Workbased Learning of Novice VET Teachers: Creating a trellis of practices that support learning

Expectations of the VET sector continue to increase as governments, industry, and the community see vocational education and training as an answer to a range of issues. Meeting these expectations and providing quality VET requires VET teachers with high levels of skills and abilities. At the same time many VET teachers begin teaching with little or no prior experience or educational qualifications related to teaching. Workbased learning then becomes an important component of learning to be a teacher. This paper uses evidence from a two year longitudinal study, of nine novice VET teachers across eight teaching departments and four campuses. The research used a case study approach to explore how these teachers learnt how to teach. In the paper I use a modified version of the theory of ecologies of practices to consider the ecologies of learning practices that became evident in some of these sites. I then outline the concept of a trellis of learning practices that provides solid support for teacher learning. The practice architectures – the cultural-discursive, material-economic and the social-political arrangements that enable and constrain particular practices (Kemmis et al 2014) - that enabled the development of a trellis of learning practices in two of the sites are outlined. Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards Groves, C., Grootenboer, P., Hardy, I., & Bristol, L. (2014). Changing practices, changing education. New York: Springer.