Knowing and doing vocational education and training reform: Evidence, learning and the policy process

Abstract

Much of VET policy internationally draws on a toolkit that has been seriously questioned for its logic, international relevance and effectiveness by considerable amounts of academic research. Reflecting primarily on our experiences of leading a complex, multicountry policy study, we develop an account that seeks to explore ways in which the apparent incommensurability between academic and policy knowledge can be addressed. This leads on to a broader discussion of key issues of contestation in the debates about knowledge for policy as they relate to international education and development more generally. We consider three key turns in the discourse of international education policy and research: to "governing by numbers", "what works" and policy learning, and ask what happens when these discursive trends travel to Southern and VET contexts. We suggest that this analysis implies that policymakers need both to be more modest and reflexive in their expectations of what knowledge can be mobilised for policy purposes and more serious in their commitment to supporting the generation of the types of knowledge that they claim to value. For international and comparative educators, we stress the importance of being clearer in seeking to shape research agendas; more rigorous in our approaches to research; and better in our external communication of our findings. Given the particular focus of this special issue on VET, we end by reiterating the particular challenge of reawakening research on VET-for-development from twenty years of slumbers.

7 Exploring the Value of the Capability Approach for Vocational Education and Training Evaluation: Reflections from South Africa

“…ii See McGrath (2012b) and McGrath and Lugg (2012) for further discussion on productivist accounts on VET and the implications for VET research. iii See McGrath (2010) for an exploration of the use of new public management logic in the South African FET college sector.…”

“…This data is, however, fraught with problems affected by the multimodal and programmatic complexities of VET systems (McGrath and Lugg, 2012). In South Africa, initial transformation focused on the changing the student and staff demographics in terms of race and gender and transforming the racially segregated institutional landscape through institutional merger (Powell, 2013).…”

Vocational education and training for African development: a literature review

“…Inevitably, such reforms drew from the wider neoliberal approach. In VET-specific terms, they borrowed from the 'Old Commonwealth' a 'tool kit' of new public management reforms that included new governance structures giving institutions more autonomy and businesses more say at local and national levels; sectoral bodies; competency-based curricula; national qualifications frameworks; and outcomes-based funding (Allais 2003;McGrath and Lugg 2012). In spite of the SDGs and a new UNESCO vision, this is largely where the orthodox debate still sits.…”

Vocational education training and graduate employability in South Africa: an interlinkage in need of exploration

“…Defining VET as a concept within the education system poses a number of difficulties (McGrath and Lugg, 2012;Eichhorst et al, 2015;Kaburise, 2015;Levina et al, 2015;TVET Pedia, 2015). It is worth noting at this stage that, general and academic education focuses on building analytical skills, knowledge and critical thinking, while VET develops craftsmanship, practical experiences and problem-solving skills.…”