Session Information
23 SES 06 B, Concepts of Knowledge in Curriculum Reform
Paper Session
Contribution
Vocational education forms part of upper secondary and tertiary education across many European countries, taking diverse forms, including work-related learning for all students, optional vocational subjects within a broader curriculum, separate vocational pathways within institutions, and in some countries separate institutions specialising in vocational education. What is meant by ‘vocational’ knowledge across different countries and within different forms of provision, varies considerably.
However, two common features of the policy context of designing vocational education qualifications influence the purposes of ‘vocational’ education, and through this, meanings of vocational ‘knowledge’. Firstly, vocational education is usually positioned as a second-choice alternative to academic education. Secondly, it is used as a means of progression to employment and higher levels of education, as well as an alternative form of pedagogy for young people seen as disaffected and of low educational ability. This pulls vocational education in different directions, influenced by a diverse range of stakeholders with different interests and variable levels of expertise and legitmacy. As a result, the question of ‘knowledge’ becomes bound up on the one hand with debates about the development of skills for employability, and on the other, with debates about the learning of theoretical, subject knowledge.
This paper explores knowledge in vocational education by using England as a case in point. It draws on data from a one-year research project, which examined what is meant by knowledge in English broad vocational education qualifications at levels 3 and 4 in the European Qualifications Framework, the stakeholders involved in deciding the content of these qualifications, and how these factors shape conceptualisations of knowledge.
A range of literature is used to consider ideas which currently influence understandings of vocational knowledge. These include recent interest in theoretical knowledge in vocational education (Young, 2008; Wheelahan, 2010); theorisations of occupational knowledge and skill (Billett, 2006; Eraut, 1994; Stevenson, 2001; Winch, 2010); and ideas which emphasise approaches to learning building on psychology and cognitive science (Gardner, 2006; Claxton et al, 2010). This literature is used to develop a typology of knowledge to help understand the nature of knowledge in vocational qualifications.
The paper then analyses the ways in which knowledge is constructed and presented in qualification specifications, who is involved in qualification design, the types of knowledge that form the basis of these qualifications, and where theoretical knowledge is located within this context.
The analysis suggests that ‘knowledge’ in vocational qualifications encompasses a broad array of generic life, work and social skills, but that theoretical knowledge has a more problematic and ambivalent place. This, we argue, is symptomatic of a broader crisis of knowledge across many countries, with increasing uncertainty about the meanings, value, and purposes of traditional subject knowledge, and how such knowledge fits with vocational qualifications and newer fields of knowledge and practice.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Billett, S. (2006) Constituting the workplace curriculum, Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38, 1: 31-48. Claxton, G., Lucas, B. and Webster, R. (2010) Bodies of Knowledge. How the learning sciences could transform practical and vocational education, London: Edge Foundation. Eraut, M. (1994) Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence, London: Falmer. Gardner, H. (2006) Five Minds for the Future, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press. Stevenson, J. (2001) Vocational knowledge and its specification, Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 53: 4, 647-662. Wheelahan, L. (2010) Why Knowledge Matters in Curriculum. A Social Realist Argument, London: Routledge. Winch, C. (2010) Dimensions of Expertise A Conceptual Exploration of Vocational Knowledge, London: Continuum. Young, Michael (2008) Bringing Knowledge Back In. From social constructivism to social realism in the sociology of education, London: Routledge.
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