Search results for: Vocational education

The purpose of this study is to analyze discursively how the relationship between educational institutions and workplaces materializes in the position of a vocational teacher. The author focuses particularly on the requirement of vocational teachers to work in close collaboration with industry and workplaces, and to serve economic interests. The pedagogical responsibility for what happens to students at work remains with vocational teachers; however, the success of educational programs depends on the willingness of employees to offer learning opportunities to students, and to guide and evaluate student learning according to the rules set by the educational curricula.

This paper is based on ethnographic studies in the context of vocational education: two in Sweden and one in Finland. The article focuses on temporal and spatial dimensions of three educational contexts. The Swedish Vehicle programme, the Swedish Child and Recreation programme and the Finish social and health-care sector. Furthermore, the article analyzes how young people exhibit their agency when negotiating their time and constructing their own space. The authors’ analysis elucidates how time–space paths in the context of vocational education are classed and gendered.

The paper analyzes the different factors exerting an influence on the professional knowledge, practices and performance of teaching staff involved in technical and vocational education and training (TVET). The author focuses particularly on the professional reality of vocational teachers as made manifest in the conjoined elements of the knowledge of teachers and professional cultures. He shows how closely teacher education and the institutional contexts are entwined in the minds of teachers as well as in professional cultures.