Reserach-Based Practice in Vocational Education and Training and Career and Technical Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 18
  In Roundtable Session: Some Theoretical Bases for Research on Vocational Education and Training and Career and Technical Education

Abstract

The symposium aims to analyse theoretical approaches for research and development activities in vocational education and training (VET) and career and technical education (CTE) internationally. The objectives of the symposium are to (1) examine a framework for researchers’ education in CTE, (2) introduce a research approach that combines scientific research and practical development of work and learning, (3) investigate a theoretical perspective on research for learning at, through and for work, and (4) discuss a comparative research agenda in VET and CTE.
Possible starting points of theoretical and research approaches in VET and CTE include the traditions, division of labour, economical structures, global and regional development, education systems, and citizens’ career prospects (see Lakes, 2012; Lasonen, 2010). Different ways of defining competence and expertise may direct ways by which schools, workplaces and higher education deal with the tense relationship between their respective tasks of schooling, upgrading expertise through work and research. Different traditions are linked to the ways of defining growth to expertise as cultural participation, knowledge acquisition and production of new knowledge.
The task of higher education institutions is to produce new knowledge. As a result, education helps develop practice that is not limited to individual’s activities but includes also the development of the work environment and organization. Higher education graduates are considered to exemplify good knowledge in their particular discipline. Dr. Victor Hernandez-Gantes elaborates a conceptual framework for the assessment and study of career and technical programs in higher education. The framework calls for integrated strategic planning at the university, college, and departmental level as a precondition for consensus on desired programs and ensure viability (Hernandez-Gantes, 2010). Dr. Marianne Teräs analyses to what extent developmental work research, based on the cultural-historical activity theory, has contributed to the research on vocational education. The methodology of a change laboratory is used to make a formative intervention to develop practice (Teräs & Lasonen, 2013). Drs. Margaret Malloch and Leonard Cairns investigate learning on the job, on site, learning by doing and the achievement of VET competencies assessed in Australia. Lifelong learning, adult education and more recently situated learning provide theoretical perspectives and models for the analyses of VET policy and practice. Work based and workplace learning in particular are utilised in the study of VET in Australia (Cairns and Malloch, 2011). Dr. Johanna Lasonen discusses a possible comparative research agenda for studying VET and CTE internationally.
Every research area has its own premises and thus derived objectives and eventual research questions. Although the research aims to find out the truth as guided by the rules of science, it has been hardly investigated what are the specific premises of VTE and CTE research and what kind of truth it should seek. The symposium is a contribution to discussion what kinds of research interests VET and CTE research has and to what extent research results can emphasize concrete changes in the world of work.

Author

• Johanna Lahja Lasonen, University of South Florida