To vocationalise or not to vocationalise? Perspectives on current trends and issues in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Africa

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in the dichotomy of vocational education versus general education. This is more so as political pronouncements in many countries across the globe have taken on knowledge and skills as the key aim of the desire to improve access to education at all levels. Nowhere is this debate more tested, fiercely debated and gained controversy as in Africa. However, given recent developments in which knowledge and skills have become more acceptable terms in economically more developed nations, in which both are seen to go hand in hand, what is happening in Africa where development is highly sought but has proven to be more elusive? This has brought back to the forefront one of the dilemmas which has pre-occupied many African countries for a long time: whether to concentrate investment in general education or in vocational education. In this paper, I reflect on current trends and issues in TVET in Africa.     

Teacher education in the United Kingdom post devolution: convergences and divergences

This paper examines the roles of research in teacher education across the four nations of the United Kingdom. Both devolution and on-going reviews of teacher education are facilitating a greater degree of cross-national divergence. England is becoming a distinct outlier, in which the locus for teacher education is moving increasingly away from Higher Education Institutions and towards an ever-growing number of school-based providers. While the idea of teaching as a research-based profession is increasingly evident in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, it seems that England, at least in respect of the political rhetoric, recent reforms and explicit definitions, is fixed on a contrastingly divergent trajectory towards the idea of teaching as a craft-based occupation, with a concomitant emphasis on a (re)turn to the practical. It is recommended that research is urgently needed to plot these divergences and to examine their consequences for teacher education, educational research and professionalism.     

The growth of community education in the United Kingdom

There is considerable confusion over the terms community and community education. This paper explores these concepts, traces the growth of different models of community education in the United Kingdom, and highlights some of the issues, weaknesses and problems arising from its development. Two separate movements, evolutionary and revolutionary, are identified — school-based and community-based respectively — though in recent years the difference in practice has become blurred. Trends discernible in the development of community education include its increasing application to urban and high-density residential areas and the accompanying growth in the size of the institutions — and in the range of facilities offered. There is also the tendency to label a school/college community simply because it provides extra facilities although there is no modification of management structures or of the curriculum. Unresolved as yet is the change in the relationship between school and community effected by community education, one element of which is the reaction on pupils and staff of sharing institutional facilities with the community. Additionally, the larger an institution grows and the more complex the administrative structure it requires, so also the more impersonal does it become and the less able to express or create a real sense of community. What is needed if community education is to fulfil its purpose is community participation in management and decision-making — with adequate structures to facilitate this lay involvement, community control over part at least of the funds, appropriate training of teachers and community workers for their wider roles, and above all, consideration and articulation of the particular needs of each individual community.

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Zusammenfassung Über die Begriffe Gemeinwesen und Sozialerziehung herrscht beträchtliche Unklarheit. Dieser Aufsatz untersucht die beiden Begriffe, skizziert das Werden verschiedener Modelle von Sozialerziehung in Großbritannien und hebt einige der aus ihrer Entwicklung sich ergebenden Tatsachen, Schwächen und Probleme hervor. Zwei unterschiedliche Bewegungen, eine evolutionäre und eine revolutionäre, werden festgestellt — jeweils auf der Schule und auf dem Gemeinwesen beruhend — wenn sich auch in den letzten Jahren in der Praxis der Unterschied verwischt hat. Zu den in der Entwicklung der Sozialerziehung erkennbaren Tendenzen gehört ihre zunehmende Verwirklichung in städtischen und sonstigen Ballungsgebieten und die entsprechende Ausweitung der Institutionen — und des Sprektrums ihrer Einrichtungen. Es besteht auch die Neigung, eine Schule oder ein College als Gemeinwesen zu bezeichnen, nur weil sie zusätzliche Möglichkeiten bieten, obwohl in den Strukturen der Verwaltung und im Curriculum nichts geändert wurde. Ungeklärt ist bisher der durch Sozialerziehung bewirkte Wandel in der Beziehung zwischen Schule und Gemeinwesen; dazu gehört die Auswirkung auf Schüler und Lehrer, wenn sie schulische Einrichtungen mit dem Gemeinwesen teilen. Außerdem wird eine solche Schule, je größer sie sich entwickelt und je vielfältiger die erforderliche Verwaltungsstruktur wird, auch immer unpersönlicher und weniger fähig, einen wirklichen Sinn für Gemeinsamkeit zum Ausdruck zu bringen oder zu wecken. Soll Sozialerziehung ihren Zweck erfüllen, ist es notwendig, daß sich das Gemeinwesen an der Leitung und Beschlußfassung beteiligt — mit geeigneten Strukturen zur Erleichterung einer derartigen Einbeziehung von Laien; dazu bedarf es eines wenigstens teilweisen Mitspracherechts des Gemeinwesens bei der Verteilung der finanziellen Mittel, entsprechender Ausbildung der Lehrer und Sozialarbeiter für ihre erweiterten Aufgaben und vor allen Dingen der Äusserung und Berücksichtigung der Sonderbedürfnisse aller Beteiligten.

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Résumé Une grande confusion entoure les termes de collectivité et d'éducation communautaire. Cet article explore ces concepts, suit le développement des différents modèles d'éducation communautaire au Royaume-Uni et met en lumière quelques unes des questions, des faiblesses et des difficultés qui en découlent. Deux mouvements distincts peuvent être identifiés: le mouvement révolutionnaire et le mouvement évolutif, respectivement centrés sur l'école et sur la collectivité, bien que ces dernières années la différence se soit estompée dans la pratique. On discerne certaines tendances dans le développement de l'éducation communautaire: son application accrue aux zones urbaines et à forte densité de population, les dimensions croissantes concomitante des institutions et la variété grandissante des facilités offertes, la tendance à désigner une école par le terme de collectivité simplement parce qu'elle offre des possibilités supplémentaires, bien qu'il n'y ait aucune modification des structures de la gestion ou du curriculum. Par ailleurs, une question toujours pendante est celle du changement des relations entre l'école et la collectivité dans l'éducation communautaire, dont un des éléments est la réaction des élèves et du personnel devant le partage des facilités institutionnelles avec la collectivité. En outre, plus une institution se développe et plus sa structure administrative se complique, plus cette institution devient impersonnelle et plus il lui est difficile d'exprimer ou de susciter un sentiment réel de collectivité. Ce qu'il faut, si l'éducation communautaire doit répondre à son but, c'est la participation de la collectivité à la gestion et à la prise de décisions — à l'intérieur de structures adéquates pour faciliter cette participation des profanes; c'est le contrôle exercé par la collectivité sur une partie au moins des fonds; c'est la formation appropriée des enseignants et des assistants sociaux pour leurs rôles élargis; c'est surtout l'examen réfléchi et l'articulation des besoins particuliers de chaque collectivité individuelle.

     

英国高等教育问责制及其启示

问责制是政府部门及社会机构或个人监督公立高校资源使用情况和效果的一项重要手段,它在英国高等教育管理体制中发挥着重要作用。在“以顾客为中心”的时代,高等学校需要回应各种各样的利益相关者的问责要求。然而,由于不同的利益相关者所提出的利益诉求不同,对各种不同的要求作出回应也给高校带来了不必要的负担。为了解决这一难题,英格兰高等教育基金委员会提出了有效问责的四个原则,并在实践中取得了良好的效果。     

Policies for inclusive education practices in teacher education in the United Kingdom and France

Implementation of any inclusive policy is dependent on longstanding conceptions, beliefs, and public discourses on schooling, learning, and including children in mainstream schooling. The adoption of inclusive education in education policies in France and the United Kingdom requires discursive support to reshape the meaning and content of teachers' work, duties and practices. Although inclusive education is widely debated, analyses of the variations in policy narratives promoting inclusive teaching in Europe are lacking. This article reports on comparative and international analysis of discourses and policies for empowering teachers for continuous professional development and inclusive school practices. The analysis focuses on an exploration of varieties of articulations, resources, and conceptual dynamics in the UK and France. These elements are discussed within the broader scheme of the teaching profession, with reference to the inclusive education paradigm.     

Alienating curriculum work in Australian vocational education and training

Competency-based training (CBT) is a curriculum model employed in educational sectors, professions and industries around the world. A significant feature of the model is its permeability to control by interests outside education. In this article, a ‘Neoliberal’ version of CBT is described and analysed in the context of Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET). In this version of the model, a division of curriculum labour is instituted that, from the perspective of Neoliberal theory, allows the interests of educators to be limited in accordance with the belief that they will neglect the interests of students and other stakeholders if they have control over the whole curriculum construction process. But this version of CBT denigrates the expertise of educators by forcing them to set aside their own judgement about what is important to teach and implement a pre-existing picture of an occupation that may or may not be an effective representation. Empirical evidence is reviewed that suggests curriculum work in VET is indeed alienating for educators. Existing critiques of CBT are considered and found to have overlooked the specifically Neoliberal form of CBT in VET analysed in the article.     

英国毕业后医学教育质量的监控

2001年,英国曼彻斯特大学毕业后教育系的Jacky Hayden和David McKinlay在英国医学教育杂志（2001,35：68－72）上著文,探讨了有关毕业后医学教育质量监控的问题。作者指出,在毕业后医学教育中,服务与学习总是有矛盾的,为保证全国性标准的实施,对医药必须进行监控,然而,英国现行的制度,由不同部门进行考察是多头的和浪费资源的。为此,西北区教育长与各皇家学院开发了一种相互协调的考察和报告制度,以便共享信息和减轻由此对医院带来的压力。为实施新的制度,作者提出了设置和保持培训标准,以及提     

To Cook or to Conjugate: gender and class in the adult curriculum 1865‐1900 in Bristol,United Kingdom

The paper compares and contrasts two historical moments in the education of women in Bristol (UK) in the period 1865‐1900. It first traces the university extension movement and the admitting of women to the new University College in 1876. Then, evening classes founded in the 1880s are discussed, where, in contrast to the university curriculum, women and girls were taught domestic skills. These different curricula are related to the social class background of the students. The paper concludes by discussing the predominance of the domestic curriculum in women's adult education today, suggesting that vocational training for working‐class girls has been transformed into leisure education for middle‐class women.     

A methodology to understand student choice of higher education institutions: the case of the United Kingdom

The need to understand how prospective students decide which higher education institution to attend is becoming of paramount importance as the policy context for higher education moves towards market-based systems in many countries. This paper provides a novel methodology by which student preferences between institutions can be assessed, using the United Kingdom as a case study. It applies both revealed preference and discrete choice modelling techniques to estimate the priority attributes and potential trade-offs of students choosing between different UK universities. Whereas the former methodology has the advantage of being based on actual decisions, the latter provides an experimental setting for more nuanced findings to be elicited; the combination of approaches allows for a rich and detailed set of results. This methodology can also be used to ask detailed strategic questions of higher education institutions and further applied to other international markets.     

Globalisation and the curriculum: Proposals for the integration of education and training in South Africa

In South Africa, the post-apartheid government has committed itself to an integrated approach to education and training. This article addresses South African policy debates, illustrating that global trends such as integration are shaped by significant local influences in the production of specific policy positions. The integration debate in South Africa reflects both equity and human resource development concerns, and is more fully developed in adult basic education and training than in formal post-compulsory education. The article analyses the proposals for integration as part of a complex policy agenda, arguing that the implementation of integration proposals will not be straightforward. This is due to the genesis of the integration debate in training rather than both education and training, its assumptions about economic development, and the contested nature of the policy process.     

英国高等教育的特点及质量评估体系

本文介绍了英国高等院校的布局和高等教育的特点、学制体系和课程多样性,阐述了英国高等教育国际化特征及其生源组成、经费来源和教学科研质量评估体系。     

高职教育复合型人才培养与课程改革

本从知识经济发展、科技成果产业化、现代企业管理、中小企业发展等四个方面分析了高职教育复合型人才需求的背景，阐述了复合型人才的知识与能力基本特征和培养的主要形式，从高职教育课程改革的“重应用、活模块、人本化”的角度，探讨了复合型人才培养的两条实现途径：一是能力本位与人格本位并重，二是强调学生的“自主性”学习。     

The causal effect of education on health: Evidence from the United Kingdom

Numerous economic studies have shown a strong positive correlation between health and years of schooling. The question at the centre of this research is whether the correlation between health and education represents a causal relation. This paper uses changes in compulsory schooling laws in the United Kingdom to test this hypothesis. Multiple measures of overall health are used. The results provide evidence of a causal relation running from more schooling to better health which is much larger than standard regression estimates suggest.     

On first looking into education statistics for the United Kingdom

The main data in Education Statistics for the United Kingdom 1986, which concerns the academic or financial year 1984‐85, are described from the point of view of a researcher who is not an expert about statistics. Where interesting trends can be discerned, these are highlighted. More often, however, the data raise questions of interpretation and some indication is given of the more detailed collections of statistical data which need to be consulted. The specific issue of the shortage of teachers of mathematics, physics and technology is used to illustrate the most important missing ingredients: the need for the data to correspond more closely to the division of educational provision into different kinds of activities and the need for the data to be placed in a context of data for other professions and other branches of government.