Editorial: New insights into VET

Journal of Education and Human Development (New York), 2019

The aim of this paper is to present a historical and conceptual analysis of observations of a recent innovative approach to training of vocational education teachers in Norway. Since the 17th century, there has been a close link between industrialisation and vocational training in Norway. Consequently, there has been a similar relationship between vocational training (VT) and the training of vocational education teachers (VETs). The close relationship became more apparent during the collapse of Norway´s oil industry in 2015. An increasing number of technically skilled people with higher education lost their jobs. To avert the negative impact of the breakdown, the government requested University of Agder to develop a course designed to retrain unemployed technically skilled workers with higher education to become teachers at vocational schools. In this paper we present and discuss several aspects of the untraditional approach to vocational teacher training. A particular emphasis is given to the educational thoughts that gave birth to a new way of thinking about constructing and developing a transformative vocational teacher training program for untraditional target group. A brief historical account for development of VTCC in Norway is also presented to provide the readers some important information about the Norwegian context.

2019

Vocational education in Finland and Sweden has many similarities, including the cultural values of Nordic welfare state action, school based system and VET teachers with a large experiences in work ...

2014

Nord-VET-The future of Vocational Education in the Nordic countries The purpose of the Nordic research project, Nord-VET, is to generate new knowledge on the strengths and weaknesses of the different models of vocational education and training (VET) at upper secondary level in the four Nordic countries. This research is expected to strengthen the knowledge base required for developing VET for the future. The main purpose of this project is to shed light on the different Nordic ways of handling the key dilemma of providing double access to the labour market and to higher education in vocational education. More specifically it seeks to determine how the different ways of handling this dilemma have an impact on social equality, inclusion and the esteem of vocational education. The project is publishing three sets of country studies on Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The first set of reports is on the historical emergence of vocational education (VET) in the four countries. The second set of reports is on the current challenges for VET in the four Nordic countries. This is the Danish report. The third report to be published February 2015 is on innovations in VET. For more information visit the homepage: www.nord-vet.dk

2019

VET teachers play a key role in introducing and connecting students to learning environments of specific workplaces, and in helping students to consolidate learning in schools with learning in the workplace. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to describe and analyze the role played by VET teachers in their work with the students' work-based learning (WBL). The empirical study builds on cases from three of the twelve national vocational programmes in Sweden: Building and Construction, Child and Recreation, and Handicraft. The study consists of 15 interviews with teachers from these programmes. The result shows that depending on to what extent the school or the physical classroom has similarities to the workplace, the VET teacher uses examples from the workplace differently in his or her teaching. The analysis shows two different enactments in how VET teachers talk about creating continuity between school and work.

International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training

Context: Vocational teachers are called to constantly meet the upcoming needs in social and working life. In Sweden, the high demand for vocational teachers has led to their recruitment in the early stages of vocational teacher studies or even before teacher training. Entering this new community of practice, vocational teachers cross boundaries between their previous occupation and their teaching job, mediating the introduction of competence between them. In this context, the study explores vocational teachers' competence through their own perceptions, addressing important competence areas, as well as how competence is understood. Approach: The study employs a socio-cultural perspective on learning. Communities of practice establish their regime of competence, a set of principles and expectations that recognise membership. To be competent is translated as understanding the shared enterprise of the community, being capable and allowed to engage in it and, thus, interact with the ...

2008

The purpose of this papel' is to pl'esent the development and status of vocational teachel' education in Norway, and to discuss its contemporary philosophy, structure and content. As thel'e is no very cleal' definition oithe term vocational education, the concept is elaborated and discuss. FOl' the same prnpose a historical ovel'view is included and discuss in relation to othel' fOl'ms of teacher education. Didactic as a curriculum theory ofpractice and critical reflection W8.S used as a theoretical).'eference [01' this study. The analysis a1'e mostly based on lristorica1 documents, govel'nment policy documents, w1'itten laws and the contempora1Y national curriculum of Norway. Some personal field expe1'ience ii'om teacher education since the late 1980's was also tal(en into conside1'ation. In the end thel'e is a cl'itical discussion on vocational teacher education, its purpose and role in a post model'll society compare to other fOl'roS of teacher education.

Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 2017

Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training

Welcome to this special issue of the Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training titled Challenges and development in and of vocational teacher education. The particular focus and context as represented by the research articles and magazine articles in this issue is vocational teacher education in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Paper presentations on vocational teacher education at the yearly NORDYRK conference in 2017 showed that although the structure and the length of the programmes differ in these Scandinavian countries, there are many similarities regarding content and subjects, and similar challenges that are addressed. We are very glad for the contributions in this special issue. The research articles contribute to knowledge of vocational teacher education, its problems and opportunities, while the magazine articles provide concrete examples of work in the area for review and development. In both cases, it is possible to draw attention to the vocational teacher education in each country, even though there are differences between them. Vocational teacher education is an under-researched area. As an example, The International Handbook on Teacher Education (Loughran & Hamilton, 2016) has no chapter on vocational teacher education, nor are any aspects of vocational teacher education included in the thematic chapters such as chapters on organization and structure in teacher education or chapters on reflective practice and pedagogic reasoning. When the term 'vocation' is used, it is in phrases such as 'teacher training as a vocation'. A search of journals in the field of vocational education and

International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training, 2015

This article explores teachers and trainers didactical practices in different contexts in Norwegian VET: schools and workplaces. With the introduction of e-resources and e-portfolios in VET, learners as well as teachers and trainers experience a more hybrid learning-arena, which claims for a recontextualization of vocational didactics as well as re-defining roles and responsibilities of the actors. The article discuss new forms of boundary crossing, dealing with e-portfolios as boundary objects, increasing learner autonomy, transformative learning outcomes, interaction between actors and designing learning processes in hybrid learning-arenas. Vocational didactics as understood in a teacher-training context are challenged by more actors and new forms of interactivity with technological tools crossing sites. The study is based on a longitudinal study in a national project on quality assessment, interviews with teachers and trainers as well as apprenticeship training offices supported ...

2006

The paragraph Swedish research on vocational education has been completed. Compared to the original text, the following changes have been made. Firstly, texts published during 2003 have been included, and secondly some clarifications have been made in this English version that occurred later in the Swedish version. Also the paragraph International research on vocational education has been completed. In the dissertation, as part of this paragraph, two journals, Journal of Vocational Education Research (JVER) and The International Journal of Vocational Education and Training (IJVET) were reviewed according to the abstracts of the articles they published during the 1990’s. Here the reviews of these journals are completed with those published during the period 2000-2003.