What is Made Available for Students to Learn in Swedish Vocational Construction Education?

Author(s):

Ingrid Berglund

Conference:

ECER 2010

Network:

2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

02 SES 06 B, Learning, Cultures, Trajectories

Paper Session

Time:

2010-08-26

10:30-12:00

Room:

P723, Porthania

Chair:

Vibe Aarkrog

Contribution

This paper is based on my thesis of the relationship between Swedish Vocational Education and Training (VET) in general and vocational construction education in particular, as well as the implications of the fact that Vocational Education and Training is carried out on two arenas: in school and in working life. Vocational construction education in Sweden starts within the scope of the three year upper secondary Construction Programme. Already in upper secondary school, the responsibility for the education is shared between school (school based education) and companies within the trade (work based education). Immediately after graduation, a two-three year period of apprenticeship in the construction industry begins. Thereby the upper secondary education is closely integrated with the building trade’s apprenticeship system, which is additionally backed up by the widely spread practice of having many of the upper secondary courses held at the building sites of the construction industry partners who often play the role of future employers of apprentices. The issue in this paper is to describe what is made available for students to learn in school and work based education respectively. What conclusions can we draw regarding theory, practice and becoming qualified within this particular vocational area? The theoretical framework is Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) Mainly based on Leontiev’s (1978), structure of activity system. I present a case study that in particular focuses the actions and interaction between teachers, students and supervisors in order to identify any possible patterns that contribute to implications of the motive for vocational construction education.

Method

Data were produced on two occasions, at the beginning and at the end of spring semester 2007, in the case study school's Construction Programme. During these periods of field work, the ongoing actions that were available for observations were followed, in school as well as at the worksites. The data material consists of transcribed audio recordings of spontaneous conversations and appointed interviews, photographs (used for descriptions of different situations) and miscellaneous written documentation. The first step of case study analysis is aimed at identifying implicit goals and motives underpinning the actions, and at presenting ways of aggregating separate actions into larger clusters; practices. In the subsequent step, an interpretation of these clusters of actions or practices results in conclusions about the object towards which the actions are targeted, and finally a motive for the activity is explored and articulated.

Expected Outcomes

Being part of the praxis community of construction workers, vocational teachers take the conditions of the construction industry for granted and consequently regards them as mandatory guidelines for how the content of education should be designed. It seems that their educational activity is propelled by the motive to accommodate students to the building trade’s apprenticeship system and teamwork. In the case study, the students are enculturated (Roth et al 2005) into the construction industry's specific, culturally and historically developed conditions: teamwork, piecework and masculinity as both an ideal and a norm. The conclusion is that vocational construction education consists of two activities; the first one being the construction production activity, with strong links to the apprenticeship system of construction education, and the second one the school activity, concerned with vocational bildung and text-based tools. An emerging infused core subject practice where the content is also related the building vocation.This new practice is organised on the basis of vocational and core subject teachers’ joint knowledge areas which can be regarded as a kind of hybrid practice (Lindberg, 2003), or a border zone (Konkola, 2007; Tuomi-Gröhn & Engeström, 2003) between the two functions, preparation for a vocation and for higher education.

References

Berglund, Ingrid (2009). Byggarbetsplatsen som skola – eller skolan som byggarbetsplats? En studie av byggnadsarbetares yrkesutbildning. Akademisk avhandling. Stockholm University. Berglund, Ingrid (2007). En ny yrkesutbildning – genom yrkesbaserat lärande? En studie av tre gymnasieskolor som samverkar med företag. Rapport inom EQUAL-projektet En ny yrkesutbildning. Internet: (2009-08-28). Berglund, Ingrid (2004). Learning by simulation or simulated learning? A classroom study of four students´strategies when learning control systems by computer-based simulation. Paper presented at the ECER conference 2004. Engeström, Yrje (1999). Activity theory and individual and social transformation. In Y.Engeström, R. Miettinen & R-L.(Punamäki Eds.) Perspectives on activity theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hedman, Anders (2001). I nationens och det praktiska livets tjänst. Det svenska yrkesskolesystemets tillkomst och utveckling. Akademisk avhandling. Pedagogiska institutionen. Umeå: Umeå universitet. Konkola, Riita, Toumi-Gröhn, Terttu, Lambert, Pirjo & Ludvigsen, Sten (2007). Promoting learning and transfer between school and workplace. Journal of Education and Work, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp 211-228. Larsson, Lars (2001). Industri- och hantverksutbildning under två sekel. Årsböcker i svensk undervisningshistoria, vol. 194. Uppsala: Föreningen för svensk undervisningshistoria. Leontiev, Aleksei N. (1978). Verksamhet, medvetande och personlighet. Göteborg: Fram Lindell, Ingrid (1992). Disciplinering och yrkesutbildning. Reformarbetet bakom 1918 års praktiska ungdomsskolereform. Årsböcker i svensk undervisningshistoria, vol. 172. Uppsala: Föreningen för svensk undervisningshistoria. Lindberg, Viveca (2003a). Vocational knowing and the content in vocational education. Scandinavian Journal of Educational research, Vol.47, No 2, pp 157-179. Lindberg, Viveca (2003b). Learning practices in vocational education. International Journal of Training Research, Vol.1, No 2, pp 40-61. Lundahl, Lisbeth & Sander, Theodor (1998). Germany and Sweden – two different systems of vocational education. TNTEE Publications 1998, I (1). http://tntee.umu.se/publications/swe/Lundahl_swe.pdf (2009-02-22). Roth, Wolf-Michael, Hwang, SungWon, Goulart, Maria I. M. & Lee, Yew J. (2005). Participation, learning and identity. Dialectical perspectives. (International Cultural-historical Human Sciences, volume 14). Berlin: Lehmanns Media.

Author Information

Ingrid Berglund

Stockholm university

Department of Didactic Science and Early Childhood Education

Stockholm

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