This paper explores how local vocational education and training (VET) curricula is ‘made’ within two different types of vocational colleges in Sweden: Technical College (TC) and Health and Social care College (HSC). We present preliminary results from an ongoing pilot study on local VET curriculum making focusing on what is considered necessary knowledge and aspects of how the educations are gender-coded. Upper secondary schools stand for the provision of VET according to the national curricula, and TC and HSC were introduced a couple of decades ago to increase young people’s interest for a vocational career and to strengthen the influence of labour market institutions on VET programmes (Fredriksson & Stier, 2014; Hermelin & Rusten, 2016; Olofsson & Panican, 2020). Today they have a central role for accrediting schools, consisting of a national organisation but with locally organised steering groups of representatives from schools, employer organisations, industry, unions, and regions. However, we have limited knowledge about how the required knowledge and competences for the labour market are defined and formulated in these local arenas and what implications it has for teaching (Alvunger, 2024). 

In international research, scholars have identified both advantages and risks with local partnerships between industries and schools. When partners interests, commitments and views on curricula are aligned, local partnerships may thrive (Huddleston & Laczik, 2018), but the co-operations may be vulnerable due to incompatible interests or economic changes (Ehlen, van der Klink & Boshuizen, 2016), and conflicting ideas on curricula, leading to ‘dead ends’ for the students and difficulties for the students to be employed (Hodgson & Spours, 2015). In the Swedish context, we know that relationships between industry and schools in the local community effect students’ vocational learning (Persson Thunqvist & Gustavsson, 2021), but know the less about how local actors are makers of VET curricula. Vocational educations are positioned in a kind of borderland between school and working life (Broberg 2014; Mårtensson, 2021) where they on the one hand are supposed to provide relevant competence for the labour market (Panican & Paul, 2019) while they on the other hand, as all upper secondary education, shall contribute to young people’s possibilities to independently influence and shape their lives as members of society (Rosvall & Nylund, 2022). These separate logics of school education and working life are not easily reconciled (Johansson, 2019; Jørgensen, 2004) and creates tensions and conflicts of interests on local level (Köpsén, 2022; Nilsson, 2015). 

The analysis is based on a theoretical framework of curriculum making as social practice, which means that curriculum is something that is ’made’ and created in interactions between ideas, actors, and contexts across different layers of the education system (Alvunger et al, 2021). The analytical focus is on what is referred to as the meso-, micro-, and nano-levels (Priestley et al, 2021), with the aim of analyzing how different actors assess and define knowledge in various contexts (local steering groups and classrooms). To analyse how necessary knowledge for the students are defined and valued in different regulatory documents and contexts where VET curricula and teaching is discussed and negotiated, Bernstein’s (2000) concept ’discursive gap’ is employed. This may involve how local steering groups respond to policy pressures related to skills supply and labor market needs. In turn, school principals and vocational teachers (micro-level) work with but also make concerning activities to achieve set goals – frameworks for organizing teaching, and selection of content and knowledge for instruction. In the classroom (nano-level), vocational teachers and vocational students create different ‘curriculum events’ (Doyle, 1992) through pedagogical interaction, actively shaping the curriculum in teaching (Priestley et al., 2021).

This paper employs two research methods with the aim of collecting qualitative empirical data that complement each other and enable an analysis of discursive gaps and gender in local curriculum work from various perspectives (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007; Spillman, 2014): document analysis of websites and material produced by the local steering groups (PR, minutes, reports, guidelines) and semi-structured interviews with representatives of TC and HSC and vocational teachers. In this presentation, preliminary results from a limited part of informants are included as the pilot phase still is running. The results are analyzed and thematically coded based on the study's theoretical concepts of discursive gaps and gender. Methodologically, the project draws inspiration from ethnography (Hammersley & Atkinson, 2007) to illuminate and make comparisons between TC and HSC and how vocational education curricula are translated, interpreted, and formulated locally based on students' knowledge needs and the gendered conditions of the vocations in question. The study captures statements about students' knowledge needs and perceptions of the conditions and characteristics of professions in both national and regional/local policy documents and actions related to local collaborations. The analysis of data is targeted towards questions such as: What is emphasized as legitimate and valuable knowledge in the documents? How are students' knowledge needs described? What arguments can be discerned for this? In what ways do assumptions about the conditions and characteristics of vocations emerge, and how are these associated with gender? To inductively gather qualitative data on individuals' perceptions and beliefs, semi-structured interviews are conducted based on an interview guide with participants in local steering groups and vocational teachers. Focus is on questions such as: What do the informants value as important knowledge for the students? How are students' knowledge needs motivated? How do they perceive that it affects the content and design of teaching? How do the informants view their role and responsibility for teaching and students' knowledge needs? What perspectives do the informants have on the conditions and characteristics of professions, and how are these associated with gender? The comparative dimension of similarities and differences between TC and HSC is addressed to a minor extent in this paper because it is too early to draw conclusions.

The preliminary results support earlier research indicating that collaboration between schools and representatives of the workforce is often characterized by tensions and goal- and interest conflicts, with the risk of lock-in effects. The local curriculum that emerges is characterized by an ambivalent approach to students' knowledge needs, influenced by perceptions of the conditions and characteristics of vocations: Traditionally masculine-coded production vocations are attributed higher material values for local growth and specialized knowledge, while feminine-coded care vocations are considered to encompass generic and general knowledge. On a general level the so-called Swedish model serves as an important explanatory model in historical perspective for TC and HSC. The concept of “college” is seen as something trendy, with speed and flair, and–something that will attract and appeal to young people. The certification, diplomas, and quality indicators for being accredited are seen as a guarantee for educations that lead to competent and attractive employees. For representatives of the workforce, recruitment needs are central, but they prioritize students learning a variety of techniques to quickly adapt to different companies in the area. In this respect, the views of knowledge needs tend to lean towards vocationally specific aspects. On local level, both TC and HSC arrange activities that seeks to attract students, and specifically students that are underrepresented on certain programmes. For example, TC hosts events such as “Girls’ night” at companies or in the industry facilities at schools, or continuous professional development activities for teachers in local industries. School leadership appreciates the creativity of workforce representatives and values initiatives such as the creation of mentor companies. However, there is caution about giving too much space for external parties to condition learning objectives in the VET programmes (Alvunger & Klope, 2023).

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