Countering the risks of vocationalisation in Master's programmes in International Development

Abstract

We review the ontological and pedagogical origins of International Development graduate education in the context of increasing pressures to 'professionalise' graduate curricula. We apply Giroux's concept of 'vocationalisation' to argue that professionalisation risks undermining the field's intellectual foundations in an elusive quest to equip students with functional rather than intellectual skills. Acknowledging ever-growing competition among graduates for gainful employment in this sector, we argue that instructors of International Development should recommit to the field's reflective tradition by creating spaces for transformative education and develop a repoliticised ethos that critically engages global capitalism.

More than Knowledge Transfer? Alumni Perspectives on the Value of Postgraduate Study for International Development

“…Existing literature that has engaged with the teaching of development in higher education, has pointed to a perceived tension between a focus on theory and critical engagement, and a focus on more applied or practice-linked skills seen as being required for employment within the development industry (Denskus & Esser, 2015; Engel & Simpson Reeves, 2018; Sims 2018; Woolcock, 2007), sometimes linked to wider critical discussions about the value and purpose of development, and development studies teaching, in the context of the decolonial project (Rutazibwa, 2018). Our study, through attending to the individual narratives of students who come to the study of education and development from a range of very different backgrounds, helps shed light on the importance of understanding the ways in which students’ own positionality, and what it is that they bring with them to their Master’s programmes, shapes not only their engagements with academic study but also the extent to which they are able to develop and sustain forms of critical reflection and transformative practice as they move out of the academic space and develop their careers in the development sector.…”

“…Some of this work has looked at the implications of decolonizing development education in relation to pedagogic processes and curriculum, and the politics of historical, cultural and social representation (Langdon, 2009, 2013; Molope & Mekoa, 2018; Spiegel et al, 2017; Rutazibwa, 2018), emphasizing the need for development studies to ‘engage with the crucial issues of epistemology, being, and power that maintain the present asymmetrical global relations’ (Ndlovi-Gatsheni, 2012, p. 51). Another strand has been concerned with the relationship between academic learning and the development of ‘skills’ for development, looking critically at the contents and processes of development studies programmes and what ‘skills’ development practitioners are perceived to need (Denskus & Esser, 2015; Engel & Simpson Reeves, 2018; Sims 2018; Spratt, 2015; White & Devereux, 2018). Such studies have explored the potential and challenges of building closer connections between academic learning and development practice (Hammersley et al, 2018; Langdon & Agyeyomah, 2014; Woolcock, 2007).…”

What do they need to know? Core skills for postgraduate development studies students

“…With massification, the demands of the AQF, and government cuts and agendas, universities are under pressure to ensure graduates are employable, and thus they aim to align programme curricula with market demands. Alongside an increased privatisation of the development sector and the shift to South–South cooperation, arguably more development studies graduates are being produced than the market can sustain (Denskus and Esser, ). This has also contributed to development studies programmes focused on promoting marketable, practical skills, typically suited to western employers (Denskus and Esser, ).…”

“…Alongside an increased privatisation of the development sector and the shift to South–South cooperation, arguably more development studies graduates are being produced than the market can sustain (Denskus and Esser, ). This has also contributed to development studies programmes focused on promoting marketable, practical skills, typically suited to western employers (Denskus and Esser, ). Whilst there is value in students developing practical skills, as noted earlier, good practitioners need to be reflexive and thus grounded in critical theoretical approaches.…”

Introduction to Special Issue: Qualitative Method/ologies in Development Studies

“…It has recently been argued that there is a tension in development studies between critical theory and vocational skills (White and Devereux, 2018), and that current development studies programmes risk framing candidates for aid work only (Denskus and Esser, 2015). Indeed, our students of development studies ask for focused accounts of how to tackle the multitude of methods at their disposal when preparing their first fieldworks in the global South.…”