Between Selection and Inclusion in Vocational Education and Training

This article discusses inclusivness of Vocational Education and Training (VET) at UpperSecondary Education (USE). While inclusion has become a policy aim in compulsory education, it isnot so clear that it is the case beyond post-16 education. In the case of VET, the demand of high qualitystandardized vocational qualifications challenges inclusion. The article addresses three differentdimensions of inclusion: access to VET at USE, successfully achieving a qualification, and enteringthe labor market in a position according to the qualification achieved. We approach inclusion froma policy rather than a pedagogical perspective in section 2, and in section 3 our hypothesis about theinclusiveness of a school-based VET and a dual VET system are presented. In section 4 we chooseSpain and Switzerland as examples of these systems, we show indicators, and we describe how bothsystems deal with the three dimensions of accessing, achieving a qualification and entering the labormarket. The analysis concludes by stating that inclusion is particularly difficult because of the firstdimension: it is in transition to VET in USE where both countries have more difficulties and couldimprove their inclusiveness. The problem is the same, but the reasons are different and these are explainedin the text, addressing tensions between reputation and inclusiveness and the externalizationof measures. Some considerations on comparative education also result from our analysis

„Praxis gelebter Verantwortung“ in der Moscheegemeinde: kritische Bildung als Widerstand gegen Polarisierung

Deniz Greschner beleuchtet in ihrem Beitrag, wie die Islamische Gemeinde Herne-Röhlinghausen inmitten gesellschaftlicher Polarisierung emanzipatorische Bildungsarbeit leistet. Bildung wird hier als Mittel verstanden, um Jugendlichen Räume für kritische Reflexion, Dialog und gesellschaftliche Teilhabe zu eröffnen. In Anlehnung an die Theorien Paulo Freires und Henry Giroux’ stärkt die Gemeinde junge Menschen darin, Zuschreibungen zu hinterfragen und Verantwortung im demokratischen Miteinander zu übernehmen. Im Zentrum stehen dabei Herausforderungen wie Radikalisierungsprävention nach dem 7. Oktober 2023, der Umgang mit Antisemitismus sowie strukturelle Barrieren für muslimische Träger. Der Beitrag ordnet ein Interview mit Vertreterinnen der Gemeinde in einen größeren gesellschaftlichen Kontext ein und versteht sich als Beitrag zur Sichtbarmachung zivilgesellschaftlichen Engagements muslimischer Akteur:innen

Boundary Objects Supporting Students’ Meaning-making During Work Placement in Norwegian Vocational Education

This study investigates the use of boundary objects in vocational education and training (VET) as an approach to address the challenge of meaning making of VET concepts, often experienced by pupils at school just as ‘definitions’ to be learnt by heart or to be memorized, hence becoming isolated knowledge instead of contextual applicable and meaningful. A problem that is well known in international dual VET education and research. As well it turns the focus on, for instance pupils, to potentially become co-brokers between the boundary of school and workplace, using boundary objects, reified as thematic assignments in and for both learning sites. In the interplay between boundary objects, advisors, students and teachers, affordances can be created helping to construct meaning and motivation in and for the pupils’ VET education

Longitudinal Analysis of School-Workplace Cooperation in Vocational Training

School-workplace cooperation is a unique research field within the dual training system,where trainees’ subjective experience of this cooperation is crucial for investigating training quality.In this study, we tracked 458 industrial administrative assistant trainees throughout their entiretraining period and modeled changes in their experience of one organizational and two pedagogicaldimensions of school-workplace cooperation over time and across individual trainees. Using a LatentGrowth Model (LGM), we included both time-invariant and time-varying predictors to explainthe growth dynamics of these dimensions of trainees’ experience of school-workplace cooperation.The results show that all three dimensions have unique growth dynamics over time and across individualtrainees. The way predictors influence their growth also differs significantly from each other.Among the dimensions, the practical relevance of school learning shows a decline and is the mostsensitive to predictors. The integration of specialized knowledge has seen an increase but can rarelybe explained by factors included in this study. The transparency and organization of training dimensionhas remained relatively stable

From ITABs to Jobs and Skills Councils

This paper throws light on the history of skills councils in Australia from their formal introduction in the 1990s to the present day. Skills councils are important elements of the vocational education and training system, providing two key, and linked, inputs into the vocational education and training (VET) system: they develop the competency standards underpinning the qualifications delivered in VET (Training Packages), and they provide information about industry needs for VET training. They are highly political, as stakeholder groups vie for control of the system; hence during the past thirty years there have been several reorganisations of the system. There has been little research on the topic. The paper describes the four main iterations of the skills council systems over time, using key documents, some no longer available publicly, as well as the author’s own experience in and with the system, and her own research, some unpublished, into the topic. To illustrate the political nature of the system, a case study is provided of the interventions over time by one of the three major economy-wide employer peak bodies. The paper ends with suggestions for further research, and an Appendix documents the major reports of the 2000s and 2010s, including brief summaries, to assist future researchers

Im Zeitalter des Wandels – Einblicke in die Herausforderungen und Chancen von Akteur:innen im gesellschaftlichen Umbruch

Vor dem Hintergrund gesellschaftlicher Krisen und demokratischer Spannungsverhältnisse widmet sich der Beitrag von Araththy Logeswaran der Frage, wie zivilgesellschaftliche Fraueninitiativen auf marginalisierte Themen aufmerksam machen und politisches Empowerment betreiben. Grundlage ist ein leitfadengestütztes Interview, das unter Rückgriff auf die Grounded Theory ausgewertet und kritisch reflektiert wird. Im Fokus stehen dabei sogenannte Schattenthemen sowie die Bedeutung feministischen Empowerments für kollektive Handlungsfähigkeit. Der Artikel diskutiert diese Ergebnisse aus einer sozialarbeiterischen Perspektive und zeigt auf, wie Soziale Arbeit zur Sichtbarmachung schwacher Interessen und zur Förderung kollektiver Handlungsfähigkeit beitragen kann. Damit leistet er einen Beitrag zur professionsbezogenen Auseinandersetzung mit sozialer Gerechtigkeit und politischer Teilhabe marginalisierter Gruppen

Reflexivity as Critique? A Conversation on the Politics of Knowledge Production in Migration Studies

This article, which examines the role of reflexivity in the field of migration studies, is composed as a conversation with four reflexive migration scholars: Anna Amelina, Iva Dodevska, Maissam Nimer, and Omololá S. Olarinde-Olomola. Reflexivity implies analyzing how migration-related phenomena are scientifically observed, how these observations are transformed into knowledge, and how this knowledge is enacted in an academic field. Bringing in their different positionalities, perspectives, and experiences, the contributors discuss tensions between ethical claims and academic realities, the dominance of perspectives from the Global North, as well as the risk for reflexivity to become detached from critical engagement or struggle against migration governance and its violent excesses. The conversation highlights the need to move toward genuinely transformative research that reflects not only on what we study, but also on how and why we study migration-related issues, situated in broader institutional structures of knowledge production. Reflexivität als Kritik? Ein Gespräch über die Politiken der Wissensproduktion in der Migrationsforschung Dieser Beitrag, der sich mit der Rolle von Reflexivität im Feld der Migrationsforschung befasst, ist als Gespräch mit vier reflexiven Migrationsforscherinnen konzipiert: Anna Amelina, Iva Dodevska, Maissam Nimer und Omololá S. Olarinde-Olomola. Reflexivität bedeutet zu analysieren, wie migrationsbezogene Phänomene beobachtet werden, wie diese Beobachtungen in Wissen umgewandelt werden und wie dieses Wissen als wissenschaftliche Erkenntnis in einem akademischen Feld hervorgebracht wird. Unter Einbeziehung ihrer unterschiedlichen Positionalitäten, Perspektiven und Erfahrungen diskutieren die vier Migrationsforscherinnen Spannungen zwischen ethischen Ansprüchen und akademischen Realitäten, die Dominanz von Perspektiven aus dem Globalen Norden sowie das Risiko, dass Reflexivität sich von der kritischen Auseinandersetzung mit oder dem Kampf gegen Migrationspolitik und deren gewaltvollen Dimensionen löst. Das Gespräch unterstreicht die Notwendigkeit, zu einer wirklich transformativen Forschung überzugehen, die nicht nur reflektiert, was wir untersuchen, sondern auch, wie und warum wir migrationsbezogene Themen untersuchen, und wie diese in institutionellen Strukturen der Wissensproduktion verortet sind

Supporting Peer Feedback Formulation in a Video-Based Digital Platform in Technical Vocational Education

Vocational education and training (VET) students often have difficulties with formulatingpeer feedback for various reasons. This is a problem as only well-argued peer feedback positivelyaffects learning. Thus, supporting peer feedback formulation is desirable. This study explores the effectivenessof a prompt consisting of evaluative markers and sentence openers on the quality of peerfeedback formulation. 48 VET students in a technical domain in the Netherlands watched the samefive videos on practice and then provided peer feedback to the performers. An experimental group(24 students) had access to evaluative markers and sentence openers to support feedback formulation.The control group (24 students) did not have access to these supports. The generated feedbackwas analysed on feedback quality indicators and compared using independent sample t-tests. Theresults indicated that prompt-based supports can improve the quality of student-formulated peerfeedback. We discuss the importance of carefully designed prompts and how they can contribute tobetter peer feedback formulation