The marginalisation of VET in an Australian secondary school

摘要

It has been argued that the culture and traditions of secondary schooling explicitly exclude vocational learning from the mission of secondary schools. Analyses have further highlighted the role played by vocational learning in sifting and sorting students by social background. In many continental systems, Germany, France or Italy for example, the fragmentation of the upper secondary curriculum into general and vocational tracks has been the means by which the ‘integrity’ of the academic stream has been maintained. In the Australian context, the abolition of technical schools in favour of a more comprehensive model of provision has not erased existing social inequalities. This article argues that the maintenance of the dominant academic curriculum and its associated forms of knowledge has involved a number of processes designed to exclude or accommodate different kinds of learners, to marginalise applied learning pedagogies and curricula and to ensure differentiated learning experiences for different sub-groups of young people. Drawing on views and perspectives of students and teachers in a large secondary school in an industrial provincial city of Australia, this article presents an analysis of the school-level processes which have contributed to the construction of the learner identity of students in vocational programs in Australian schools.View full textDownload full textKeywordsvocational education and training, secondary schooling, inequality, curriculum hierarchyRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2011.580362