‘Ik heb spontaan gereageerd en gedaan wat ik dacht dat goed was.’

Abstract

Abstract ’I acted spontaneously and did what I thought was right.’ Pedagogical experiences of teachers in vocational educationWhat is it like to teach at a vocational school? What are the pedagogical challenges for teachers who are responsible for vocational training for young people? Since September 2015, the Research Center Urban Talent of the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences has conducted field research at six different schools of vocational education. As a member of the center’s research staff, I conducted a series of conversations with a team of vocational teachers at each school between September 2015 and July 2018.This paper offers an account of this field research. The research focused on the pedagogical experiences of vocational teachers and aimed to get the teachers to articulate their experiences and to investigate their meanings. The approach was phenomenological. The teachers were encouraged to share and reflect on their experiences. The paper continues with a phenomenological analysis of several topics that were discussed in the conversation with the teachers. It ends with a plea for phenomenological research in education.