Inge Bates

Closely Observed Training: an exploration of links between social structures, training and identity

ABSTRACT This paper suggests that, while there is a wealth of work on the economic benefits of training, relatively little attention is being given to relationships between vocational training and broader social structures and trends. The focus here is on social processes within vocational training. The paper is based on ethnographic research into training for employment in the field of institutional care. This study documented dramatic adjustments in young peoples attitudes towards work which occurred in the course of training. The paper explores ways in which training contributed to these adjustments. Two fundamental inter‐related processes are identified, which may also have wider relevance: screening for social and cultural attributes and discipline. The analysis of the discipline of training draws upon the work of Foucault in order to highlight the importance of current trends towards increased ‘surveillance’ and accountability at work. Through such processes, it is suggested, training may both serv...

Versions of Vocationalism: an analysis of some social and political influences on curriculum policy and practice

Abstract This paper reports a case study which tests and develops further theories which seek to explain the social and political processes which shape curricular definitions. It is grounded in research into a critical phase in the history of careers education. In contrast with other studies of the process of defining curricula, the factors involved are explored both over time and at a number of levels of operationalisation. At these various levels careers education was, for example, successively devocationalised, radicalised, devocationalised and revocationalised. Through comparative analysis of the material, a model is developed which helps to explain the development of these distinctly different versions of vocationalism, drawing on both interactionist and neo‐Marxist perspectives.

‘No Bleeding, Whining Minnies’: Some Perspectives on the Role of YTS in Class and Gender Reproduction

Abstract This paper is about social class, gender, the Youth Training Scheme and social reproduction, which are explored in the context of entry into ‘caring’ careers. The data is drawn from one of a group of ethnographic studies being undertaken within the context of the ESRC 16‐19 Initiative. This particular study is based on participant observation with a group of 16 to 18 year old girls training for jobs in the field of institutional care. The paper begins by exploring aspects of the girls’ experience of their training and work placements. These involve physically and emotionally stressful tasks such as coping with violence, dealing with incontinence and laying out the dead. The paper then documents a gradual process of adjustment to this type of work which ends with the girls positively seeking work in this field. This provides a basis for posing the central questions of the paper: why do working‐class girls continue to enter working‐class, gender‐stereotyped jobs? What roles does the Youth Training ...

The 'Empowerment' Dimension in the GNVQ: A Critical Exploration of Discourse, Pedagogic Apparatus and School Implementation

This article explores the new British vocational qualification, the GNVQ, focusing particularly on its emphasis on learner empowerment and transferring responsibility for learning to students. It examines the discourse of empowerment and the pedagogic principles involved, together with the homologous relationship which can be discerned between GNVQ classroom pedagogy and recent approaches to managing employment relations. In both classroom and employment settings the article notes potential contradictions between the emphasis on developing individual autonomy and empowerment and the underpinning grids of accountability and control. The article then examines some data from a school where the GNVQ was in the early stages of implementation. The data suggest how the contradictions in the pedagogy may be sharpened and exposed when the model is introduced in a situation where there is at times a substantial degree of mismatch, if not conflict, between teacher and pupil objectives. The overall aim of the article...

Progressivism and the GNVQ: context, ideology and practice

Abstract In England, the new General National Vocational Qualification (GNVQ) has had a troubled and turbulent introduction. However, while it has generated a rapidly growing literature, the relationship with a progressive ideology has been relatively underex‐plored. In setting the scene for this special issue, this article explores the complex and multidimensional relationships between progressivism, vocationalism, of various types, and the GNVQ. It concludes that GNVQs cannot be seen as unequivocally progressive. Rather, somewhat emasculated ghosts of progressivism live on, competing with alternative educational ideologies and practices in a largely hostile environment of ‘controlled vocationalism’.

The Competence Movement and the National Vocational Qualification Framework: The Widening Parameters of Research

Abstract This paper outlines the emergence of the competence movement in British education and training, and summarises some salient perspectives from the growing body of research. In this general context it introduces the six papers brought together in this issue. These draw on current work in progress and explore a variety of facets of the competence movement drawing on sociological, historical and comparative European perspectives. In the course of the discussion it is suggested that more work is needed on two fronts particularly: detailed scrutiny of the social context in which the competence movement has emerged and the development of broader frameworks of research for the analysis of ‘impact’ issues.

“No Roughs and No Really Brainy Ones”: The Interaction Between Family Background, Gender and Vocational Training on a BTEC Fashion Design Course∗

Abstract This paper analyzes ethnographic data from a case study of fashion design students on a BTEC national diploma course. It is based on comparative analysis with the findings of a related study of YTS ‘Care’ girls. Both ethnographies are being conducted within the wider framework of the ESRC 16‐19 Initiative. The paper explores the role of training in economic socialization, drawing particularly on theories of social reproduction. It begins by examining the experience of training in terms of the sorts of demands which it makes upon students. This is linked with an investigation of the students’ advantages in terms of family background from the point of view of pursuing training of this type. Finally, it is argued that the BTEC vocational training programme plays an important role in mediating between social class, family background and careers through a complex process of screening entrants for relevant social and cultural attributes. ∗ This research is supported by a grant from the ESRC

Resisting ‘Empowerment’ and Realizing Power: an exploration of aspects of the GNVQ

Abstract This article examines the GNVQ pedagogy of independent learning. It focuses particularly on the key objective of transferring responsibility for learning to students, which underlies the claim that the GNVQ represents an empowering and ‘progressive’ innovation. The article explores a critical case of classroom practice in which students seized their newly acquired freedoms for their own purposes but resisted the accompanying burden of responsibility for managing their own work. Their meaning and actions are readily reconcilable, even predictable, in the light of a wealth of classroom and youth research. The article suggests that this poses problems for programmes which seek to self‐responsibilise learning without also extending opportunities for negotiating the meaning of what is to be learned. Finally, the article considers a possible interpretation of the data‐‐which is that in resisting ’empowerment’ these students in fact exercised their classroom power.

A Bermuda Triangle? A Case Study of the Disappearance of Competence‐based Vocational Training Policy in the Context of Practice

Abstract This paper reports some findings from an ESRC funded project on the implementation of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and competence‐based vocational training. The theoretical perspective is informed by interactionist traditions within the sociology of education which bear witness to the importance of ethnographic work on policy implementation in order to explore social contexts and meanings at this level. The paper is focused on an initial phase in the implementation of NVQs in the context of youth training and special needs provision, during which the official commitment to provision for NVQs was largely displaced by other priorities of more immediate concern to those involved. The actorssituation is traced out in detail and linked with local circumstances and wider social influences on the provision of vocational training. The study provides a basis for critical consideration of a) the degree of ‘match’ between practitioners ‘problems and policy‐makers’ solutions and b) NVQ policy‐m...

The politics of careers education and guidance: A case for scrutiny

Abstract Political aspects of processes involved in defining careers education and guidance are brought to light through an examination of debates surrounding the definition of guidance at four different points of the journey from policy to practice, and of related ‘gaps’ between ‘theory’ and ‘practice’. It is argued that these ‘gaps’ cannot be adequately conceptualised within a curriculum evaluation paradigm. They result from the conflictual nature of curriculum change which, in this case, produced repeated contests over the definition of guidance, with different outcomes in different occupational settings. These outcomes, it is argued, were influenced not only by rational debate but by the distribution of power between the various groups of actors concerned. The politics of careers education and guidance are placed on the agenda for consideration by both researchers and practitioners.