Roslin Brennan Kemmis

Relational architectures: recovering solidarity and agency as living practices in education

This article will explore education, pedagogy and praxis (morally informed and committed action oriented by tradition, and ‘history‐making action’) through the lens of the ‘relational’. The article brings together empirical investigations of professional development and classroom teaching to explicate the role of this relational dimension, via the concept of ‘practice architectures’. The first section describes what is meant by the term practice architectures and introduces the notion of ‘relational architectures’ as a vehicle for understanding the crucial role relationships in education, including interpersonal relationships (between actors in social settings) and institutional relationships (within systems and organisations). The second section tests this notion of relational architectures by examining it in light of the day‐to‐day, living practices in cases of educational practice. The third section defends a position that education is compromised wherever the relational dimension in educational practice is not properly addressed, that failure to attend to the relational may empty education of its moral and social purpose. Further, failure to attend to the relational also threatens agency and solidarity among participants in those practices. In our view, restoring focus on the relational dimensions of education will sustain future educational and societal growth, and provide resources of hope for educators: a sense of cohesion of purpose, commonality of direction (solidarity), and a sense of collective power and control (agency).

Pedagogy, education and praxis

This Special Issue is significant for two reasons. It introduces the work conducted by an international research and professional education network which was established to extend theoretical conversations about Pedagogy, Education and Praxis in contemporary times. These dialogic networks trace the different traditions of theory, research and practice in education across international contexts and form the basis of this edition as a collaborative writing project. Second, the co‐creation of the articles in this journal presents prominent concerns facing educational practice and research from a truly international perspective. The differences between intellectual traditions from where the authors are situated provide accounts of what enables or constrains educators across the globe; for example how some European traditions of pedagogy are being challenged and perhaps even supplanted by Anglo‐American perspectives in educational research, practice and policy.

What industry wants: employers' preferences for training

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse what retail and hospitality industry employers want from training and trainers.Design/methodology/approach – The research project was undertaken for Service Skills Australia, the Australian Industry Skills Council that oversees formal training for a range of service industries in Australia. The paper utilises data from focus groups and telephone interviews with representatives of the retail and hospitality industries, and telephone interviews with staff of the relevant UK Sector Skills Councils, to provide international benchmarking for the issues raised.Findings – Results showed that, while industry representatives stated that they prioritised industry skills and knowledge above education skills and knowledge, a complex mixture of the two was required, which was generally felt to be lacking. Curriculum for training was also perceived to be deficient, despite Training packages having been developed in consultation with industry. A comparison w...

Vocational education and training teachers’ conceptions of their pedagogy

Abstract There is a growing enthusiasm for developing a more highly skilled workforce in both Australia and internationally. Federal and state policies are directed towards increasing productivity and the engagement of formerly disengaged senior school students and the wider society. There is a new determination to manage transition arrangements between school, the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector and work, and there is a new commitment to more uniform and industry relevant curriculum. If these initiatives are to succeed with an enthusiasm equivalent to their formulation then more needs to be known about the VET pedagogies likely to be appropriate and successful for the new tasks. This paper investigates some understandings of VET pedagogy in the wider vocational field as well as in schools, and the tensions between the wider vocational field and schools that are implicit in these understandings. This paper is based on two empirical research projects carried out by the authors. The first research project reported on was carried out with VET teachers in Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Colleges and VET teachers working in a Vocational Secondary School. The second research project was carried out with career change teachers working in traditional high schools in NSW. In this article the authors use the concept of ‘practice architectures’ and the particular ‘sayings, doings and relatings’ involved in the wider VET sector to interrogate policy and practice changes, and to explore the implications of these changes in terms of the teachers’ conceptions of their own pedagogy and some of the tensions and contradictions that they experience and articulate.

Credit Transfer from VET to Higher Education: A Pathways Policy Meets a Roadblock.

Higher education is increasingly available to a wider range of people, not just recent school-leavers with established academic ability. One way of encouraging this trend is to provide credit transfer into higher education (HE) qualifications for people’s prior vocational education and training (VET) studies. However, it is generally recognised that while a range of pathways have been created, the numbers of students involved in such pathways are relatively limited. This paper explores some of the reasons this might be so, using, as a case study, an analysis of a national Australian government policy initiative. The initiative, known as ‘VET FEE-HELP’, involved the introduction of student loans for fees for higher-level VET studies and was designed partly to encourage credit transfer. Availability of loans to students was on the proviso that the course in which the student enrolled had a documented pathway providing credit transfer into a higher education course. This created a climate in which VET providers actively pursued partnerships with higher education. But recently, the credit transfer requirement of the policy has been removed. The paper concludes by discussing the issues for governments in finding appropriate policy levers to increase proportions of students transferring from VET to higher education.

Australian employers' adoption of traineeships

Traineeships are apprenticeship-like training arrangements that were initiated in Australia in 1985. They were designed to introduce apprenticeship training to a broader range of industries, occupations and individuals; they are available in occupations outside the traditional trades and crafts. Many companies use them on a large scale, some recruiting their entire shop floor workforce as trainees. This article uses findings from a national project on traineeships in six industry areas to examine the ways in which employers adopt them and the factors which affect their take-up across industries and enterprises.

Theorising partnerships for site-based education development in vocational education and workplace learning

Abstract Site-based education development now constitutes a common approach to preparing learners for particular occupations, enabling them to secure employment and at the same time achieve broader social, economic and personal outcomes. New forms of partnerships, other than traditional vendor–client relations, are necessary to achieve such multi-faceted goals. This can be achieved by recognising and appropriately integrating pedagogical contributions in different sites to cater for learning needs. Accordingly, professionals from educational institutions need to actively collaborate and engage with a range of key personnel to form partnerships for the purposes of harnessing and facilitating learning opportunities within the constraints of given sites. An action research process enables participating partners to work towards and achieve agreed outcomes. Outcomes addressing areas causing concern are developed and discussed ‘on site’, forming site-based education development. Using a collaborative action research methodology that addresses issues identified by those in particular sites, solutions can be made visible and problems worked through. This enables the partners to achieve agreed outcomes developed during the life of the partnership. Outcomes and possible training areas are developed and discussed by key partners, particularly those in workplaces. In this article, we draw on intersecting sets of understandings around the philosophy of site-based education development, founded mainly on two overarching theories of workplace learning and practice architectures, to theorise partnerships for site-based education development. Some findings and ideas from two exemplar action research projects are presented to exemplify the key concepts.

Using the Theory of Practice Architectures to Explore VET in Schools Teachers’ Pedagogy

The focus in this chapter is on the teaching practices of novice Vocational Education and Training (VET) teachers in Australian schools. An Australian case illuminates the local practice architectures that shape teachers’ vocation and their ways of working, the ways practice architectures constrain and enable their practice, and the ways these teachers respond to challenges they perceive in the school as a workplace. The case examines the practices of newly qualified Australian VET in Schools teachers with extensive industry experience gained in their previous occupations.