VET Teachers’ Interpretations of Individualisation and Teaching of Skills and Social Order in two Nordic Countries

Abstract

The age at which young people leave education for the labour market has increased in recent decades, and entering upper secondary education has become the norm. As a result, the diversity of the student population has increased, for instance in terms of students' academic merits and achievements at school. Increased diversity seems to affect vocational education and training more than tracks preparing students for higher education, since entry into VET programmes is rarely selective. In this article we analyse a series of interviews with VET teachers regarding VET practices in upper secondary schools in Sweden and Iceland. We examine how policy plays out in practice in VET by looking at how VET teachers navigate the sometimes conflicting educational goals of employability and civic engagement, while simultaneously teaching a highly diverse group of students. In both countries, pedagogic practices are dominated by individualisation with a focus on task-related skills. Those practices are important in VET, but can exclude broader understandings of civil and workplace life, since general knowledge about areas such as ethics, democracy, equality, and environmental issues is difficult to obtain if education gives students few opportunities to interact with others, such as through group work or classroom discussions.

Vocational education, transitions, marginalisation and social justice in the Nordic countries

“…From classroom observations in VET programmes in both Iceland and Sweden they conclude that most of the students’ tasks were individualised, especially in the male-dominated programmes, and the teachers justified this by the need to cater for students with wide ranges of ability, motivation, age (especially in Iceland) and attitudes. However, Eíriksdóttir and Rosvall (2019) argue that the observed individualisation seemed to favour teaching skills at the expense of possibilities for addressing social order, and advocate a better balance between the two. They conclude that the observed imbalance promotes reproduction of social classes, since reflection, discussion and structural and systematic thinking not only enable participation in societal conversations, but are also powerful tools for exploring alternatives and generating innovation for social change.…”

“…The fifth article (Eíriksdóttir and Rosvall, 2019) reports an investigation of how VET policy plays out in practice. More specifically, the authors use classroom observations and interviews to examine how VET teachers address the dual goals of boosting students’ employability and civic engagement, while simultaneously teaching a highly diverse group of students.…”

Socialisation and citizenship preparation in vocational education: Pedagogic codes and democratic rights in VET-subjects

“…Much research on VET has focused on skills, and less on socialisation or 'values' (Colley et al 2003;Eriksdottir and Rosvall 2019). In this study, the teaching and learning of skills is understood as an expression of values, i.e.…”

Vocational education, transitions, marginalisation and social justice in the Nordic countries: Reflections on the special issue

“…VET teachers’ interpretations of individualisation and teaching of skills and social order in two Nordic countries. (Eiríksdóttir and Rosvall, 2019)…”

“…On a slightly different tack, the paper by Eiríksdóttir and Rosvall (2019) draw our attention to the presence of high-ability students following VET courses. This offers an important corrective to the stereotype of VET being associated with low-level courses and for ‘other people’s children’.…”