Labour Perspectives on the New Politics of Skill and Competency Formation: International Reflections

Autor/in	Sawchuck, Peter
Titel	Labour Perspectives on the New Politics of Skill and Competency Formation: International Reflections
Quelle	In: Asia Pacific Education Review, 9 (2008) 1, S.50-62 (13 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext (1); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (2) Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1598-1037
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Foreign Countries; Vocational Education; Competence; Comparative Education; Competency Based Education; Policy Analysis; Public Policy; Theory Practice Relationship; Literature Reviews; Politics of Education; Educational Sociology; Program Attitudes; Political Attitudes; Critical Theory; Canada; Norway + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Ausbildung; Berufsbildung; Kompetenz; Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft; Education; Competence; Competency; Competency-based education; Unterricht; Kompetenzorientierte Methode; Politikfeldanalyse; Öffentliche Ordnung; Theorie-Praxis-Beziehung; Educational policy; Bildungspolitik; Bildungssoziologie; Erziehungssoziologie; Political attitude; Politische Einstellung; Kritische Theorie; Kanada; Norwegen
Abstract	Skill/competency approaches to workplace-based policy seek to assess and train for discrete individual competencies with the goal of increasing employability and productivity. These approaches have become increasingly prominent across a range of advanced capitalist countries. A substantial critique has emerged over this same period regarding issues of instrumentality and social control, as well as the failure of skill/competency approaches to articulate a meaningful understanding of human learning capacities. In this article, these critical perspectives are clarified further by a review of contributions to understanding the skill/competence question emerging from sociology of work literature. Building from these critiques, this article outlines recent experiences with and perspectives on skill/competency frameworks amongst different national labour movements. Included in this outline is a more detailed, comparative analysis of Norway and Canada; here we see the lofty "new", "knowledge economy" rhetoric--in two countries where one might expect to see it blossom in application--brought down to earth by the realities of industrial relations, employer intransigence and intra-labour movement differences. "Skill/competence" proves to be a floating signifier that, amongst both employers and labour, stands as a proxy for "power/control" struggles. Degenerating in this way, from a labour perspective, the new politics of skill/competency formation is seen to have spiraled toward irrelevance in Norway and Canada; awaiting, in both countries, a re-invigoration through attention to changes in the participatory structure of the labour process itself. (Contains 11 notes.) (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Education Research Institute, Seoul National University. Department of Education, 599 Kwanak-Ro, Kwanak-Gu, Seoul 151-748, South Korea. Tel: +82-2-880-5896; Fax: +82-2-889-6508; e-mail: aper2@hanmail.net; Web site: http://eri.snu.ac.kr/aper
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10