Vocational knowing and the content in vocational education

Abstract

What is the object of activity for teachers in vocational education, i.e. what is the content that vocational teachers want their students to learn? What can the answer indicate about vocational education as a social practice, compared to the social practice of apprenticeship? The article is based on sequential interviews with twelve teachers from five vocational programs. In the interviews, the teachers relate the content of vocational education to vocational knowing, but vocational knowing and knowing in school are not the same thing. Vocational knowing is described as a situated judgement, consisting of a vocational language for the content of the vocation (tools, materials, methods, techniques, planning and ethics) and experience of working with these. Tacit knowing is essential in the interaction between these two aspects. Knowing in school can be described as having developed the abilities for further learning in different contexts. The main area concerns preparation for the vocation, whereas the others concern further learning more specifically (in the vocation, in higher education and in retraining) and citizenship. The results are discussed in relation to learning and knowing in learning vs. in producing practices.