The Vocational-Academic Divide in Neoliberal Upper Secondary Curricula: The Swedish Case

Autor/inn/en	Nylund, Mattias; Rosvall, Per-Åke; Ledman, Kristina
Titel	The Vocational-Academic Divide in Neoliberal Upper Secondary Curricula: The Swedish Case
Quelle	In: Journal of Education Policy, 32 (2017) 6, S.788-808 (21 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Nylund, Mattias) ORCID (Rosvall, Per-Åke) ORCID (Ledman, Kristina)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0268-0939
DOI	10.1080/02680939.2017.1318455
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Secondary School Curriculum; Curriculum Evaluation; Vocational Education; Equal Education; Social Class; Neoliberalism; Politics of Education; Educational Policy; Educational Trends; Competition; Employment Potential; Employer Attitudes; College Preparation; Critical Thinking; Role; Case Studies; Qualitative Research; Sweden + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Curriculum; Evaluation; Curriculumevaluation; Lehrplan; Rahmenplan; Evaluierung; Ausbildung; Berufsbildung; Social classes; Soziale Klasse; Neo-liberalism; Neoliberalismus; Educational policy; Bildungspolitik; Politics of education; Bildungsentwicklung; Wettkampf; Arbeitsmarktbezogene Qualifikation; Beschäftigungsfähigkeit; Arbeitgeberinteresse; Kritisches Denken; Rollen; Case study; Fallstudie; Case Study; Qualitative Forschung; Schweden
Abstract	A historical tension between a more general and a more specific focus in post-compulsory education is made visible in some educational systems by the division into more academic and more vocational programmes. Embedded in this tension are questions of social justice and the purposes of education. In addition, division into academic and vocational programmes has class dimensions since youth with working class backgrounds are often over-represented in vocational programmes. This study investigates how this tension is handled in the Swedish upper secondary curriculum, which reflects an international neoliberal policy trend in promoting competition, employability and employer influence over the curriculum. By analysing how the educational content of vocational educational and training (VET) programmes and higher educational preparatory (HEP) programmes is contextualised, we found that the two programme types were based on very different logics. In VET programmes, knowledge is strongly context-bound and often related to regulating behaviours. This contrasts sharply with the way knowledge is contextualised in HEP programmes in which less context-bound knowledge and skills such as using concepts, models and critical thinking are dominant. Students in VET programmes are trained to "do" and to "adapt", while the students in HEP programmes are trained to "think" and to "imagine possibilities". Thus, students from different social classes are prepared for very different roles in society. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01