Faculty of Education - Research Publications
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ItemThe limits of competency-based training and the implications for work(Routledge, 2009)
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ItemVocations, 'graduateness', and the recognition of prior learning(National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, 2006)
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ItemBeyond the contextual: the importance of theoretical knowledge in vocational qualifications and the implications for work(Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning (CRLL), 2007)This paper uses a Bernsteinian analysis to argue that vocational education and training (VET) qualifications in Australia deny students access to theoretical knowledge that underpins vocational practice. Australian VET qualifications are based on training packages, which are the equivalent of English National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). Training packages are developed for broad industry areas (such as community services) and consist of qualifications at different levels that comprise 'industry'-specified units of competency. In 2005, 69% of all publicly funded VET provision was based on training packages (NCVER 2006: Table 4). The introduction of training packages caused fierce debate within Australia, particularly around the extent to which they provide students with access to 'underpinning knowledge'. Supporters of training packages argue that they merely specify the outcomes of training and the criteria that are used to assess whether those outcomes have been achieved. In contrast, I argue that training packages do shape curriculum and have consequences for teaching and learning, and consequently for the extent to which students are able to navigate the transition between formal and informal knowledge and formal and informal contexts. This argument is illustrated through comparing the current Diploma of Community Services (Community Development) with the Associate Diploma of Social Sciences (Community Development), which was the qualification that existed prior to the introduction of the Community Services training package. The first section of this paper outlines a Bernsteinian analysis of the nature of disciplinary knowledge and its relationship to workplace knowledge and practice. The second section considers the extent to which training packages constitute curriculum, while the third compares and contrasts the two qualifications.
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ItemWhat kind of curriculum, pedagogy & qualifications do we need for an uncertain future?(Centre for Research in Lifelong Learning (CRLL), 2005)In a recent paper, Ronald Barnett (2004) called for an 'ontological turn' in curriculum and pedagogy away from a focus on knowledge and skills to a 'pedagogy for human being', which seeks to develop the human qualities and dispositions needed to thrive in an uncertain future. He counter-poses his approach with the 'generic skills' approach, arguing that the latter is a cul-de-sac, because it is premised on certain and knowable skills to navigate an uncertain world. While agreeing with him that generic skills are a dead-end, this paper argues that a 'pedagogy for human being' must be contextualised by a vocation, which means that knowledge and skills are important because they help to develop the human qualities and dispositions sought by Barnett. Unless the notion of vocation is used to ground Barnett's 'ontological turn' in the curriculum, the danger is that the attributes and dispositions he seeks will result in disconnected and fragmented identities, which find expression in market oriented capacities and patterns of consumption (Bernstein, 2000), rather than an intrinsic sense of inner calling, or (as sought by Barnett) an authentic self. I use critical realism to critique Barnett's analysis, draw on Bernstein (2000) to argue against decontextualised notions of 'trainability', offer Dewey's (1966 (1916)) notion of a vocation as an alternative, and Young (2003) to argue for an alternative model of qualifications and curriculum.
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ItemRethinking equity in tertiary education: why we need to think as one sector and not two(Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA), 2010)Equity policy in Australian tertiary education is differentiated by educational sector, with the higher education and vocational education and training sectors having different policies, and in some cases, different definitions of equity groups. This is problematic because pathways from VET to higher education are meant to act as an equity mechanism by providing students from disadvantaged backgrounds with access to higher education. This presentation examines equity policies and definitions in both sectors, and it examines data on student pathways within VET and between VET and higher education. It finds that, apart from students with disabilities, students from disadvantaged backgrounds are over- represented in VET and under-represented in higher education. However, students from disadvantaged backgrounds are over-represented in lower-level VET qualifications and under-represented in higher-level qualifications, particularly in diplomas and advanced diplomas. This matters because diplomas are the ‘transition’ qualification which VET students use as the basis for admission to higher education. The presentation argues that the diploma is the key qualification for equity policy in both VET and higher education. Rather than separate VET and higher education equity policies and separate sectoral policies that mean pathways are of some importance only ‘at the borders’, a tertiary education policy framework will be needed that considers equity outcomes and pathways within and between sectors and places these outcomes as key concerns of both sectors. The presentation first problematises the extent to which pathways are able to act as a mechanism to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds to access higher level studies. Second, reasons why we need to consider equity from a post-compulsory or tertiary education perspective are presented, and it argues that the diploma is the key qualification for pathways and thus for equity policy. This is followed by an analysis of the relative position of equity groups in VET. Finally, the presentation considers the implications for equity policy.
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ItemWhat kind of access does VET provide to higher education for low SES students?: not a lot(National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education, 2009)This paper addresses three questions: the first question explores the extent to which VET diplomas and advanced diplomas provide students with an educational ladder of opportunity. The second question explores the extent to which VET pathways provide students from low socio-economic backgrounds with access to higher education and thus provides a social ladder of opportunity. The third question explores the institutional destinations of VET students from low socio-economic backgrounds in higher education. The paper concludes by examining the implications for policy. Overall, the findings are that pathways from VET to higher education provide access to universities, but not to the elite universities. It also finds that VET pathways are not a mechanism for redressing socio-economic disadvantage in higher education more broadly, because the socio-economic profile of VET articulators is very similar to students already in higher education and within individual universities, with a few notable exceptions.
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ItemThe pedagogic device: the relevance of Bernstein's analysis for VET(Centre for Learning and Work Research, Faculty of Education, Griffith University: Australian Academic Press, 2005)This paper explores the relevance for VET of Basil Bernstein’s analysis of the structuring of knowledge and the framing of pedagogic practice. Bernstein argued that education was not a passive relay for external power relations. Pedagogic practice is an important structuring mechanism for power relations in the way in which knowledge is classified and framed. Towards the end of his life, Bernstein argued that the ‘official’ recontextualising principle in education was derived from ‘genericism’, itself based on new concepts of work and life. He says this is a socially empty concept, and results in identities constructed as market identities in which actors recognise themselves and others in the materialities of consumption. I apply Bernstein’s analysis to VET policy in Australia.
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ItemHow markets distort decisions to undertake education, vocational knowledge, provision and qualifications(University of Technology, Sydney, 2005)This paper argues that neo-liberal market-oriented reform to vocational education and training (and also other sectors of education) is much more than a tool for intensifying the work of VET teachers, through making them more 'responsive' and their institutions more 'effective and efficient'. The aim of these policies is the creation of the 'market citizen'. This leads to transformation of subjectivities and the way in which individuals develop and shape their sense of identity, their orientation to their vocation, their relationship to knowledge and practice, and the way in which they recognise themselves and others (Bernstein, 2000; Ball, 2003). The 'generic skills' sought by government and employers are market-oriented skills. This changes the focus of education and training from preparing students for a vocation to preparing them for markets. As a consequence, vocational knowledge is downplayed. Market reforms also distort the nature of provision, the structure and focus of qualifications, and the way in which employers decide to provide, and individuals to undertake, further education and training. This paper presents an alternative model, which argues that learning for work needs to go beyond work, that learning needs to be oriented to a vocation, and that learning needs to occur over a variety of contexts (and not just learning at work).
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ItemBetwixt and between: higher education teachers in TAFE(Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA), 2009)This paper reports on the views of 20 teachers who were involved in designing and delivering higher education programs in TAFE institutes.