The agenda of the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) might influence the future of how vocational educations are offered and taught (UN, n.d). Goal number four concerns quality in education. Among other things, it covers equal access to education, elimination of gender disparities, and an increase in the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills. A target of goal number ten is, to “empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status”. If educational research has to support this agenda, it is important to concretize the goals in the national and local context. That is the intention of this research. The point of departure is the vocational basic course at the Danish vocational and educational training (VET). Recruiting pupils, reducing dropout, and supporting the students in accessing an apprenticeship all challenge VET. These problems can lead to the exclusion of some pupils, and VET plays a key role in creating and implementing policies to improve equality among youth (Ministry of Children and Education, 2017).

Internationally, the definition of inclusion used to focus on the possibilities for children with special needs in primary education (UNESCO 1994; Petersen & Hedegaard Hansen, 2019). However, the understanding of inclusion has changed to embrace a broader definition, so inclusion in education now concerns learning, education, and well-being for all pupils (Farrell & Ainschow, 2002). Research has shown that inequality in society and in education is closely connected to social background, gender, and ethnicity (Munk, 2001; Hansen, 2009). Hence, one theoretical approach to inclusion is sociological but another approach is didactical, oriented to trying to change teaching methods (Hedegaard-Sørensen, 2021). This research project combines knowledge of sociological factors with didactical initiatives.

Research done at VET found that exclusion is related to ethnicity, gender, motivation, vulnerable groups, and the learning environment during classes, and that little is done to improve social relations among the pupils (Ingholt et. al, 2010; Jørgensen, 2013; Pedersen, 2013; Sørensen & Skaalvik, 2013). However, more local knowledge is needed to improve inclusion. Therefore, as the starting point of this research, we use the theory of Bourdieu (Bourdieu & Passeron, 2006; Bourdieu & Balazs, 1999). He showed that the field, habitus, and capitals are important as well as all players. Bourdieu’s notion of “destiny effect” inspires this action research using the data from the involved vocational colleges (Nielsen & Nielsen, 2020; Bills, 2016).

The objective of the research is to contribute to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals at Danish VET. The project involves three vocational colleges at different locations in Jutland. The colleges select courses for their vocational education from among the more than 100 different courses in Danish VET. The project is divided into three phases. The first will start in January 2022. The vocational college as an organization will be mapped using interviews with teachers and students. The next phase will start in the autumn of 2022. Teachers will be informed of the results from the first phase and involved in the development of teaching methods based on them. This development will be initiated at three seminars during the semester. In the last phase, the teachers will try out the chosen initiatives. The paper to be presented at ECER 2022 will be about results from the first phase. The two research questions are:

What are the sociological inequalities at VET and how do teachers and students experience them?

How are these inequalities addressed in the teaching methods at VET to include all pupils?

The first phase of the study will combine documentary analyses with focus group interviews with students. The documents will include national reports and results published by universities, university colleges, and government research institutes. In addition, college documents are included. These documents are mandatory evaluation reports, quality reports, papers from student counseling, and the processes of becoming certified as a Sustainable Development Institution (UNESCO Associated Schools, n.d). The colleges will be encouraged to produce new papers if local processes are not yet visible as, for example, documents about the processes to become a Sustainable Development Institution, since this is relatively new. Papers showing the profiles of the colleges will also be integrated. These documents will be analyzed and summarized to identify the sociological factors at stake and the didactical initiatives. Based on these analyses, an interview guide will be prepared, and 12 teachers selected to participate in focus group interviews, one from each college. Background information about teaching experience will be collected and the teachers encouraged to give examples of inclusive or exclusive pedagogical situations (Nicolini, 2009). The role of the interviewer will be discussed by participant objectivation as an analytical lens (Bourdieu, 2003). The examples from practice will be rewritten as vignettes that are used in focus group interviews with five pupils from each college (Ejrnæs & Monrad, 2012). The idea of vignettes is to help the interviewee to verbalize culturally-based practices and to express experiences and feelings. It also supports the interviewer during the interview. The interviews will be transcribed and analyzed. The starting point of the analysis will be the concepts and categories found by the documentary analysis. The results will be presented and discussed with the project group representing the participating colleges. Based on the former data (phase one) phase two is participant observations of how teachers and managers plan new initiatives and criteria for evaluation of the implementation. This will take place in three seminars during autumn 2022. Later in phase three, the teachers will write logbooks to document, evaluate, and reflect on the implementation.

The expected results are that most of the analyzed documents use the well-known sociological factors such as socio-economic background, gender, diagnosis as dyslexic. Cultural background might also be included. These challenges can be met by didactical approaches expressed in concepts such as differentiation and motivation. However, these will probably not be concretized as didactical initiatives but expressed as written values and intentions at an organizational level. The focus group interviews with the teachers might also show the use of such concepts and values, but they will probably argue that it is difficult and unrealistic for them to meet the needs of the pupils. The examples from practice might show challenges and dilemmas in the working lives of the teachers; they may register inequalities without having adequate didactical solutions. The pupils are supposed to recognize the challenges, and the vignettes will support them in elaborating and giving examples from their points of view. Based on earlier results, it is expected that pupils will be very tentative to the teachers’ perspectives shown in evaluations because they must pass the courses. However, this also draws attention to the complexities in the social relations in class and between the pupils. The data will generate new knowledge and examples from practice that can initiate didactical development in the research project. In addition, the results from the analyses will address an international challenge at VET that is due to the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The results will initiate a discussion about how teaching methods at VET can contribute to changing the realities of the global world (Avis et. al. 2020).

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