The Voices of Vocational Education and Training; An Analysis Of Disadvantage In A College In Spain Within The Capability Approach

Author(s):

Aurora L. Fogues(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2011

Network:

21. Emerging Researchers' Group (for presentation at Emerging Researchers' Conference)

Format:

Poster

Session Information

ERG SES B 01, Interactive Poster Session B 01

Poster Session

Time:

2011-09-12

11:00-12:30

Room:

JK 29/118,G, 47

Chair:

Joana da Silveira Duarte

Discussant:

Fiona Hallett

Contribution

Educational reforms are at the centre of current European debates. The economic crisis that we are facing seems to intrinsically evidence the need for reconceptualising our educational systems. Vocational Education and Training (VET), an area traditionally neglected due to its socially second-chance consideration, is now attracting the attention of policy makes attempting to find the perfect curriculum which would enhance the employability of the learners and hence its productivity.

This proposal outlines and critiques the dominant approach of human capital based on economic achievements that currently frame the European debate. Drawing principally on Amartya Sen’s notion of capabilities and Iris Marion Young’s politics of difference, this research positions people at the forefront for understanding the instrumental but also intrinsic value of VET.

The aim is to create awareness of the impact of VET on learners’ agency and societal wellbeing in relation to the extent to which it fosters “fertile functionings” and capabilities that individuals and society in general have reason to value. This view sets out an alternative approach to assessing the post-sixteen VET in a public college based on Sen’s and Young’s idea of social justice.

The aims that guide this study are:

- To represent the current state of VET in Europe by mapping through a case study, any disparity of goals, values and aspirations among those involved in this educational area.

- To contribute to current VET analyses, changing the paradigm of evaluation which is centred on skills, competences and knowledge by focusing on capabilities.

- To research with those considered by the system as the least advantaged in order to gather their valuable beings and doings as well as the impact of VET on their identities.

The first research question aims to increase understanding about which are those valuable beings and doings are developed and experienced in VET.

- How is VET in Spain understood, transmitted/experienced and valued by policy makers, college lecturers, future employers, and learners; and captured through institutional arrangements?

Analysis of the values underlying the VET system in a particular college would deepen understanding about how the curriculum, pedagogical practices and institutional ethos are configured, as well as on the influence of those on learners’ valuables beings and doings.

The second research question seeks to analyse the meaning of disadvantage in VET paying attention not just to learner outcomes but also to their genuine opportunities or capabilities to achieve those functionings.

- How does the Capability Approach (CA) advance our theoretical and operational understanding of disadvantage in Vocational Education in Spain and more broadly in Europe?

This research seeks to move beyond the human capital approach by providing a social justice framework.

Method

The research analyses VET in terms of its effect enhancing young people’s ability to lead a meaningful life valuable for them and for others. A three dimensional analysis contemplates Sen’s and Young’s bases of fairness and freedom based on the full participation and inclusion and socially supported substantive opportunity for all to develop and exercise their capabilities of voice and choice. Those three inter-related dimensions are: - Being able to autonomously choose a life one has reason to value - Being able to participate in political and social life - Being able to work The methodology proposed is a mixed method which includes European and Spanish policy analysis; semi-structured interviews with policy makers, the head of the college, lecturers, future employers and learners considered by the college as disadvantaged; and finally ethnographic observation. Those methods will allow us to build a grid of “valuable functionings” across the dimensions mentioned above.

Expected Outcomes

By analyzing a public post-sixteen college in Spain using the capability lenses, the research hopes to reflect a heterogeneous understanding of VET and disadvantage based on the dimensions of autonomy, participation and work; this understanding should highlight the reductionist policies of VET as an economic provider. The grid of valuable functionings will be a useful tool for mapping the heterogeneous understandings of VET and to deconstruct the meaning of disadvantage. The grid will allow us to identify separately the functionings or expected outcomes of VET (with the policy and document analysis) and then, the capabilities associated with these functionings by each of the agents (with the semi-structured interviews and autographic observation). Furthermore, the three-dimensional view of autonomy, participation and work will be of profound relevance for, together with the interviewees, allocating the capabilities and thus representing the positionality and weight of those on any of the dimensions. A complete VET education will be an education that provides all the valuable functionings and capabilities gathered in a participatory manner through the study. This will help to redefine the meaning of disadvantage in VET as a learner whose capabilities on any of the three dimensions are diminished or at risk.

References

Anderson, E. S. 1999. What is the Point of Equality?. Ethics, 109(2), pp. 287-337. Baker, J., Lynch K., and S. Cantillon., 2004. Equality: from theory to action. New York: Palgrave. Brighouse, H. and I. Robeyns., 2010. Measuring Justice: Primary Goods and Capabilities. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Cedefop. 2008. Organisation of the education system in Spain 2009/2010. Eurybase. Cedefop. 2010. Skills supply and demand in Europe Medium-term forecast up to 2020. Eurybase. Hodkinson, P. and D. James. 2003. Transforming Learning Cultures in Further Education. Journal of Vocational Education & Training 55(4), pp.389-406. Includ-Ed. 2007. Includ-Ed: strategies for inclusion and social cohesion in Europe from education.Barcelona: Include-Ed Project. Nussbaum, M. 2003. Capabilities as Fundamental Entitlements: Sen and Social Justice. Feminist Economics 9(2), pp. 33 - 59. Robeyns, I. 2006. How has the Capability Approach been put into Practice?. Journal of Political Philosophy 14(3), pp. 351-76. Sen, A., 1992. Inequality Re-examined. New York: Oxford University Press. Sen, A., 1999. Development as Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press. Sen, A., 2009. The Idea of Justice. London: Penguin Books. Terzi, L. 2008., Justice and Equality in Education: A Capability Perspective on Disability and Special Educational Needs. London: Continuum. Walker, M. and E. Unterhalter., 2007. Amartya Sen's Capability Approach and Social Justice in Education. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Wolff, J. and A. De-Shalit., 2007. Disadvantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Young, I. M. 2001. Equality of whom? Social groups and judgments of injustice. Journal of Political Philosophy, 9(1), pp. 1-18. Young, I. M. 2006. Education in the Context of Structural Injustice: A symposium response. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 38(1), pp. 93-103.

Author Information

Aurora L. Fogues (presenting / submitting)

University of Nottingham

School of Education

Nottingham

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