Along with the implementation of competence-based education in Dutch senior vocational education working in teams was introduced. Teacher teams are considered a success factor in increasing the quality of education (MBO raad, 2009). Teachers are responsible for educational as well as organizational tasks, which often surpass the capabilities of one single team member. The mutual responsibility for a wide range of team tasks requires different combinations of expertise within a teacher team (Wesselink, 2010; van Veldhuizen, 2011) According to the formal collective terms of employment, teams are responsible for the process and outcome of the division of roles and tasks. However, research about working in teams in Dutch senior vocational education, particularly focusing on the division of roles and tasks, is scarce. Consequently there is limited insight in how the role and task division is currently constituted and in what underlying rationales for the role and task division are.

The overall aim of this research is to contribute to the scholarly base as well as help team managers and teams in Dutch senior vocational education understand the complexity of the division of roles and tasks by making the rationales behind this division explicit. Subsequently team managers and their teams can make better-informed decisions with regard to the way they organize the work they are responsible for. Therefore, this study focuses on (1) gaining insight in how the role and task division is currently constituted in teams in senior vocational education from the perspective of team managers, and (2) exploring underlying rationales from the perspective of team managers.

Senior secondary education comprises vocational programmes at four qualification levels for youngsters who have completed the first compulsory cycle of secondary education. At each qualification level, students are able to choose whether they learn in the workplace or in school. Various combinations are possible with a minimum of either one-day learning in school or one day learning in the workplace. Graduates of courses at the highest qualification level are allowed to enter the bachelor programmes in higher professional education. Ducht VET has a three-folded public assignment. It prepares students for the labor market, it prepares students for being a responsible citizen, and it prepares students for entering higher professional education.  

Expertise in a VET-team mostly comprises of 5 roles that teachers take on as part of their work (see eg. Schuiling, 2011; Wesselink, 2010; van Veldhuizen, 2011, Noij & Koster, 2012):

1)    The Expert. ‘In the expert role teachers possess relevant knowledge of their discipline, being able to stimulate students to develop this disciplinary knowledge as well, and stay up to date by scanning the environment and listening to students and colleagues from within their educational institution and professional practice’ (Wesselink, 2010 p. 54).

2)    The Coach. ‘The role of coach consists of facilitating students’ learning processes and assisting students in their preparation for their future professions’ (Wesselink, 2010 p. 54).

3)    The assessor. ‘The assessor is responsible for evaluating, diagnosing and monitoring students’ competence level and development, for conducting formative and summative assessments and ensuring that the assessments are authentic by involving relevant persons from practice’ (Wesselink, 2010 p. 54).

4)    The developer. ‘The developer can be described as designing learning activities and developing learning materials and assessment procedures in cooperation with colleagues’ (Wesselink, 2010 p. 55).

5)    The manager. ‘The manager checks the quality of learning and assessment processes and improves quality where necessary. The manager keeps in contact with external parties relevant to the learning process, such as workplace trainers and colleagues from other educational institutions’ (Wesselink, 2010 p. 55).

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