Deleuzian Reading of Vocational Education

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Abstract

This paper proffers a Deleuzian reading of vocational education as a result of ethnographies in vocational schools in Israel to understand the processes of becoming a vocational subject. The inductive findings show a special usage of the future concept for the construction of vocational subjectivity through emphasis on "realistic aspirations" (aspirations that are not disconnected from the reality), an immediate future, and an emphasis on certainty (achieved mainly by acquiring a working-class professions). For an in-depth understanding of the construction of vocational subjectivity, this paper suggests using Deleuze's (1994) "real" and "virtual" concepts. These concepts help not only in exposing the "morality of low expectations" in vocational schools, but also its sabotaging a “right to an open future".

Author

• Avihu Shoshana, University of Haifa