Socialisation and citizenship preparation in vocational education: Pedagogic codes and democratic rights in VET-subjects

Mattias Nylund,Kristina Ledman,Per-Åke Rosvall,Maria Rönnlund

doi:10.1080/01425692.2019.1665498

Mattias Nylund, Kristina Ledman + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2019.1665498

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Abstract

ABSTRACTPrevious studies of citizenship preparation in upper secondary school, including studies on vocational programmes, have primarily focused on general subjects. Potential and actual roles of vocational subjects in this context have received little attention, so we have little knowledge of what is likely a significant part of the citizenship preparation that occurs in vocational programmes. Drawing on the work of Basil Bernstein and ethnographic data, this study presents an analysis of socialisation processes in vocational elements of three vocational programmes in Swedish upper secondary school. The analysis addresses the formation of pedagogic codes in various vocational programmes and subjects, and how these codes condition students’ practice of citizenship at individual, social and political levels. The results show how different pedagogic codes have different implications for the students’ practice of citizenship, and thus raise questions about factors and processes that may either constrain or strengthen, this aspect in vocational subject classes.

Highlights

There is a long history of differentiation in education, that prepares young people from different class backgrounds for unequal future life chances and experiences and channels them into very different positions in society and the division of labour (Bernstein 2000; Bourdieu and Passeron 1970)
The potential and actual roles of vocational subjects in this context have received little attention, so we have little knowledge of what is likely a significant part of the citizenship preparation that occurs in vocational programmes
In this study we focus on the socialisation that occurs in vocational elements of three vocational programmes in Swedish upper secondary school and how this socialisation can be understood in terms of citizenship preparation

Summary

Introduction

There is a long history of differentiation in education, that prepares young people from different class backgrounds for unequal future life chances and experiences and channels them into very different positions in society and the division of labour (Bernstein 2000; Bourdieu and Passeron 1970). We analyse the pedagogic codes, i.e. core principles regulating the what (classification) and how (framing) of the ‘instructional discourse’ (educational practice) in the vocational programmes.

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Results

Conclusion