| 1. |
- Billett, Stephen, et al.
(author)
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Concepts, purposes and practices of integration across national curriculum
- 2018
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In: S. Choy, G-B. Wärvik and V. Lindberg (eds.). Integration of vocational education and training experiences. Purposes, practises and principles. - Singapore : Springer. - 1871-3041 .- 2213-221X. - 9789811088575 ; , s. 327-344
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The concept of integrating two sets of experiences implies a duality, that is, a consideration of the contributions of and relations between these two entities. For vocational education, it means accounting for experiences in at least two separate physical and social settings (i.e. workplaces and educational institutions) and how these can be and are reconciled by learners. These two kinds of settings exist for different purposes and have distinct goals, processes and practices aligned for their continuity. There are also other stakeholders who have an interest in the goals for and processes for realising vocational education, as well as an interest in securing their purposes. National industry groups, employee unions and professional agencies seek to achieve specific outcomes for particular industries and workplaces. All these stakeholders also make particular contributions to the provision of vocational education and implicitly to students, apprentices and workers’ learning. As illustrated in the national cases presented in Section II of this volume, the dual set of experiences in workplace and educational institutions is now an increasingly significant and common feature and characteristic of vocational education. This is the case whether it is enacted by upper secondary schools, specialised technical education institutions or universities. It is experiences in dual settings, the relations between them and how learners come to engage with and reconcile these experiences that make this form of education quite distinct from general education. Thus, integration of these experiences is salient, including how provisions of experiences are enacted and experienced across a wide range of educational and work settings, and in quite distinct ways.
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| 2. |
- Choy, Sarojni, et al.
(author)
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Integration between school and work: developments, conceptions and applications
- 2018
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In: S. Choy, G-B. Wärvik and V. Lindberg (eds.). Integration of vocational education and training experiences. Purposes, practises and principles. - Singapore : Springer. - 1871-3041 .- 2213-221X. - 9789811088575 ; , s. 3-18
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Integration of students’ experiences in and between education institutions (as in schools, vocational colleges and universities) and workplaces, to develop vocational competence, is a central tenet of contemporary educational systems and provisions. Educational institutions and workplaces are no longer seen in isolation for pre-employment preparations as well as continuing development of the workforce. However, researchers (e.g. Onstenk J, Blokhuis F, Education + Training, 49(6):489–499, 2007; Billett S, Integrating practice-based experiences into higher education. Springer, Dordrecht, 2015) argue that the concept of ‘integration’ remains underdeveloped, both theoretically and conceptually. In this chapter we summarise some of the more general developments and complexities around integration of students’ learning experiences in schools and work sites. We discuss the historical intentions and progression of pedagogical means into curriculum design and delivery of vocational education to better prepare individuals as skilful and productive workers. The account here outlines conceptualisations and development of processes of integration as vocational education systems transformed in their manifestations, purposes and practices. Examples of different types of integration and typologies and their theoretical bases are summarised. We then outline examples of common applications, i.e. pedagogies and arrangements suited for integration. Three main units of analysis (individual, context and cultural and historical) are also introduced. While integration often has been an issue for two parties, school and workplace, students’ agency is also considered and given a foregrounded position here. An identified challenge in researching integration is to recognise agency intertwined with structure. The concluding section contends that the main aim of integration is to jointly interpret knowledge and knowing in the social cultural contexts of different settings and achieve a ‘common sense of mutuality’ (Edwards A, Revealing relational work. In Edwards (ed) Working relationally in and across practices. A cultural-historical approach to collaboration.
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| 3. |
- Choy, Sarojni, et al.
(author)
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Considerations for the Integration of Students’ Experiences
- 2018
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In: S.Choy, G-B. Wärvik, V. Lindberg (Eds.). Integration of Vocational Education and Training Experiences. Purposes, Practices and Principles. - Singapore : Springer. - 1871-3041 .- 2213-221X. - 9789811088568 ; , s. 345-365
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Educational institutions are fundamentally designed for teaching and learning, whereas learning in workplaces remains a secondary function supported through engagement in routine and nonroutine work tasks, direct and indirect guidance and opportunities and accessibility to a range of work tasks to gain experience (Billett, Stud Contin Educ 23(1):19–35, 2001). Development of skilled workers demands that learning at educational institutions and in workplaces is well connected and integrated. Without deliberate efforts from teachers, guides, mentors or other actors to make connections between learning at different sites, students could likely remain ‘passive bystanders’ during scheduled practice periods in workplaces. It therefore becomes necessary to develop learners’ capacities to help mediate between the curriculum organised by their educational institutions and the curriculum situated in the everyday business of workplaces where they gain vocational experiences. Further to empowering learners to access and engage in learning, there are other considerations necessary for effective integration of learning in different sites. In this chapter we draw on the cases presented in Part II to propose broad considerations for integration around four imperatives: social-cultural arrangements, negotiated curriculum, the roles of stakeholders and learner preparedness. Imperatives and implications for students’ learning are discussed. In the summary of the chapter, we recapitulate the main ideas about supporting integration of learning in educational institutions and workplaces and stress the significance of a collective and reciprocal approach for integration.
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| 4. |
- Andersson, Ingela, 1963
(author)
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Workplace Learning for School-Based Apprenticeships: Tripartite Conversations as a Boundary-Crossing Tool
- 2018
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In: Integration of Vocational Education and Training Experiences. - Singapore : Springer. - 1871-3041. ; , s. 259-278
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This chapter examines how a vocational education and training activity, the tripartite conversation, is shaped in the context of the Swedish upper secondary apprenticeship education. Learning in school and in a workplace is often emphasised as complementary. Research that draws on activity theory emphasises the development of shared spaces to support integration of learning across these sites. In this chapter the tripartite conversation is investigated as a tool intended to support integration of experiences across school and workplace. The focus of this study was the following question: What does the tripartite conversation indicate about what the parties try to achieve with regard to students’ learning? Field studies were conducted in three upper secondary schools in 2014. Sixteen tripartite conversations between vocational teacher, workplace tutor and student have been analysed. Activity theory and the concepts of tensions and contradictions have formed the analytical framework. The tripartite conversation is identified as a boundary-crossing tool to plan and negotiate workplace learning paths. The findings show that students were expected to develop knowledge, skills and abilities to handle daily work assignments and complex work situations in the workplace. These goals were sometimes hard to achieve due to uncertainties among participants about the learning objectives, norms and rules that guided the students’ learning in the work place. It is concluded that integration of experiences across sites can be supported when workplace learning is collaboratively planned and evaluated from the perspectives of school and workplace respectively. © 2018, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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| 5. |
- Wärvik, Gun-Britt, 1955, et al.
(author)
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Integration Between School and Work: Changes and Challenges in the Swedish VET 1970–2011
- 2018
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In: Integration of Vocational Education and Training Experiences Purposes, Practices and Principles. - Singapore : Springer. - 9789811088575 ; , s. 279-301
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Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This chapter focuses on Swedish upper secondary vocational education and training (USVET) and evolving conditions for the integration of education in schools and workplaces, as intended in the goals of three upper secondary school curricular reforms of 1970, 1994, and 2011. These reforms have transformed educational traditions in response to new societal expectations arising from changing working life and educational individualisation. Two occupational areas—healthcare and the textile industry—serve as examples that, over several decades, have been exposed to radical transformations in production and their contributions to the economy. Accordingly, the demands of occupational competencies have changed. The chapter is mainly based on secondary analyses of empirical research. Activity theoretical concepts are used as a lens for analysing changes. The main findings highlight different societal motives for education and the labour market under each of the three reforms, which impacted the objects formulated for USVET and the general organisation of how USVET was to be realised. A notable difference was the emphasis on vocational or general content, which has changed the ways in which integration between school and work has been realised. In both healthcare and the textile industry, VET teachers have been the main mediating agents of integration, albeit with a diminished role, since their contact and engagement with work sites became limited to a few visits. Teachers are now dependent on workplace activities they are not part of, yet have the responsibility to enact the curriculum in ways needed to optimise integration. The point being made here is that teachers’ roles in integration need to be understood in terms of cultural and historical contexts that influence the quality of integration they are able to enact and facilitate.
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