Kristina Ledman

The vocational–academic divide in neoliberal upper secondary curricula: the Swedish case

Abstract A historical tension between a more general and a more specific focus in post-compulsory education is made visible in some educational systems by the division into more academic and more vocational programmes. Embedded in this tension are questions of social justice and the purposes of education. In addition, division into academic and vocational programmes has class dimensions since youth with working class backgrounds are often over-represented in vocational programmes. This study investigates how this tension is handled in the Swedish upper secondary curriculum, which reflects an international neoliberal policy trend in promoting competition, employability and employer influence over the curriculum. By analysing how the educational content of vocational educational and training (VET) programmes and higher educational preparatory (HEP) programmes is contextualised, we found that the two programme types were based on very different logics. In VET programmes, knowledge is strongly context-bound and often related to regulating behaviours. This contrasts sharply with the way knowledge is contextualised in HEP programmes in which less context-bound knowledge and skills such as using concepts, models and critical thinking are dominant. Students in VET programmes are trained to ‘do’ and to ‘adapt’, while the students in HEP programmes are trained to ‘think’ and to ‘imagine possibilities’. Thus, students from different social classes are prepared for very different roles in society.

Navigating Historical Thinking in a Vocational Setting: Teachers Interpreting a History Curriculum for Students in Vocational Secondary Education.

In Sweden, history has recently become a compulsory subject in upper secondary vocational education and training (VET). The aim of this interview study with teachers was to problematize the transition between the ideals of history education in the curriculum and the everyday practices of history teaching. It investigated how the teachers assess the objectives of the history curriculum and how they relate the curriculum to their knowledge and conceptions of their students. This study complicates the phenomenon of academic subjects in vocational education and provides an empirical example to centre a discussion of the challenges associated with a history curriculum that seeks to acknowledge different orientations of history teaching. The teachers articulated potential problems that stem from the students’ capabilities and motivation. The objectives of the disciplinary and critical orientation assume factual knowledge, which, according to the teachers, the students do not have. In the interviews, the teachers showed that they seek to transform the curriculum to allow them to teach more substantive knowledge. Continuing citizenship education for students in upper secondary VET through compulsory academic subjects, such as history, might contribute less than expected to the individual’s process of becoming a citizen.