Interaction between students and class teachers in vocational education and training: ‘Safety distance is needed’

Abstract

Interaction between students and teachers is fundamental and has therefore been widely studied in education. However, there have been few studies on intensive special support being provided to vocational education and training (VET) students. Firstly, the focus of this article is on students' perceptions of interactions with their class teachers. Students (aged 17-34 years) from four Finnish vocational institutions providing intensive special support were interviewed. According to the findings, the demands students placed on their class teachers and for interactions with them were modest and their perceptions of both were favourable. Interactions seemed to be study-orientated and class teachers behaved as active initiators, with students echoing their opinions. Students' narratives excluded future career plans, talking about students' strengths or future ambitions or dreams. Secondly, the aim of this study is to review Finnish VET critically. In the reformed VET system, competence-based orientation emphasises individual guidance and support. Therefore, as the dialogue between teacher and student seems to enable successful trajectories, it is essential to make this apparent. Part of education's larger purpose is to make room for students' voices and interpretations during their study, which includes both acquiring qualifications to undertake certain work, and subjectification as an empowering element and socialisation of the social, cultural and political order.

Learning about Students’ Receiving Special Educational Support Experiences of Qualification, Socialization and Subjectification in Finnish Vocational Education and Training: A Narrative Approach

“…Quite the opposite has been raised in earlier studies [28,52], as qualification has often been appraised as one of the major functions of VET, which means preparing students with skills appropriate for both the world of work and for citizenship. It seems that schools are emphasizing academic and vocational achievement instead of developing students' competencies to manage their careers [42,43,47,48], whereas students with special educational needs emphasize their personal subjective growth. Even though students with special educational needs focused on their subjective empowerment and on their socialization, they perceived the professional qualification as a tool to achieve these.…”

“…We consider that the underlying value of qualitative educational research is to make schools more equitable and to ensure greater equality of opportunity and outcome [60]. This was fundamental for the study because the research was conducted with students who represent a marginal and often stigmatized group of students and who use their voice in adaptable ways [42,43]. With this premise, the narrative approach became applicable in the study.…”

“…Until now, there has been little discussion about the experiences of the students and even less of those receiving intensive special support during their vocational studying [41]. Earlier studies in Finland have discussed how the reformed VET system prepares young people, how do the young people themselves experience their studying and moving into the workforce and how important paid employment is for them [42][43][44][45]. Bartram and Cavanagh [46] and Cavanagh et al [1] explored if Australian VET programs are delivering education that enables secure employment and promotes opportunities for individuals with disabilities.…”

“…Bartram and Cavanagh [46] and Cavanagh et al [1] explored if Australian VET programs are delivering education that enables secure employment and promotes opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Earlier studies have also indicated that schools are mostly helping their students in their academic achievement and not in developing competencies to manage their own careers [42,43,47,48]. Furthermore, previous research has tended to focus on the VET teachers' position in VET and correspondingly on pedagogical practices [49][50][51][52][53].…”

From the shade into the sun: exploring pride and shame in students with special needs in Finnish VET

“…In the study we observed social emotions like shame and pride as the primary emotions that are present in all communication and action (Scheff 2000(Scheff , 2003. We were motivated to the present research design by observations in our earlier studies (Ryökkynen, Pirttimaa, and Kontu 2019;Ryökkynen et al 2021). Furthermore, we found this approach to be relevant because people with special needs are often in a different social position from the rest of the population (Kauppila, Lappalainen, and Mietola 2020).…”