Workplace Learning, VET and Vocational Pedagogy: the transformation of practice

Author(s):

James Avis(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2012

Network:

02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Format:

Paper

Session Information

02 SES 07 A, Didactics, Self-Organised Learning And Workplace Learning In VET

Parallel Paper Session

Time:

2012-09-19

17:15-18:45

Room:

FCT - Aula 21

Chair:

M'Hamed Dif

Contribution

Research addressing workplace learning, VET and the development of vocational pedagogy globally frequently locate this within the pursuit of competitiveness and social justice (Mjelde and Daly, 2012). In the European Union i-VET as well as c-VET is seen to play a significant role in the development of social inclusion/cohesion (EU 2002, 2010; and see JVET, 2011). This concern rests alongside the significance accorded to the furtherance of a knowledge based economy (Kbe) in the European Union, and for some member states such as the UK, a concern to re-balance the economy away from financial services towards manufacturing. There are a number of ways in which the changes that have impacted upon Western economies in general and the European Union in particular have been understood. Such understandings have influenced the way in which the relationship between work, knowledge and vocational pedagogy have been conceptualised as well as the nature of skills required in a Kbe. There has been a degree of slippage both within and across accounts concerned with the relationship between vocational pedagogy and work. This arises in connection to the manner in which the needs of capital and social justice are addressed. Such debates are manifest in analyses that consider the utilisation of learning outcomes and competency based frameworks in VET and the significance of these not only for workplace processes but also for their educative potential and social justice implications (see, Allais, et al, 2009a, 2009b; Clegg and Ashworth, 2004; Jessup, 1991;Wheelahan, 2009). There is an extensive literature that addresses workplace learning and that relates this to both the needs of employers as well as to social justice (see for example Malloch et al, 2011). In this instance there are particular understandings of the salience of workplace knowledge, vocational pedagogies and their constitution. There is a current in this work that sets workplace knowledge against the assumed sterility of academic knowledge and seeks to acknowledge and credentialise the former - to accord it value as well as recognising workers accomplishments. There is an affinity between such analyses and those that set the economy within a turbulent and ever changing environment. Some of these debates engage with notions of post-fordism and allied transformations of the economy (Brown and Lauder, 1992; Brown, et al 2008, 2011; Murray, 1989). There are at least two themes present in these discussions, the shift towards service economies and the transformation of working relations towards the mobilisation of multi-disciplinary teams (Lipietz, 1992). If the notion of the 'mass production worker' was hegemonic under Fordism this has been replaced by that of 'immaterial labour' (Lazzarato, 1999). This is not to suggest either the numerical dominance of service work or indeed a generic process of up-skilling, but rather that the notion of immaterial labour has become dominant. These debates are profoundly important for the way in which we theorise and make sense of VET, vocational pedagogies and related knowledges. They encourage us to interrogate notions of competency, workplace knowledge for their implications for social justice.

Method

The paper locates itself within European discussions of Kbe and the salience of i-VET and c-VET (EU 2002, 2010). It draws upon debates on vocationalism, vocational pedagogies as well as the constitution of vocational knowledge(s). These debates are set within particular historical and socio-economic contexts. For some writers the EU and other western economies have been profoundly transformed over the last thirty years (Guile, 2010). Initially conceptualisation of post-fordism were mobilised to help understand these changes in which notions of worker flexibility and adaptability were all pervasive (Brown and Lauder, 1992; Lipietz, 1992). Pivotally, there has been a series of engagements with the manner in which we make sense of vocational knowledge and the surrounding pedagogies. In part these debates engage with those that castigate competency based education and training (CBET) for its instrumentalism and technicism (Wheelahan, 2009). In addition they have an affinity with analyses addressing immaterial labour which emphasise worker dispositions and what has been described as 'soft skills'. This leads to a consideration of the relationship between forms of knowledge, that is the academic and vocational, as well as those surrounding immaterial labour.

Expected Outcomes

The preceding arguments are interrogated through the lens of social justice as well as a Gramscian sensibility attentive to the progressive limits and possibilities surrounding VET and workplace learning. Whilst critical analyses of CBET and learning outcomes are valuable, alerting us to the difficulties surrounding notions of competence as well as drawing our attention to 'powerful knowledge', they only take us so far. Similarly, arguments concerned with notions of connectivity and critical intelligence need to be set within the socio-economic conditions currently faced by EU and other western economies in which a high skills low wage nexus becomes a possibility (Brown, et al, 2008, 2011). For this reason the paper considers debates concerned with immaterial labour and forms of knowledge that align with it. It criticises accounts that straightforwardly associate moves towards Kbe's as progressive. Such accounts emphasise the manner in which Kbe's value the creativity and skills of workers seeing these as arising through the collective development of the workforce. The paper argues such possibilities can only arise if vocational pedagogy is set within a political economy committed to social justice, for without such a focus these arguments can readily be transmogrified into a form of 'comfort radicalism'.

References

Allais, S., et al (2009a) Researching NQFs : some conceptual issues, ILO Allais, S., et al (2009b) Learning from the first qualifications frameworks, ILO Brown, P. Lauder, H. (eds) (1992) Education for Economic Survival: from Fordism to Post-Fordism, Brown, P., Lauder, H., Ashton, D. (2008) Education, globalisation and the future of the knowledge economy, European Educational Research Journal, 7(2) Brown, P., Lauder, H., Ashton, D. (2011) The Global Auction Clegg, S., Ashworth, P. (2004) Contested practices: Learning outcomes and disciplinary understandings, in Satterthwaite, J. et al (Eds) The Disciplining of Education; New Languages of Power and Resistance, EU (2002) The Copenhagen Declaration, http://ec.europa.eu/education/pdf/doc125_en.pdf EU (2010) The Bruges Communiqué http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc/vocational/bruges_en.pdf Guile, D. (2010) The learning challenge of the knowledge economy Jessup, G. (1991) Outcomes: NVQs and the Emerging Model of Education and Training JVET (2011) [Journal of Vocational Education and Training] Special Issue: Apprenticeship as an evolving model of learning, (63)(3) Lazzarato, M. (1999) Immaterial Labour, www.generation-online.org/c/fciimmateriallabour3.htm Lipietz, A. (1992) Towards a New Economic Order Malloch, M., et al (eds) (2011) Workplace Learning Mjelde, L., Daly, R. (2012) Aspects of vocational pedagogy as practice: Decolonizing minds and negotiating local knowledge, International Journal of Training Research, 10(1) Murray, R. (1989) Fordism and Post-Fordism, Hall, S., Jacques, M. (Eds) New Times: The changing face of politics in the 1990’s Wheelahan, L. (2009) The problem with CBT, Journal of Education and Work, 22(3)

Author Information

James Avis (presenting / submitting)

Univeristy of Huddersfield, United Kingdom

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