Race and vocational education and training in England

Abstract

Black and minority ethnic students (BME) are a significant constituency in VET and FE in England. Despite this recent research on race and VET has become a marginal concern. Insofar as current VET research addresses social justice, race appears to be a supplementary concern. Although there is a substantial literature addressing race and education, this focuses primarily on schools and higher education. This paper examines why there is a need to develop a research agenda that analyses participation, outcomes and experiences of BME VET students, particularly those on 'non-advanced' programmes (equivalent to European Qualification Framework Level 1-3) with uncertain labour market outcomes and who are arguably being 'warehoused' in low status courses. The paper reflects on the historically specific reasons for the dearth of research on race and VET, drawing on a scoping exercise of the literature to evidence this. We conclude by offering a provisional analysis that identifies recent shifts in participation among BME groups, locating this in its socioeconomic and historical context. Our analysis reaffirms that VET remains a significant educational site for BME groups, but it is a complex racialised site which makes the current neglect of race and VET in academic research deeply problematic. Whilst this paper focuses on race and vocational education and training (VET) in England it is important to acknowledge similarities with other European states that share comparable understandings of the economic role of VET. At the same time, it is necessary to recognise the historical specificity of race and education in England.

Vocational education, transitions, marginalisation and social justice in the Nordic countries: Reflections on the special issue

“…Whilst many of the authors in the special issue acknowledge these interrelations, particularly gender and class, more attention could have been given to race/ethnicity and their articulation with immigrant status. It is the case that little current work, particularly in the UK, addresses the articulation of VET with race and ethnicity (but see Avis, Orr and Warmington 2017;Avis, Mirchandani and Warmington, 2017).…”

Construction of ethnicity, immigration and associated concepts in Swedish vocational education and training

“…Thus, we do not regard being an immigrant or ethnicity as a 'reified object that can be measured as if it were a simple biological entity. [We rather see it as] a construction, a set of fully social relationships' (Apple, quoted in Avis, Orr, and Warmington 2017). The aim of the ongoing project is to analyse critical thinking in vocational subjects in a broad sense, aligned with the triptych of pedagogic rights (enhancement, participation and inclusion) conceptualized by Bernstein (2000).…”

“…The findings indicate, inter alia, that some immigrants do not choose the VET route because some VET programmes (particularly male-dominated programmes) are especially associated with derogatory attitudes towards immigrants (Beicht and Walden 2017;Rosvall and Öhrn 2014). However, the research is sparse, and most empirical studies on race and ethnicity published in international journals that cover VET have had Anglophone settings (Avis, Orr, and Warmington 2017). Thus, research on relevant phenomena in other contexts is needed to broaden understanding of the phenomena and distinguish between general and context-specific aspects.…”

“…compulsory education to upper secondary level and higher education in Sweden and elsewhere have been compiled (Avis, Orr, and Warmington 2017;. A few studies have also considered how VET pedagogic practices deal (or fail to deal) with immigration and ethnicity issues in Sweden and other countries (Onsando and Billett 2017;Rosvall and Öhrn 2014).…”

Youth transitions, VET and the ‘making’ of class: changing theorisations for changing times?

“…The examination of VET and race/ethnicity has in recent years been eclipsed by a concern with gender, class and by a generic concern with disadvantage. This research pays scant attention to questions of race and ethnicity and is a feature of not only the English social formation but also those of continental Europe and the US (Avis, Orr and Warmington, 2016). However in the current conjuncture, at a time of mass migration, there may be a return to questions of the 'racialisation' of VET.…”