What’s worth knowing in the history of publicly funded education: and why?

Peter Rushbrook

    Research output: Book chapter/Published conference paperConference paperpeer-review

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    Abstract

    The paper examines the possibilities of the history of publicly funded vocational education for informing contemporary Vocational Education and Training (VET) practice. It presents three perspectives that address the ‘contexts of policy and practice’ as well as the overall conference theme of ‘Evolution, revolution or status quo?’: first, that vocational education’s remembered and ‘forgotten’ past are able to illustrate the diversity of the sector’s achievements over time, and relate examples of past practice for contemporary application; second, that a rigorous study of the past may provide examples of ‘alternative futures’ in addition to the sense of what is durable and contingent; third, that the tools of the vocational education historian are able to be turned to undermine myths that simplify or distort popular interpretations of the sector’s past. The methodologies to generate data from each of these perspectives will be examined in detail, with appropriate examples. Areas for investigation and discussion include the embedding of the traditions of vocational education and their replication in contemporary practice, the sector’s ‘siloed’ past and its cross-sectoral‘ opening out’, watershed moments (for example the Kangan Report and the Dawkins’ revolution), and the changing focus of policy construction, from ‘organic’ to ‘formal’ and from local to state to federal. The paper’s theoretical arguments will draw from narrative social history theory.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publication10th Annual AVETRA
    Subtitle of host publicationRevolution, evolution or status quo?
    Place of PublicationCrows Nest, Sydney, Australia
    PublisherAVETRA
    Pages1-13
    Number of pages13
    Publication statusPublished - 2007
    Event10th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference - Footscray, Victoria, Australia
    Duration: 11 Apr 200713 Apr 2007

    Conference

    Conference10th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference
    Country/TerritoryAustralia
    Period11/04/0713/04/07

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