Factors Influencing the Value of CPD Activities Among VET Teachers

Context: Teachers in vocational education and training (VET teachers) have specific conditions for their continuing professional development (CPD). They have a background in an initial occupation, in which they now teach and train the next generation. Thus, as VET teachers, they are expected to master the knowledge and skills of that occupation, even if they have now crossed the boundary from the community of their initial occupation to the community of the school. This study explores the perceived values among VET teachers of different activities that may contribute to their CPD in teaching subjects/initial occupations. The study examines VET at the upper secondary level in Sweden. Here, the VET teachers have the main responsibility for students' vocational learning in the vocational subjects, including the work-based parts. In the latter parts, the teachers are supplemented by supervisors at the workplace.Approach: We argue for the duality of a VET teacher identity with a professional competence that comprises two intertwined parts -- teaching skills, and knowledge of the teaching subjects based in the teachers' initial occupations. Our study is based on a situated learning perspective, and the empirical findings particularly concern values created from learning through participation and boundary crossing. CPD activities typically include some form of participation in and/or boundary crossing between school and work-life practices. In the analysis we also include the possible influence of institutional, situational, and dispositional drivers and barriers for participation in different activities. The research question was: what factors can explain the variation in perceived values created by participation in different CPD activities among VET teachers? The study was conducted as a survey of 886 Swedish VET teachers. Focus was put on the values created through different types of activity, values for the teachers' vocational knowledge, for networks in working life, and for teaching. The data were primarily analysed using logistic regression modelling.Findings: Dispositional drivers, the teacher's sex, and regular performance of the activity are important for the perceived value. The dispositional factor is the one most commonly retained, and it has a consistently positive effect. Factors such as educational background and vocational training have weaker influence, which suggests that individual driving factors are important when VET teachers assess the value of CPD activities.Conclusions: The study covers a general challenge for VET teachers, but is of particular relevance in systems with a high degree of school-based VET, full-time employed VET teachers, and VET teachers who are responsible for students' vocational learning. Here, the values for vocational knowledge, for networks, and for teaching that are created through different activities are important for the VET teacher identity. They are also interrelated, and together they provide professional development in relation to the initial occupation, and for the occupation as a vocational teacher

Explaining Change and Rethinking Dirty Words: FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc.

This report presents the results from a comparative study of the qualification of adult educators in the Nordic-Baltic region. The study involved Denmark, Estonia and Sweden. The rationale behind the study is a growing interest in adult education resulting from a focus on lifelong learning in the public and political agendas, internationally and nationally. According to the authors of the report, an increased interest in adult education generates an increased interest in the professionalisation of the adult education sector, and thereby in the qualification of those teaching adults: adult educators. Based on this belief, the study and hence the report looks into the role that the qualification of adult educators plays in policy, learning opportunities for those interested in qualifying as adult educators as well as adult educators’ status as professionals. Besides the formation of personal teaching, which is grounded in learning theory, theoretical principles and experiences from practice, the development of a professional identity plays a role in adult educators becoming professionals. Similarly, so does the recognition of adult educators as professionals by society at large. Methodologically, the study is based on document analysis. The documents selected for analysis have been: national and international research reports and articles; official descriptions of national education systems; and policy papers, laws and other legal documents dealing with adult education and/or the qualification of adult educators. The study shows that in all three countries, there has been an increase in the political interest in adult education and training. In 1993, an act on adult education and training was accepted in Estonia and updated in 2001 (Estonian Ministry of Education and Research, 1993). Four years later, in 1997, a huge reform of the adult education and training system was carried out in Sweden, and in 2000, a reform of adult and continuing education was launched in Denmark. The main drivers for the increased focus on adult education and training in all three countries seem to be the needs of the labour market, in light of globalisation and international competition as well as the Lisbon strategy. The study also shows that in spite of the increased focus on adult education and training and its importance, through out policy papers, there seems to be a lack of interest in the quality of the provision, in terms of education and learning processes, including the qualification of adult educators in Denmark and Sweden. In Estonia, a professional qualification standard for adult educators was accepted in 2004. Except for Estonia, thus, the question of qualification of adult educators is practically absent in ongoing national, political debates with respect to adult education and training. In relation to the options for those interested in qualifying as adult educators, it is difficult to find courses or education programmes offering initial education and training. Instead, most courses and education programmes either offer in-service or a combination of initial and in-service education and training. Thus, there are few opportunities for adult educators to acquire the professional knowledge and identity as adult educators, before entering the field. In addition, adult educators, to a high degree, develop their competencies as adult educators through their work. Further, qualification requirements for teaching within adult education and training vary a lot, and are linked to the specific field of adult education. Within general adult education, in all three countries, the requirements are similar to those for teachers in primary and secondary schools with no demands on specific competences in teaching adults. Within vocationally oriented adult education and training, the situation is very similar to that within general adult education, as demands for pedagogical qualifications do not include specific competences in teaching adults. Liberal adult education in all three countries stands out as the least regulated sector in relation to required pedagogical qualifications for educators. Requirements within this sector are set by each employer. Being that an individual’s professional development is tantamount to a society’s recognition of his/her occupation as a professional one, it can be discussed whether adult educators today are considered as being part of a real profession in the three countries. Based on the study, it can be concluded, that: Adult educators are absent within the policy discourse of adult education and training. Adult educators stand on the edge of a profession. Adult educators are self-taught professionals. These issues are worth further attention within both policy and research circles

From revolution to retreat : Everyday learning in a local trade union

Den här avhandlingen syftar till att utveckla kunskap om lärande på den lokala nivån inom fackföreningsrörelsen. Det är en etnografisk beskrivning och analys av hur en fackföreningsstyrelse på en arbetsplats hanterar vardagens fackliga arbete och de krav på lärande som det innebär. I studien undersöks förutsättningarna för en nytillträdd och oerfaren facklig styrelse. Utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på lärande beskrivs och analyseras det fackliga styrelsearbetet under tre år, de olika utvecklingsprocesser detta genererar samt hur fackliga aktiviteter och processer samspelar med hur styrelseledamöternas deltagande och den fackliga praktiken förändras. Att det saknas facklig erfarenhet och kunskap på arbetsplatsen har betydelse för den nya styrelsens förutsättningar för lärande. Studien visar att styrelseledamöternas definition av situationen är avgörande för inriktningen på styrelsearbetet. I studien identifieras tre kvalitativt olika perioder av fackligt arbete och lärande: revolutionen, nybygget och reträtten. Styrelsens kontakter med fackföreningsrörelsen utanför den lokala arbetsplatsen har en avgörande betydelse - särskilt hur ledamöterna använder fackföreningsrörelsens samlade erfarenheter, kunskaper och resurser som källa till lärande. Hur styrelsearbetet fördelas inom styrelsen och tillsammans med andra inom fackförbundet (fackliga kollegor, ombudsmän, medlemmar) visar sig också ha betydelse för det lärande som uppstår inom och utanför den lokala styrelsen. Studien visar att det finns omfattande krav på den lokala styrelsens förmåga att hantera det lokala fackliga arbetet och att självständigt hantera de krav på lärande som det innebär. Utifrån de omständigheter som studien synliggör hävdas att detta är ett överkrav på lokala fackliga styrelser i den mening att man inte på egen hand förmår skapa den kunskap som ger makt att hantera alla viktiga frågor som samtidens arbetsliv ger upphov till. I studien framförs att det krävs förändringar inom fackföreningsrörelsen för att ändra villkor och förutsättningar för lokalt fackligt arbete, lärande och kunskapsutveckling. Makt, kunskap och lärande hänger ihop.The trade union at the local workplace is considered the most important arena for developing the strength of trade unions. Contemporary changes in working life mean new challenges to the trade union, and especially to the local trade union units at the workplaces. Learning is needed to maintain the strength and the capacity of the trade unions. Local trade union boards and representatives are expected to have the capability to learn on their own. The aim of this study is to investigate learning within a local trade union board at a workplace. An ethnographic study of an inexperienced trade union board has been carried out during three years. A sociocultural perspective is used to analyse the trade union board’s work, the learning processes that are generated and how the board members’ participation and pracitice are changed. From a pragmatist perspective the local trade union board’s attempts to deal with everyday challenges are interpreted as solving problems. It is shown that the board’s different ways of defining the situation are of significant importance. Three qualitative different phases of the local trade union board practice have been identified: the revolution, the renewal and the retreat. The investigation shows the importance of access to and use of the sociocultural knowledge and resources outside the local trade union. The board’s members’ definitions of the situation are influenced by the trade union experience and knowledge that they appropriate in participating in other trade union practices. The study also shows the importance of how the trade union work is distributed as it generates different learning processes according to how duties are divided. Solving problems together with trade union members at the workplace and together with other trade union practices shape learning processes in other communities of the trade union movement. The results of the study indicate that the demands on learning put on the local trade union boards are too overpowering. The local trade union boards cannot be expected to, on their own, develop the knowledge and the power that are needed to tackle the everyday challenges at the workplace. Local trade union learning is a matter to the trade union movement as a whole. Power, knowledge and learning are interdependent

Om fackligt lärande : En etnografisk studie av en fackföreningsstyrelses arbete

The prerequisites for local trade unions have changed in later years. Con-temporary changes in working-life raise new and important questions for the local boards to deal with. Changes of labour legislation anddecentralisation within the Swedish trade union movement have led to new tasks and greater responsibilities for the local trade unions. The role of learning in the local trade union-s attempts to deal with contemporary challenges is the focus of this thesis. The presented case-study aims at understanding the conditions and circumstances that shape the kind of learning that takes place in the board of a local branch of a Swedish trade union. The importance of the everyday context for learning is a fundamental approach to the study. Theories stressing the situated character of learning have been used for understand-ing the activities of the shop stewards participating in the social practice of local trade union work. The shop-stewards- attempts to deal with the challenges have been inter-preted as problem-solving. A pattern of three qualitatively different ways of solving problems has been identified. The shop stewards manage well prob-lems concerning the traditional trade union work, i. e. interpreting the legal framework in laws, agreements and instructions. There is no need for change. The second kind of problem-solving is about new problems within an area familiar to the shop-stewards. The shop-stewards also manage to solve this kind of problems. The shop-stewards do not manage the third kind, the new and complex questions where the legal framework is missing, e.g. outsourcing, competence development and bad working conditions as an effect of lean production. This third kind of problems can be seen as questions for destiny to the trade union and its members. Learning in local trade unions is not just a local matter. In order to understand the local trade union board-s difficulties to deal with the con-temporary challenges one must consider the aspects of power and relations to the counterpart, the employer. Decentralisation of trade union-work has changed the prerequisites for the local trade unions. New technique, ways of organising work and globalisation of production and ownership are examples of new and important questions for trade unions to deal with. These changed prerequisites concern the Swedish trade union movement as a whole

How vocational teachers describe their vocational teacher identity

Given the current demands of Swedish vocational education and the withdrawal of the requirement for formal teacher competence in vocational subject teachers, the aim of this article is to develop knowledge of what it means to be a vocational subject teacher in an upper secondary school, i.e., how vocational subject teachers describe their vocational teacher identity. Drawing on a sociocultural perspective, this study analysed data from 22 interviews. The vocational subject teachers describe their relationship with students and the fostering work of teaching for studies, life and work as distinctive characteristics of vocational teacher identity. The fostering work is focused on students’ behaviour, i.e., the relational and normative aspects of a social practice. The study results suggest that the identity of vocational teachers includes guiding students towards memberships in various social practices. The benefit of both high-quality teacher competence and vocational competence in vocational teachers is discusse

Factors influencing the value of CPD activities among VET teachers

Context: Teachers in vocational education and training (VET teachers) have specific conditions for their continuing professional development (CPD). They have a background in an initial occupation, in which they now teach and train the next generation. Thus, as VET teachers, they are expected to master the knowledge and skills of that occupation, even if they have now crossed the boundary from the community of their initial occupation to the community of the school. This study explores the perceived values among VET teachers of different activities that may contribute to their CPD in teaching subjects/initial occupations. The study examines VET at the upper secondary level in Sweden. Here, the VET teachers have the main responsibility for students\u27 vocational learning in the vocational subjects, including the work-based parts. In the latter parts, the teachers are supplemented by supervisors at the workplace. Approach: We argue for the duality of a VET teacher identity with a professional competence that comprises two intertwined parts -- teaching skills, and knowledge of the teaching subjects based in the teachers\u27 initial occupations. Our study is based on a situated learning perspective, and the empirical findings particularly concern values created from learning through participation and boundary crossing. CPD activities typically include some form of participation in and/or boundary crossing between school and work-life practices. In the analysis we also include the possible influence of institutional, situational, and dispositional drivers and barriers for participation in different activities. The research question was: what factors can explain the variation in perceived values created by participation in different CPD activities among VET teachers? The study was conducted as a survey of 886 Swedish VET teachers. Focus was put on the values created through different types of activity, values for the teachers\u27 vocational knowledge, for networks in working life, and for teaching. The data were primarily analysed using logistic regression modelling. Findings: Dispositional drivers, the teacher\u27s sex, and regular performance of the activity are important for the perceived value. The dispositional factor is the one most commonly retained, and it has a consistently positive effect. Factors such as educational background and vocational training have weaker influence, which suggests that individual driving factors are important when VET teachers assess the value of CPD activities. Conclusions: The study covers a general challenge for VET teachers, but is of particular relevance in systems with a high degree of school-based VET, full-time employed VET teachers, and VET teachers who are responsible for students\u27 vocational learning. Here, the values for vocational knowledge, for networks, and for teaching that are created through different activities are important for the VET teacher identity. They are also interrelated, and together they provide professional development in relation to the initial occupation, and for the occupation as a vocational teacher. (DIPF/Orig.

Lärares utveckling av ämneskunskap : En studie av yrkeslärares kompetensutveckling inom yrkesämnen

För att hålla sig uppdaterade och utveckla sitt ämneskunnande behöver yrkeslärare inom gymnasieskola och vuxenutbildning möjligheter till kompetensutveckling i nära kontakt med sina olika yrken och branscher. För dessa lärare är kompetensutveckling extra viktigt, eftersom kunskapsutvecklingen i många yrken går så snabbt. Även mer informellt nätverkande har stor betydelse, visar denna studie.Teachers’ development of subject knowledge – a study of vocational teachers’ competence development in their vocational subject

VET teachers between school and working life : boundary processes enabling continuing professional development

Changes in working life require development in vocational education and training (VET) to retain industrial currency. VET teachers are key actors in VET, and their continuing professional development (CPD) in vocational subjects is central to the currency of VET. This study is situated in Sweden, with a mainly school-based VET system where VET teachers have the main responsibility for studentsâ\u80\u99 school-based and workplace learning, and they typically have a background in an initial occupation which they now teach their students. The study applies a situated learning perspective, with a particular focus on boundary processes between VET schools and working life, and how the modes of identification of engagement, imagination, and alignment are enacted and influence the identity formation and CPD of VET teachers. The findings are based on interviews with 30 Swedish VET teachers. The qualitative study shows how different forms of boundary encounter between VET teachers and working life, brokering of occupational knowledge, and reconstruction of occupational practices at schools provide opportunities for teachersâ\u80\u99 CPD and influencing vocational teaching. It is important for the quality of VET teachersâ\u80\u99 CPD to include and integrate the different modes of identification, to allow for updating of different aspects of the occupational identity.Funding: This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council under [Grant 721-2013-2378].</p