The main purpose of the current study was to contribute to the understanding of how vocational training schools adapt their core technology of schooling to demands imposed from the external working life environments. In the national context subjected to the study, Norway, vocational education programs are of four year’s duration, however half-split between two years of schooling and two years of workplace training in apprenticeship. There is, however, no structural instrument that may guarantee students the right to access apprenticeship in the workplaces, and thus complete their four-year educational plans, as businesses and public institutions so to speak select the recruits they prefer. Seen from the school’s point of view, half of the education chain takes place outside its own organizational territory, which implies per se that schools are strongly dependent on resources, preferences and demands determined in the external working life environments. School professionals are therefore assumed to develop adaptive strategies when seeking to ensure their students a fair opportunity to fulfill their education towards craftsmanship certification.  This paper therefore seeks to illuminate the adaptation mechanisms vocational schools employ in order to deal with this asymmetric relationship. More specific, the objective was to analyze collaborative patterns, social structures and the sharing of knowledge between school professionals and working life actors involved in vocational training.  

However, the literature review reveals that no single theory captures the full research problem subject to investigation, and a more eclectic theoretical framework was therefore conducted. The first theoretical source builds on the premise that large complex school organizations can be conceived as loosely coupled systems, in line with propositions posited by Karl E. Weick and associates for more than three decades. This present paper argues that loose coupling theory provides a powerful analytical frame when the purpose is to capture the full dynamics involved in vocational school’s adaptation strategies. What is more, loose coupling theory claims that adaptive strategies and leadership practices are most effectively set up from the local level, i.e. the school department level. Following, the second stream of theorizing incorporates a practice-based approach to the research problem. A practice-based perspective highlights the importance of the practitioners’ collaborative context at the micro level, conceptualized by Etienne Wenger’s notion of the community of practice. A community of practice may for example be formed when school professionals and stakeholders from local working life engage in shared enterprises, such as the construction of new methodologies applicable for socializing recruits to meet workplace standards. Moreover, this social learning theory directs specific attention to the practice, i.e. the knowledge and social connections that evolve from the professional collaboration. The paper assumes that such professional communities promote shared actions that again foster effective adaptation through mutual learning and adjustments. A multiple case study was designed in order to accomplish the research objective, as described in the subsequent section.

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