Vocational education and training teachers' conceptions of their pedagogy

There is a growing enthusiasm for developing a more highly skilled workforce in both Australia and internationally. Federal and state policies are directed towards increasing productivity and the engagement of formerly disengaged senior school students and the wider society. There is a new determination to manage transition arrangements between school, the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector and work, and there is a new commitment to more uniform and industry relevant curriculum. If these initiatives are to succeed with an enthusiasm equivalent to their formulation then more needs to be known about the VET pedagogies likely to be appropriate and successful for the new tasks. This paper investigates some understandings of VET pedagogy in the wider vocational field as well as in schools, and the tensions between the wider vocational field and schools that are implicit in these understandings. This paper is based on two empirical research projects carried out by the authors. The first research project reported on was carried out with VET teachers in Technical and Further Education (TAFE) Colleges and VET teachers working in a Vocational Secondary School. The second research project was carried out with career change teachers working in traditional high schools in NSW. In this article the authors use the concept of 'practice architectures' and the particular 'sayings, doings and relatings' involved in the wider VET sector to interrogate policy and practice changes, and to explore the implications of these changes in terms of the teachers' conceptions of their own pedagogy and some of the tensions and contradictions that they experience and articulate.