Walking the tightrope: Market drivers versus social responsibility with implications for language, literacy and numeracy, and inclusive teaching

Abstract

For the past two years TAFE Queensland Brisbane and one of its amalgamated branches, Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE, have been conducting a collaborative action research project investigating how best to support their very diverse vocational students to successfully complete their studies. This is in a climate of devaluing vocational education, reflected in drastically diminishing funding, with spending per VET student plummeting over a 10-year span (1999–2011) by 25%, with public vocational providers such as TAFE receiving even more severe funding cuts in the past three years, losing thousands of highly qualified teaching staff. This paper therefore addresses how, in this difficult, marketised VET environment, successful language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) and inclusive teaching practices can be effectively delivered to maintain the engagement of an increasingly diverse student cohort and how ongoing, follow-up learning support needs to be funded adequately and provided flexibly for continued student engagement.