Democratising the curriculum or training the children of the poor: school‐based vocational training in Australia

Abstract

Historically grounded in a tradition of meeting local skills needs and training the children of the poor, vocational education and training (VET) in schools continues to struggle in terms of esteem and parity of status. Associated in the literature with the training of a reliable and compliant class of workers, it has also been tainted by its links to the processes of social selection and its lowly status in the hierarchy of school subjects. However, VET has also been proposed as a means of democratising the school curriculum and improving accessibility for marginalised populations. The evidence presented in this article suggests that VET provision in Australian schools is of relatively poor quality and furthermore is associated with significant levels of social selectionrather than democratisation. The Australian policy framework, strait-jacketed by the belief that it must avoid narrow instrumentalism, has allowed and assisted the evolution of a low quality, low-intensity VET regime which serves a mainly working-class clientele in mainly working-class schools. In reviewing the current Australian evidence, it argues that if the central debate is one between the competing demands of achieving equity (which is associated with comprehensive provision) and that of achieving quality VET (which is associated with tracked provision) then, sadly, Australia fails to deliver effectively on either of these aims.

Teachers and the emotional dimensions of class in resource‐affected rural Australia

“…An obvious category was the vocational education and training (VET) teacher in each school. As Polesei (2008) has explained, such teachers have been appointed to Australian schools over the past two decades as part of a programme in which accredited vocational courses are offered in the final two to three years of secondary school. The VET teacher is typically responsible for overseeing and coordinating the vocational education and training offered to students, including their work placements.…”

Access to academic curriculum in Australian secondary schools: a case study of a highly marketised education system

“…As Leithwood and Jantzi (2009) show, small secondary schools, especially in low SES communities, have many advantages including lower dropout rates and 20 higher levels of student engagement. Another advantage of this approach is that it would free schools to improve their vocational curriculum offerings, which are often low quality (Polesel 2008).…”

Vocational and General Technology Education

“…As a way to enhance the quality of delivery of vocational education, and to address the findings of Polesel (2008) that, at least in Australia, most vocational programmes are poor quality and do not provide students with either general or specific vocational competencies, Pavlova and Maclean (2013) suggest the inclusion of a component of general education "which focuses on the development of general/ employability skills . .…”