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Article Excerpt
The rhetoric of the new vocationalism is about creating a new type of person: an enterprising, flexible, portfolio-oriented, lifelong learner. The rhetoric of contemporary Australian government policy is that schools should be more vocational. This article focuses on schooling and a case study of a site where two vocational 'dual accreditation' subjects are being taught. It argues (a) that different visions of schooling and vocational knowledge are evident at different levels of the system, but also between teachers involved in the same formal structure and between students within the same classes; (b) that the dual assessment regimes observed here embody not only different epistemologies, but different imputed identities of the learner-worker; and (c) that class and gender attributes matter but are not adequately acknowledged in the new agendas for school. The article illustrates ambiguities in what teachers and students are expected to do, and, in particular, a mixture of different ideas about what knowledge counts and what attributes are valued within the school-based vocational subjects.
Keywords
vocational
identity
schooling
assessment
knowledge
case study
Introduction
The recent growth in VET [Vocational Education and Training] in schools ... is part of a drive to prepare students in secondary schooling more effectively for employment ... [V]ocational education in schools also forms part of a number of other reform agendas; for example, addressing broader concerns about the relevance and effectiveness of the senior secondary school curriculum, improving the transition from school to further education and training, and the promotion of lifelong learning (House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Training Report, 2004, 7.1).
In Australia, as in Europe, governments, training bodies, business councils and academic theorists are eager to scrutinise the changing economy, to identify the desirable attributes of the 'new worker' and to put in place (or critique) changes to education and training in terms of these 'new times'. A common theme in many of these discussions is that the new worker needs to acquire or display orientations and attributes that go beyond specific items of work-related knowledge and competencies. They need to be flexible; to be oriented to lifelong learning; to be able to present and communicate appropriately in different contexts; to maintain, update and present to the best advantage portfolios of their achievements; and to be enterprising. Another common theme in these discussions is that institutional changes are required, that schools must learn to become more vocational, or vocational in a different way; and that rigid boundaries between institutions need to disappear, so that 'pathways' can become more flexible. But rhetorical calls for a re-construction of the worker and their training are one thing; the enactment and take-up of new practices is another.
Previous research has drawn attention to a range of problems and issues that are confronted when new policy rhetoric meets conflicting stakeholder interests and particular institutional and sector histories. Boreham (2002) for example, discusses the inherent conflict of interest between employers, governments and individual students in relation to training agendas and qualifications at school, and discusses how these play out differently in different structural conditions of governance of training in Germany as compared with the United Kingdom. Cho and Apple (1998) show that an attempt to instill new 'work subjectivity' through educational reform in Korea achieved only token changes, due both to the inadequacy of implementation conditions in terms of bringing teachers on side and to the resistance of students attuned to other markers of social status. Williams (2005) reviews Australian reports and literature on new definitions of 'generic skills' in the 1990s and beyond, and points to the ambiguities and frequent contradictions as to whether these 'generic' competencies are seen as innate attributes of the person or are conceived as things that may be learned and taught. Huddleston and Oh (2004) discuss some messiness and lack of empirical warrant in the hopes and agendas associated with 'work-related learning' in schooling policies in the UK. Shacklock (2000) argues that one of the directions most popular in recent Australian policy reform for schools, the fostering of 'enterprise', is popular precisely because it is a 'nebulous and contradictory' term. Similar arguments are made by Pring (2004) in relation to the ubiquitous use of 'skills' in education reform policies in the UK, and by Hayward and Fernandez in reviewing shifts in key skills agendas (Hayward, 2004; Hayward & Fernandez, 2004).
This article draws on a case study of two school-based 'dual accreditation' vocational classes in New South Wales (1) studied as part of a larger Australian Research Council-funded project, Changing Work, Changing Workers, Changing Selves, studying vocational pedagogy across different institution and industry types (Chappell, Solomon, Tennant & Yates, 2003b).The background of the project is the rhetoric and literature regarding the 'new worker'. In terms of new vocational skills and transformations of self, the project sought to study whether and in what ways capabilities such as 'communication', 'enterprising self' or 'flexibility' are being enacted in programs today, and how they are or are not affected by local specificities. Across the different education sites, the project asks two types of questions about the developments: first, what is actually being enacted in classrooms now as 'knowledge' in these vocational subjects? And second, what identities about work and working knowledge are being constructed, affirmed or marginalised in the process? Vocational subject-making is both about constructing courses of study and about producing people with particular vocational identities.
This particular article draws on research related to schooling as a site. One interest here is to consider actual classroom practice in relation to the rhetoric by which the policies and reforms have been introduced; a second is to consider the actual classroom practices against the burgeoning literature on new times, new knowledge, new forms of work and identity (for example, Cairney, 2000; Curtis & McKenzie, 2001; Garrick & Rhodes, 2000; Gee, 2000; Howse, 2001; James, 2002; Lumby, 2004; OVAL, 2003).The article focuses on two aspects of vocationalism as pedagogy in the context of schooling: the different conceptions of the agenda being expressed by different players in this arena; and the driving force of assessment regimes, and the conflicting epistemologies and imputed worker positionings these embody. It deals in turn with three questions, all framing a dialogue between policy and literature on the one hand and the case study empirical data on the other. (For elaboration on methodological approach, see Yates, 2003). Firstly, in terms of 'new' and 'old' vocationalism: who speaks what language? Secondly, how do you combine two conflicting assessment regimes? And thirdly, who is the worker imagined to be?
In this case study, two vocational classes, one in Hospitality Operations and one in Information Technology, are being taught in the final year (Year Twelve) of a NSW high school. The classes are both 'dual accreditation' subjects: students are assessed for Certificate II competencies within the Australian Qualifications Framework, a recognised assessment scheme for industrial awards. Students taking the subject can also take examinations in those subjects within the Higher School Certificate (HSC), and by doing so gain scores that will count towards their combined university entrance score (UAI). The subjects are recognised components of the Year Twelve course of study regardless of whether...
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