge and skills in favour of providing learners with personal skills for emotional labour in low‐level service jobs. This paper interrogates such analyses and questions whether the therapeutic role of VET really is incompatible with the traditional objectives of developing knowledge, understanding and values in work environments. Links are made between new emphases on work‐based learning and the ‘caring’ conceptions of learning in post‐school education. It is concluded that—although therapy should not dominate VET—an attention to the important values dimension of learning in the field does involve a therapeutic dimension of some kind.     

Post‐16 Education,Training and Employment: Provision and Outcomes in Two Contrasting Areas

Abstract

This paper examines the proposition that the outcomes of employment‐related initiatives depend on ways in which they relate to the broader context of provision and to patterns of occupational and educational selection. Using data from the 16‐19 Initiative and linked studies, institutional arrangements for the education of 16‐19 year olds in contrasting local education authorities are compared. Relationships between the structures of provision and patterns of educational and training participation and progression will be explored. Finally, comparisons between the ‘mixed’ model of 16‐19 provision as it operates in the UK and the ‘schooling’ models of North America are discussed, with reference to future policy options.     

Towards a Seamless Web or a New Tertiary Tripartism? The Emerging Shape of Post-14 Education and Training in England

ABSTRACT:?

Government policy aims at a ‘seamless web’ of learning provision. This is exemplified in a local Learning and Skills Council supported by work on widening participation to higher education (HE) in another London sub-region. The emerging system described is comprehended as a whole from ‘Foundation Learning’ in compulsory schooling to post-compulsory ‘Lifelong Learning’ in further, higher and continuing education and training thereafter.     

Transforming critical and participative teacher research into communicative action: a possible direction for teacher professional learning

ABSTRACT

This paper is an account of how a group of Japanese English language teachers, who questioned current teacher professional education and English language education reforms, learnt to challenge the dominant discourse and find ways of conducting more democratic teacher professional education. It describes how those teachers, including the author, generated a collective theory on communicative competence through the process of their inquiry. It explains how they came to appreciate the action research methodology used for this study, grounded in reflective practice, which in turn helped to develop the author’s understanding of second person action research. It also tells how the teachers learnt to take the initiative in communicating the thinking which informed their practices to others and began to engage in ‘communicative action’ As a result of these outcomes, the paper suggests a potential new form of teacher professional learning aimed towards more democratic relationships between participants. It is hoped that the implications of the research findings could contribute to broader discussions about policy pertaining to teacher professional development.