19 research outputs found
The academicâvocational divide in three Nordic countries : implications for social class and gender
In this study we examine how the academicâvocational divide is manifested today in Finland, Iceland and Sweden in the division between vocationally (VET) and academicallyoriented programmes at the upper-secondary school level. The paper is based on a critical re-analysis of results from previous studies; in it we investigate the implications of this divide for class and gender inequalities. The theoretical lens used for the synthesis is based on BernsteinÂŽs theory of pedagogic codes. In the re-analysis we draw on previous studies of policy, curriculum and educational praxis as well as official statistics. The main conclusions are that contemporary policy and curriculum trends in all three countries are dominated by a neo-liberal discourse stressing principles such as âmarket relevanceâ and employability. This trend strengthens the academicâvocational divide, mainly through an organisation of knowledge in VET that separates it from more general and theoretical elements. This trend also seems to affect VET studentsâ transitions in terms of reduced access to higher education, particularly in male-dominated programmes. We also identify low expectations for VET students, manifested through choice of textbooks and tasks, organisation of teacher teams and the advice of career counsellors.Peer reviewe
Calculative spaces : cities, market relations, and the commercial vitalism of the outdoor advertising industry.
Based on ethnographic work, this paper examines the market research practices of the outdoor advertising industry in the UK and their commercial production of space. I focus on the role of calculation in the performance of market relations between a range of actors in the field and the use of marketing researchâs classificatory practices as a currency which enacts those relations. In many accounts of urban governance, city space is produced by various statistical and classificatory devices as calculable and hence governable. But with recent developments in commercial enterprises, the performative quality of market relations engenders calculative space, a nexus of people-in-space, commercial imperatives, and a calculative energy or orientation to calculation. This is understood by the industry as a kind of commercial vitalismâan enlivening of market relations and of objects of commercial calculationâwhich firms aim to exploit by tapping into and channelling the energy they perceive it generates
Being and becoming a female student and worker in gendered processes of vocational education and training
Construction of ethnicity, immigration and associated concepts in Swedish vocational education and training
Womenâs changing responsibilities and pleasures as consumers: An analysis of alcohol-related advertisements in Finnish, Italian, and Swedish womenâs magazines from the 1960s to the 2000s
Educational brokers in global education markets
This article undertakes a text analysis of the promotional materials generated by two educational brokers, the British Councilâs Education Counselling Service (ECS) and Australiaâs International Development Programme (IDP-Education Australia).By focusing on the micropractices of branding, the constructions of the "international student" and "international education" are examined to uncover the relations between international education and globalisation.The conclusion reached here is that the dominant marketing messages used to brand and sell education are unevenly weighted in favour of the economic imperative.International education remains fixed in modernist spatiotemporal contexts that ignore the challenges presented by globalisation.Developing new notions of international education will require a more critical engagement with the geopolitics of knowledge and with issues of subjectivity, difference, and power.Ultimately, a more sustained and comprehensive engagement with the noneconomic dimensions of globalisation will be necessary to achieve new visions of international education