No abstract

An international repositioning of vocational teachers in\ud relation to knowledge and the workplace is reflected in\ud English Further Education through the terminology of\ud ‘dual professionalism’. Particularly in settings most closely\ud linked to specific occupations, this discourse privileges\ud occupational expertise that vocational educators bring from\ud their former employment alongside pedagogic expectations\ud of the teaching role. In a qualitative study of recently qualified\ud teachers employed substantially in workshop settings, using\ud the analytical framework of Margaret Archer, workplace skills\ud and generic attributes provided a basis for claims to expertise,\ud extending to a custodianship of former occupations.\ud Further augmentation of educator roles, however, appeared\ud constrained by market approaches to development and\ud employment insecurity in the sector and beyond. In Archer’s\ud terms, the current environment appears to cast ‘dual\ud professionalism’ as morphostasis, drawing on former practice\ud at the expense of teacher identity in the face of insecurity.\ud Morphogenesis into enhanced professional teacher identities,\ud for example, developing coherent vocational pedagogies\ud informed by research into advances in knowledge, appears\ud the less likely outcome in the current and emerging sector

Where young people's upper-secondary education spans work and institutional domains, questions arise about learning across both spheres and its guidance. Theoretical accounts of 'boundary crossing' have explored how vocational teachers can integrate learning across domains by drawing on extended concepts and theoretical knowledge to solve workplace problems; whilst empirical accounts have validated the role of vocational educators by describing the workplace and schools as equally valid, complementary spheres. Different understandings, described here as 'integrative', 'complementary' and 'implicit', appear to reflect different national patterns of vocational education. The paper reports a qualitative study conducted around two case studies, located in Germany and England, of the way vocational teachers' understandings of facilitating learning across domains are constructed. Vocational teachers working in Germany's 'dual training' claimed to provide advanced knowledge that they compared to practical work skills, reflecting 'implicit' or 'complementary' approaches to learning across domains. Teachers in England, where workplace learning elements are more unevenly developed and lack institutional foundations, nevertheless described colleges and workplaces as distinctive, littleconnected spheres. These differences suggest that teachers' approaches are less shaped by the potential or necessity for 'integrative' approaches than by the way different systems enable or constrain their conceptualisation of 'possible futures'.

Knowledge of research methods is regarded as crucial for the UK economy and workforce. However, research methods teaching is viewed as a challenging area for lecturers and students. The pedagogy of research methods teaching within universities has been noted as underdeveloped, with undergraduate students regularly expressing negative dispositions to the subject. These are challenges documented in university-based higher education (HE), yet little is known of the practices and pedagogies of research methods teaching in the college-based HE setting, where the delivery of HE has grown in prominence in recent years. Because college-based HE is widely regarded as primarily vocational, incorporating research methods into curricula may be seen as an additional level of complexity for staff to negotiate. In this article, we report on the data collected within a study to examine research methods teaching in social science disciplines on HE programmes taught in college-based settings in England. Drawing on data obtained from college-based HE lecturers and students, we discuss features of research methods teaching and how these may be applied with a diverse student body, within vocationally focused institutions. Issues of institutional culture, resourcing and staff development are also considered as these are identified as integral to the successful embedding of research methods teaching

No abstract