Teacher preparation for vocational education and training in Germany: a potential model for Canada?

Germany's vocational education and training (VET) and corresponding teacher-education programmes are known worldwide for their integrated framework. Government legislation unifies companies, unions and vocational schools, and specifies the education and training required for students as well as vocational teachers. Changing from the Diplom programme model to the Anglophone Bachelor and Masters degree model has raised concerns for VET teacher preparation. It is within this context that we explore Germany's VET teacher-education system and current academic debates. We further investigate challenges in the development of Canada's VET teacher-education programmes and suggest some policy borrowing from the German model.     

Reflections on the emancipatory potential of vocational education and training practices: Freire and Rancière in dialogue

This paper focuses on the issue of emancipation in education practices in general and in vocational education and training (VET) in particular. The principal aim is to contribute to the discussion of particular traditions of emancipation in education in connection with VET practices. The exploration of ongoing educational debates on VET policy-making and the issue of emancipation in VET reveals that, ultimately, emancipation in VET is understood as a specific function for socio-economic integration. The paper discusses this functionalist orientation and contrasts it with a vision on emancipation as a feature of an educational process rather than an educational outcome. Freire's and Rancière's core concepts of emancipation guide the discussion regarding the latter interpretation of emancipation in VET practices.     

Vocational Education and Training: Researching the Relationship between School and Work

Researchers and policy makers agree that the relation between school and work is an important characteristic of vocational education and training (VET) and needs attention. The relation itself poses several challenges for research to be successful and useful for policy makers. In this article, we outline these challenges and answer the following question: What needs to be considered when researching the relation between school and work? Our central claim is that research on the relation between school and work needs to (1) take into account contextual conditions of the VET system, including identifying the central actors and their responsibilities within a VET system, (2) take into account the characteristics of VET itself, (3) define the quality of the relation between school and work (depending on the context, characteristics of the VET system and VET itself), and (4) be consistent with respect to chosen research aims and paradigms. To illustrate how these aspects can be taken into account an example of empirical research conducted in the German dual apprenticeship system is described. The readers are provided with guidelines for researchers and policy makers to carry out high quality research on the relation between school and work in VET systems that enables policy makers to make use of the results to improve the relation between school and work in VET systems.     

Maintaining Competence in the Initial Occupation: Activities among Vocational Teachers

Contemporary work-life changes rapidly, and vocational education and training (VET) teachers need to keep up-to-date with changing knowledge demands and technological developments. This article concerns VET teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) related to the specific vocations for which they teach. The aim is to analyse VET teachers’ participation in various types of activities designed to make them become more knowledgeable in relation to industry currency. The study draws on a socio-cultural perspective on practice and learning. Theory concerning adults’ participation in education is also used in analysing drivers of and barriers to participation in learning activities. The analyses are based on survey data from 886 Swedish VET teachers relating to their participation in different activities, barriers/drivers concerning participation in these activities, perceived effects (outcomes) of participation in terms of professional development, and teachers’ background. Reading professional texts was the most common CPD activity among those VET teachers participating in the study. Reading, and work in the VET teacher’s former/initial occupation were the two activities where variation in performing them could be explained to the highest degree. The study particularly highlights the importance of boundary crossing between school and work-life for maintaining and developing the industrial currency of VET teachers’ competence. Active membership and engagement in the community of practice of the initial occupation is important for participation in CPD activities closely related to this community.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Every so often, it is important to stand back and look at the whole context of our field of research and practice. In this article, I do this by shedding light on the ways we view the term vocations and the consequences of those views for education and training in community colleges and adult and community education providers of all kinds. I ask the question: What is Vocational Education and Training (VET) for? I ask this particular question because I know the answers are contested, staking out claims for territory in research and practice. The answer to the question that this article explores is that vocational education and training ''serve industry.'' Using Australia as a specific example of such a Western country, the article argues that the entrenched meanings for VET as serving industry have disenfranchised a large proportion of the population - especially small business and the rural sector. The article is pointing out that the resulting version of VET is gendered, classed, and urban-specific. This structurally entrenched position is then contrasted with data reported from empirical studies currently examining (among other things) the nature of vocations and work at a community level and the manner in which they are created there. The article raises three important implications: the convergence of Adult and Community Education with VET, learning pathways, and the effects on small business.     

Vocational education and training for development: A policy in need of a theory?

The current decade has seen a significant return of interest in vocational education and training (VET) amongst the international policy community. This rise in policy and programmatic interest in VET's role in development, however, stands in contrast to the state of the academic debate. Whilst there have continued to be both policy and academic developments in VET in OECD countries; in the South there has been a paucity of VET research and little in the way of theoretical exploration. Rather, the academic orthodoxy in the international education and development field is dismissive of VET's possible contribution. Given the return of the policy interest in VET for development, and the possibilities of a broader vision of education–development relations beyond 2015, when the MDGs end, it is time to revisit the role of VET in development from an explicitly theoretical stance. In this article, I argue that the current approach to VET is grounded in an outmoded model of development, whilst the academic critique of VET in developing countries is clearly long outdated. In contrast, I examine the implications for VET of recent trends in thinking about development through the exploration of three particular theoretical approaches: human rights, capabilities and integrated human development. I conclude by considering the purposes, natures and possibilities of VET as a means of human development.     

Vocational Education for Sustainable Development: an obligation for the European Training Foundation

This article presents an argued case for making sustainable development a policy obligation for the European Training Foundation (ETF) and for vocational education and training (VET) reform in the partner countries that are served by ETF. In relation to ETF it points out that no major emphasis has been put to date on combining economic, social and environmental considerations. It then analyses the ways economies operate in relation to sustainable development and the changed knowledge and skills needed for both economies and for a sustainable future. Implications for VET reform include attending to the broad goals of inclusion and equity, a reconsideration of the competences to be developed and the didactic approaches within a framework of lifelong learning. The didactics proposed are in line with current thinking related to constructivist pedagogy, an inter-disciplinary approach to ‘real life’ problems and increasing the porosity of school boundaries to the community. The scope of VET's mission should extend well beyond the confines of preparing young people for narrow labour market skills. The article is of particular significance for re-directing the focus of ETF and VET reform policy but will be of interest to a much wider audience, as it provides a synthesis of future-oriented ideas and options relating to education's obligations to face the urgent need to ensure sustainability.     

Between vocational education and training centres and companies: study of their relations under the regional innovation system approach

In the current context of economic crisis, the European Union seeks to promote the integration of the vocational education and training system (VET) system and foster greater cooperation between this system and enterprises. Education and innovation are part of the answer to achieve this goal. This research explores the relationship between the VET centres and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and what aspects of that relationship could be improved. Methodologically, it combines case studies of VET centres in relation to local SMEs and the use of a survey to SMEs in two industrialised Spanish regions. The paper examines, in the context of the regional innovation system approach, how the local environment and the characteristics of local actors are crucial to understanding the level of interaction between the VET system and companies, and the contributions of the former to the innovation system of the regions.     

Educating for Uncertainty in a Changing World: Issues within an Australian remote indigenous context

Following the theme of 'educating for uncertainty in a changing world', this article delves into some of the issues that emerge for remote area indigenous Australians when change, cultural maintenance and an uncertain future collide. As a minority culture living alongside a Western colonizing culture, indigenous Australians confront a range of issues. This is particularly the case, as this paper argues, in the field of vocational education and training (VET). By discussing the establishment of the current VET system developed for a 'mainstream' context, and contrasting this to the remote area context, the article highlights the differences between the two and provides a basis for understanding the issues that arise. A discussion of the current social and political milieu furthers an understanding of these issues, which coalesce around the notions of control and access. It is apparent that these key notions remain pivotal if remote indigenous Australians are to educate for uncertainty in a changing world.     

Which difficulties and resources do vocational teachers perceive? An exploratory study setting the stage for investigating teachers’ resilience in Switzerland

ABSTRACT

Based on an ecological view of teacher resilience, the paper investigates perceived difficulties and resources among vocational education and training (VET) teachers as a first step for investigating teachers’ resilience. Given the substantial shortage of theoretical and empirical studies on this population, more research on resilience among VET teachers is necessary and relevant. In this exploratory qualitative study, interviews with VET teachers in Switzerland (n = 37) sought to identify the specific challenges faced by teachers, the resources to be addressed. As well as confirming the different critical challenges and protective factors emerging from the literature review, the results identify difficulties and resources specific to VET teachers in Switzerland. In terms of critical challenges at a macro-contextual level, teachers’ low social recognition is emphasised. Moreover, exposure to curricular reforms generates stress and pressure related to the required standardisation of content and subject changes. At a micro-system level, we detected teachers’ frustration in relation to students’ low vocational motivation and maturity and specific emerging instructional challenges in vocational subject teaching. In terms of resources, teachers perceived the possibility of diversifying their professional role by alternating school and extracurricular activities as a supportive factor. The results provide a basis for more extensive quantitative study investigating relationship among adversities and resources and resilient strategies.     

The Effect of Standing Versus Sitting on Creativity in Adolescents—A Crossover Randomized Trial: The PHIT2LEARN Study

Creativity is important for school performance. As several brain mechanisms involved in creativity are stimulated by low-intensity physical activity, standing might influence creativity. Few studies on the relationship between standing and creativity have been executed, and none among vocational education and training (VET) students. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate whether standing influences creativity in VET students. In a randomized crossover study, 192 VET students were randomly allocated to standing or sitting (i.e., control) for 30 min. After 15 min, they performed two creativity tests: Guilford's Alternative Uses Test (divergent thinking) and Remote Associates Test (convergent thinking). Subsequently, conditions were switched, and the procedure was repeated. Multilevel analyses showed no significant effect of standing on divergent or convergent thinking test performance. Our results show that 30 min of standing does not affect creativity in VET students.     

Should I stay or should I switch? An analysis of transitions between modes of vocational education and training

How established is the horizontal permeability between modes of vocational education and training (VET) in Switzerland? Formally encouraged by the Swiss law on VET, horizontal permeability refers to transitions across VET modes, i.e. between dual and school-based VET. This paper first discusses why horizontal permeability is indeed relevant and then empirically examines the horizontal permeability of the Swiss VET system for a given occupation – commercial VET. The latter is the largest VET domain in Switzerland and, importantly, a domain in which school-based VET is well established. The empirical analysis uses panel data following a cohort for over 10 years in the Canton of Geneva. Results show that going from school-based to dual VET within commercial VET increases chances to earn a qualification, however students changing modes lose half a year in the process. These findings suggest that, at least in commercial VET, horizontal permeability is only partial.     

Managing spaces: (re)working relations of strategy and spatiality in vocational education and training

The adoption of a more ‘open’ national training market in vocational education and training (VET) in Australia has led to considerable changes in VET organizations and considerable challenges for VET managers. Recent research has established the critical role that ‘strategy’ plays in leading and managing these organizations and the significance of strategic management as a field of managerial practice within VET. In this article, I further examine the role of strategy in the management of VET organizations by giving attention to issues of space and spatiality. Deploying concepts from actor-network theory and drawing on case data collected from VET organizations, I address strategy as a spatializing project. The argument is made that strategy is an accomplishment of a network of relations rather than an individual manager or an individual organization and can take radically different forms (‘Big S’ strategy; ‘small s’ strategy) and produce radically different effects (economic, educational). More specifically, spatial relations play a constitutive role in strategy formation in VET. Relations of spatiality and strategy are created and sustained together, and where this complex relationship is understood space can serve as a ground for critique. The paper promotes a theoretical and empirical imperative to look keenly to the spaces filled by frontline managers. Essentially interrogatory, these spaces open up the possibility of the negotiation of managerial and organizational identities across differences of strategic management and operational management and, more broadly, of enterprise and education.     

Not just skills: what a focus on knowledge means for vocational education

This contribution to the symposium on Michael Young’s article ‘Overcoming the crisis in curriculum theory: a knowledge based approach’, supports his contention that curriculum theory has lost sight of its object—‘what is taught and learned in schools’, and argues that this has particularly deleterious consequences for vocational education and training (VET). VET is unproblematically positioned as applied, experiential and work-focused learning, and it is seen as a solution for those who are alienated from or unsuccessful in more traditional forms of academic education. This article argues that rather than being a mechanism for social inclusion, VET is instead a key way in which social inequality is mediated and reproduced because it excludes students from accessing the theoretical knowledge they need to participate in debates and controversies in society and in their occupational field of practice. It presents a social realist analysis to argue why VET students need access to theoretical knowledge, how a focus on experiential and applied learning constitutes a mechanism for social exclusion and what a ‘knowledge rich’ VET curriculum would look like.     

Holding complexity and searching for meaning: Teaching as reflective practice

This paper explores differences between traditions in relation to teaching and learning. As a relative newcomer from the Anglo/American curriculum tradition, I seek to highlight the ways in which Central and Northern European tradition of Didaktik has offered a new dimension and fresh insights to the notion of reflective practice. In particular, the paper seeks to emphasize the significance of Klafki's notion of Didaktik analysis, with its focus on meaning and its aim to re-enact the rationale for subject matters. Against this background, teaching is seen as a moral and reflecting activity that is primarily concerned with a search for meaning.     

The way collaboration benefits vocational students: a case study of a joint venture college in China

International collaborations in the vocational and training (VET) sector have grown significantly in the past three decades in China as well as in other parts of the world. Despite its growing prominence, it remains a largely under-researched field compared to the large volume of research on universities’ internationalization. In particular, it is unclear how internationalization practices improve vocational students’ academic and social competencies and readiness for employment. This case study was intended to fill this current gap in the literature by investigating a selected joint venture VET college in China. This study employed a wealth of data as evidence that international programmes could benefit vocational students in their English skills, professional knowledge, intercultural competence, and personal and career development. In additional to the opportunities created for vocational students, international programmes are expected to offer workplace experience and design a curriculum that suits students with different future plans. The findings of this study indicate that international collaborations in the VET sector have the potential not only to better prepare vocational students for life and employment, but also to address the challenges facing the VET system in developing economies.     

Why Business Should Work With Education

Abstract

The title of this paper is perhaps obscure, but it is intended to draw attention to the special context within which we need to consider vocational education and training in the 1990s. The paper describes the salient characteristics of that context, in order to provide a frame for some current preoccupations related to VET research.