Abstract
The adult education sector in Australia has undergone significant changes in recent years including a shift towards the marketisation of education and the delivery of highly prescriptive Vocational Education and Training (VET). This article reports on research that explored the ways in which educators in the adult sector understand their work and identify as professionals in this changed context. The findings of the study suggest that educators who have work histories as 'teachers' strongly resist the ways in which the current discourses of VET position them as 'trainers'. Data from interviews with educators and observations of them at work are analysed to highlight the ways in which they understand teaching and training as binary opposites. I examine the consequences of teachers investing in a rigid and uncompromising teaching/training binary and argue that it is counterproductive to their forging new identities in a changed education context.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 211-224 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Studies in Continuing Education |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2003 |