Abstract
The political importance of mathematics in post-16 education is clear. Far less clear is how mathematics does and should relate to vocational education. Successive mathematics curricula (e.g. core skills, key skills) have been developed in England with vocational learners in mind. Meanwhile, general mathematics qualifications remain largely disconnected from vocational learning. Following a brief historical survey of mathematics within vocational education, the paper presents findings from a nested case study of student groups in three large Further Education colleges in England. The primary unit of analysis herein is student groups learning Functional Mathematics in two vocational areas: construction and hairdressing. We show how approaches to organising teaching, developing connected curricula and classroom pedagogy tend to isolate or integrate mathematics from/with the vocational experience. Integrated approaches are shown to impact positively on student engagement and attitudes to learning mathematics. The paper concludes by discussing the potential impact of academic qualifications displacing vocationally relevant mathematics.
Highlights
Mathematics education in England is arguably subject to greater political and media scrutiny than any other subject
Recent figures indicate that 37% of the 2012/13 age 16 General Certificate in Secondary Education (GCSE) cohort did not achieve a grade C in mathematics (DfE, 2014) and that three-quarters of those students transferred to Further Education (FE) colleges (Education and Training Foundation, 2014): around 180,000 young people
Using the twin concepts of integration and isolation, which emerged as strong themes from the research, we describe contrasting locations of mathematics with respect to students’ vocational learning and consider the impact of college policies enacted at different levels, in terms of college structures, programme organisation, curriculum and pedagogy
Summary
Mathematics education in England is arguably subject to greater political and media scrutiny than any other subject. Case 3: Richard’s Hairdressing group Richard is a Functional Mathematics teacher within a dispersed structure, situated in the Hair and Beauty department and teaching classes from this vocational area but in various rooms across the college His lessons are organised around a series of tasks or projects that are directly related to the vocational course, such as refurbishing a hairdressing salon, drawing up a business plan for a new salon or planning an appointments schedule. Key themes A comparative cross-case analysis of the full set of case studies identified a number of key themes and features within the case study groups that are relevant to the research questions These features are summarised with reference to the strong twin themes of isolation or integration which provide some common threads through a complex interaction of college policy and practice with students’ perceptions of mathematics. The cases exemplify the general patterns found through the full dataset
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