21st Century competencies in Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Rhetoric and reality in the wake of a pandemic

There is general agreement about the need for vocational education and training to embrace ‘modern technologies’ in gearing up to deliver ‘21st century competences’ to young people. Recent TVET policies in South Africa incorporate the language of future competencies that ought to be acquired by college students through their curricula, and delivered by lecturers with appropriate professional training.  But in April 2020, confronted by a global Covid-19 pandemic and an immediate hard lockdown, TVET colleges went into crisis mode to try and meet a government demand that ‘no student be left behind’. While blended and remote methodologies had been employed to some extent in a few college programmes, the pandemic suddenly launched all lecturers into technology dependent teaching and learning.   This article is based on a survey of conveniently selected public TVET college lecturers early in the lockdown, under enormous pressure to continue the academic programme. The snapshot obtained was one of anxiety and consternation, but also of deep concern for students and their well-being under inordinately difficult conditions. Their conflicting priorities while they tried to balance teaching responsibilities and personal needs were illustrative of Maslow’s well-known theorisation of humans and their hierarchy of needs. The limited research conducted for this article was exploratory at a time in the pandemic when there were more questions than answers in every sphere of social interaction. Findings therefore did not seek to be definitive and there was full understanding that the education and training landscape was dynamic and shifting. However, what can be shared here is a moment in time to appreciate the experiences of a critical component of the TVET college sector and the distance they would have to traverse towards the aspirations espoused in polic

Revisiting the role of the ‘expert other’ in learners’ acquisition of workplace competence

Skills development policies in South Africa and further afield consider learning in and from the workplace as critical to the training of artisans at intermediate level, bringing together theoretical learning undertaken in formal institutions and practical, on-the-job training for the purpose of achieving occupational competence, demonstrated ultimately in the prescribed trade test. Ellstrom (2001) asserts that “in spite of a widespread belief in the importance of integrating learning and work, little is known about the conditions that promote such integration” (p.421). While apprenticeship training has a long history in South Africa, and historical anecdotal accounts exist of the workplace experiences of trainee artisans, there are only a few recent local empirical studies that have advanced our understanding of this domain. This research thus sought to investigate learning in the workplace from the perspective of the candidates: the methodologies, practices, and affordances for learning which they perceived to be available to them, and employed a qualitative approach for exploring how candidates in engineering trades experienced the ‘real world environment’ of learning and engagement in the workplace. The juxtaposition of complementary theories that lent themselves to explaining workplace learning phenomena, in particular the works of Engeström (1987); Vygotsky (1978); and Lave and Wenger (1991), formed a richly informative system for the data which showed that candidates experienced diverse learning modalities and affordances in their workplace settings. However, the central role of the expert artisan as a quintessential didactic practitioner in moving candidates towards competence was a significant finding, pointing ultimately to the need for collective effort in harnessing the teaching potential of this ‘expert other’.DHE

Book review: Teachers and teaching in vocational and professional education

The book is published in the series Routledge Research in Vocational Education. This series present the latest research on Vocational and further Education and provides a forum for established and emerging scholars to discuss the latest practices and challenges in the field.

How faculties of education respond to new knowledge requirements embedded in teacher education policies : stepping through the looking-glass

This study examines how university academics understand and enact knowledge requirements embedded in official teacher education policies. The research probes faculty understandings of what constitutes ‘relevant and appropriate pedagogies’ in teacher education curricula, and the basis of such knowledge selections in the absence of a stable ‘knowledge base’ of teacher education. In teacher education, new national norms and standards are intended to guide curriculum processes in new programmes. However, policies remain open to wide interpretation and assume common understandings among the teacher education community with regard to knowledge, practices and values. This study, conducted in three university-based Faculties of Education, analyses the curriculum motivations, processes and practices of education academics, in an attempt to understand and explain their responses to policy requirements. The conceptual framework of Paul Trowler is employed to examine the Teaching and Learning Regimes (TLRs) at work in academic contexts. By lifting out the discursive repertoires, identities in interaction, tacit assumptions, connotative codes, implicit theories of teaching and learning, power relations, rules of appropriateness and recurrent practices among faculty members, this research demonstrates how knowledge is mediated in and through institutional contexts. Three parallel Faculty portraits elucidate stark differences in approaches to curricula and in curriculum processes, a consequence of the lack of a stable knowledge base and the perceived vagueness of policy directives. Significantly, institutional histories and traditions feature prominently as ‘shapers’ of academic responses to change, factors that, the study argues, government policies have not taken into account.Thesis (PhD (Education Policy Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2006.Education Management and Policy Studiesunrestricte

Session 1 - Vocational Education and Training: basics for teaching and research in Vocational Education and Training at universities

This session highlights the basics of Vocational Education and Training (VET). Each university has its own characteristics. The contributions seek to encourage various forms of VET. Challenges for universities and other institutions are emphasised. The contributions help draw conclusions for the Further structuring of VET in Sub-Saharan Africa. Other country-specific articles from the session concentrate on the characteristics and orientation of VET systems, thereby helping create an overall picture of the status of VET in all participating countries. The participants endeavored to analyze the current situation of VET in Sub-Saharan Africa by exploring the character and individual design of the current VET systems in the participating countries

THE NOTION OF ‘VOCATIONAL PEDAGOGY’ AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE TRAINING OF VOCATIONAL TEACHERS – EXAMINING THE FIELD

InSouth Africa, policymakers and institutions are questioning how to train vocational (TVET) college lecturers, that is, to determine the ‘mix’ of theory practical or workplace experience. How do we construct a curriculum for the training of vocational educators, and how is this training different from the training of school-teachers? This article argues the importance of a relevant curriculum, consisting of the appropriate mix of pedagogy, specialist vocational knowledge/skills and practice. Exploring ‘vocational pedagogy’, the article holds that the imperative to provide vocational teachers with a vocational pedagogy has major implications for vocational teachers. Extant literature is explored to examine the validity of the construct informing the design of relevant, appropriate curricula for the training of vocational college lecturers.   Keywords:  vocational pedagogy, vocational teacher preparation, pedagogical skills, workplace experienc

Book Review: Higher Education for the Public Good: Views from the South

Author: Leibowitz, BrendaTitle: Higher Education for the Public Good: Views from the South (2012)Oakhill, USA: Trentham Books. Stellenbosch, South Africa: Sun Medi