Vocational education and training teachers' conceptions of their pedagogy

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ABSTRACT

There is a growing enthusiasm for developing a more highly skilled workforce in both Australia and internationally. Federal and state policies are directed towards increasing productivity and the engagement of formerly disengaged senior school students and the wider society. There is a new determination to manage transition arrangements between school, the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector and work, and there is a new commitment to more uniform and industry relevant curriculum. If these initiatives are to succeed with an enthusiasm equivalent to their for-mulation then more needs to be known about the VETpedagogies likely to be appropriate and successful for the new tasks. This paper investigates some understandings of VET pedagogy in the wider vocationalfield as well as in schools, and the tensions between the wider vocationalfield and schools that are implicit in these understandings. This paper is based on two empirical research projects carried out by the authors. The first research project reported on was carried out with VET teachers in Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Colleges and VET teachers working in a Vocational Secondary School. The second research project was carried out with career change teachers working in traditional high schools in NSW. In this article the authors use the concept of 'practice architectures' and the particular 'sayings, doings and relatings' involved in the wider VET sector to interrogate policy and practice changes, and to explore the implications of these changes in terms of the teachers' conceptions of their own pedagogy and some of the tensions and contradictions that they experience and articulate.

Keywords: VET practitioners, VET in schools, VET pedagogy, VET teacher attitudes, practice architectures, VET practice

'To see what all this really was', she insisted, 'beyond the relics and the old-fashioned horrors and shows - you needed a passion for the everyday'. That was how she put it. 'And for that, mere looking got you nowhere. All you see then', she told him, 'is what catches the eye, the odd thing, the unusual. But to see what is common, that is the difficult thing, don't you think? For that we need imagination, and there is never enough of it - never, never, enough' (Malouf, 1999).

Introduction

This article has its roots in the research program of the...