‘Efficiency' and ‘Vocationalism' as Structuring Principles of Industrial Education in the USA

The aim of this paper, based on a comparative viewpoint from an European outsider perspective, is to present a brief historical reconstruction of the pedagogical and educational political discussion about education for the industrial sector in America. The discussion was triggered by the emerging idea that one of the principal tasks of education should be to prepare youth most effectively for their upcoming work life. It followed that the constitution and role of the American schools to achieve this purpose were widely debated early in the twentieth century by eminent pedagogues. Some of these pedagogues argued for an American education system that also developed vocational abilities and skills, whereas others favoured only the development of general knowledge. During the course of this dispute, across the first half of the twentieth century, other key issues were brought forward such as whether this much vaunted vocational education should be enacted in comprehensive schools or whether other kinds of schools should be established for these purposes. Furthermore, another model that resembled the German vocational system was also proposed through this period. However, ultimately and unlike in Germany, a dual model of vocational education and training characterised by an interlocking of school-based instruction and workplace training has not managed to establish itself as a discrete educational sector in America. Currently, education for industry is provided mainly in schools and tends to be oriented towards the criteria of efficiency and vocationalis

Vocationalism in Higher Education

In their recent book, The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness, Donald Opitz and Derek Melleby (2007) note how “expectations have profound implications on what students actually find when they arrive at college” (p. 15). In recent decades, a paradigmatic shift has occurred among college students concerning their views of the purpose of a college education. Student expectations have grown increasingly pragmatic, utilitarian, and vocational in nature. This shift toward a vocational emphasis has had a profound impact on the landscape of higher education, changing the shape of many institutions and how higher education is both viewed and offered in the 21st century. The following paper shall examine the growth of vocationalism within higher education, its impact on the student, and the unique role that Christian higher education and student affairs professionals share in the preservation of the liberal arts tradition

A Framework for Sustainable Education in Nigeria: Strategies of Re-integrating Vocational Skills into Educational Curriculum

The Curriculum of education in Nigeria and some other developing countries has been based partly on the theory and in another view as virtually on academic certification. Prior to this basis, the national policy on education originally had its cardinal objective to promote the acquisition of appropriate creative skills, abilities and competence both mental and physical as equipment for the individual to live in and contribute to the development of the society. Up till now, there seemed to be no established institutional Apparatus nor did it seem likely that a sustainable curriculum would appear in the nearest future. What is emergent now, is a dynamic pedagogy that can serve the society with required diets needed for early discoveries of potentials and acquisition of ‘employable’ skills from school. In this way the ‘unemployment and ‘unemployable’ issues will be resolved within the training periods and productive professional contributions to the society can be procured after school. This study devised that a ‘dynamic mechanism’ can be strategize within the existing curriculum for schools by pragmatic approach. The existing syllabus or curriculum can be redesigned, monitored, controlled and implemented with vocational genres, capable of engendering sustainable development across all fields of human endeavour, including all civic engagements in the society. This paper, therefore, examined and drew heavily on the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the existing fundamentals of the historic-Bauhaus curriculum which form the modus operandi of most architecture schools all over the world, including Nigeria context. The results were ‘the therapeutic approach of redesigning curriculum in content and form of vocationalism, yielded strengths from the synergy of the monitored and controlled programme and feasible implementation culture by concerned stakeholders. It also generated a reasonable style of independent life in knowledge and skill acquisition required for best professional practice and right attitude to community project participation

Hospitality studies and hospitality management: a symbiotic relationship

The key contribution of this paper is to critically analyse advances made since the introduction of hospitality as a higher education subject, to capture contemporary thinking, and to support the recognition of the intellectual benefits for hospitality management theory and practices of a curriculum informed from a social science-based studies perspective. The benefits of this inter-relationship are demonstrated through the inclusion of an illustration informed by historical means of enquiry, which applies hermeneutical analysis and interpretation of St. Benedict's Rule (c. 530 A.D.). This serves to tangibly demonstrate the academic rigour, value, and educational gains achievable through a symbiotic relationship between hospitality studies and hospitality management

Library History: Four texts and a website

Essay presented in 2017 as fulfillment of requirements for completion of the module INM310 - Independent Study, part of the MSc Library and Information Science course at City, University of London. This essay stands as a report of a few months of an independent study conducted by the author about library history. The theme was explored both as a personal interest motivated by the mentions of library history during classes of Library and Information Science at City, University of London, and also as a felt need to investigate library history more deeply, as I became involved in developing oral history and narratives about London’s public libraries for the Layers of London project, a website being built by the Institute of Historical Research of the University of London. Here, I attempt to recapitulate my study by telling a brief story about library history from ‘four texts and a website’. Evidently, the website is Layers of London. The four texts correspond to four works of librarians, historians, and academics investigating library history, not necessarily because they are seminal, but because they in some way represent important aspects of the field and introduce significant issues. In that sense, this essay is structured in five short sections, each corresponding to one of these four texts, and the last one referring to Layers of London, which serves also as a concluding section

Universities’ engagement with vocationalism: historical perspective

The aim of this article is to explore the historical context of vocationalism in universities. It is based on an analysis of the history of the university from a vocational perspective. It looks for evidence of vocational engagement in the activities of universities over time, taking a long view from the birth of the Western University in the Middle Ages to the 1980s with the emergence of current issues of vocationalism in university education. It adopts a chronological perspective initially and then a thematic one. The main findings are: (1) vocationalism in university education is as old as the Western University itself, (2) there is evidence from the start of the Western University of vocational engagement in terms of the provision of vocationally relevant subjects, vocationally relevant skills and the development of vocationally relevant attitudes, (3) whereas most graduate employers used to be concerned with the vocationally relevant knowledge, skills and attitudes students acquired on their degree courses, most are now more concerned with graduate capacity and disposition to learn within their employment after graduation and (4) subject-centred education is compatible with university education that supports the vocational aspirations of students