Caring disposition and subordination. Swedish health and social care teachers’ conceptions of important vocational knowledge

Abstract

Based on the increasing demands for vocational training in upper secondary school to adapt to workplace conditions, the aim of this article is to explore vocational teachers’ conceptions regarding vocational knowledge. Drawing on a social constructionist perspective, this study analysed data from 17 interviews. The study showed how power dynamics, such as gender and class, affect the teachers’ conceptions. The most important expertise, according to the teachers, was related to a feminine caring disposition in which empathy and communication were identified as core abilities. However, these abilities needed to be balanced in order to avoid becoming too emotional. There was a strong link to class, for example, the hierarchical structure was revealed when the teachers spoke of a nursing assistant having to know when to call a nurse rather than a doctor or an ambulance. The findings raise questions concerning what it means for the construction of vocational habitus when a superordinate group trains a subordinate group.