02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Paper
Practical Teacher Education And Relevant Teacher Education
Ann Lisa Sylte, Hilde Hiim
OsloMet–Oslo Metropolitan University Norway
Presenting Author: Sylte, Ann Lisa;
Hiim, Hilde
In Norwegian teacher education a new reform was initiated in 2017 aiming at developing what is called “Teacher Education Schools” (The Ministry of Knowledge, 2017). The aim is to develop professionally relevant teacher educations by strengthening the quality of student teachers’ placement periods and teaching practice in schools. Another aim is to stimulate cooperation on research and development, and to strengthen the professional relevance and quality of teacher education and the institutions. Both previous experiences and methodological and epistemological arguments have long pointed towards a shift in this direction (Darling-Hammond, 2006; Eikeland, 2012a).
The regional education authorities in Oslo and Akershus and a group of researchers in the Department of vocational teacher education at the OsloMet University developed the Action research project LUSY (teacher education schools in vocational teacher education), aimed at developing vocational teacher education schools with three vocational upper secondary schools (VET), with funding from the Norwegian Research Council. The main aim for the project is to develop a binding and lasting cooperation between the schools and OsloMet to create the best possible vocational teacher education and VET. The intention is to form binding and lasting cooperative structures between VET and OsloMet University.
The purpose of this paper is to highlight and discuss what education practical teachers need in order to strengthen the quality and professional relevance of teacher education. The background is empirical examples from the action research project LUSY. Practical teachers (teacher trainer/supervisor) are teachers who guide teacher students in their pedagogical practice in schools.
The research questions are about the practical teacher's competence - what their work tasks need to be, what content is identified as necessary for the education of practical teachers, how the education is organized and how practical teacher education (supervisor training of practical teachers) can contribute to strengthening the connection between the educational institution and the field of practice in teacher education. The empirical results are based on experiences from planning, implementation, and assessment of a school-based practical teacher education (course) for schools and practical teachers who are participating in the LUSY-project.
A professionally relevant education can be defined as being characterized by a close coherence between content and tasks in the profession and the educational content. Such education is largely in accordance with the competence demands of the profession (Hiim, 2017; Sylte 2020). There’s a multitude of research indicating that insufficient professional relevance is a challenge in teacher education as well as in professional education in other areas. One of the reasons seems to be that collaboration between educational institutions and professional workplaces is not sufficiently developed (Canrinus et al., 2015; Heggen & Smedby, 2015; Hiim, 2013; Sylte, 2020; Young, 2004).
The project is based on a holistic, multi-dimensional understanding of knowledge where professional knowledge have many forms. Much research on VET is based on a concept of competence that is frequently defined as a holistic set of knowledge, skills and attitudes applied to solve specific tasks (Koenen et al., 2015; White Paper 28, 2015-2016). However, the use of the concept of competence in VET is often unclear and varies (Lester & Religa, 2017). A main aim in the project is to show how professional knowledge is constituted, and how the organization of collaboration between educational institutions and fields of practice can be strengthened through the projects first innovation, the school-based practical teacher education.
Epistemological analyses of professional knowledge based on pragmatic approaches pose the theoretical framework of the project (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1987; Schön, 1983; Sennett, 2008). Connections between theories of professional knowledge, organizational learning, and professional didactics will be investigated (Eikeland, 2012a; Hiim, 2017; Sylte, 2020).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe project will mainly be carried out as action research, led by the authors of this paper. Action research means that research and development are integrated in social, organizational, or educational “experiments” or development projects (McNiff & Whitehead, 2006). The approaches to action research that will be used in this project are built on pragmatic and partly critical epistemology (Eikeland, 2012b; Hiim, 2010). Action research implies that knowledge is developed through collaborative and systematically documented processes of planning, carrying out, reflection and evaluation between teacher education institution, schools and companies. Action research requires voluntary participation by all people concerned in different phases of work.
The research in the project as a whole is about developing practice-based knowledge about how cooperation between teacher education institutions and VET-schools can be organized to achieve a holistic, professionally-based education of vocational teachers, and what obstacles and opportunities are faced. An important goal is to develop and test an organizational and didactic strategy for cooperation between educational institutions and fields of practice more generally (Eikeland, 2012b).
The aim of the project's first innovation, which this paper is about, is to develop knowledge about the organization and content of a school-based practical teacher education (course) that qualifies them and the school as a whole to contribute to strengthening professional relevance and holistic competence in teacher education. At the same time, the course should function as a meeting place where practical teachers and teacher educators can learn from each other's experiences and knowledge.
The schools and the university were to work together to plan, implement, assess and further develop the course for both vocational teachers and general subject teachers who teach in vocational education in secondary school (VET). The course was organized with five sessions at one of the participating schools. Common understanding was to be developed and regular meeting places established for the practical teachers at the school, and teacher educators.
The participants in the LUSY-project are the project management group consisting of two teacher educators/professors/authors and 12 teacher educator colleagues at the university. Around 140 teachers and managers from one of the participating schools are participating in the project's first innovation, which this paper focuses on.
The project is organized in sequences with systematic planning, execution, evaluation, data collection and documentation. Documentation from the sequences (plans, logs, reports, students’ tasks etc.) will be the documentation basis in this paper.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsConcerning development results, we expect new and more structured forms of collaboration between our vocational teacher education institution and VET-schools. The structures may concern collaboration between teacher educators and practice teachers. More structured cooperation is needed on placement periods in schools. The same goes for contents in vocational teacher education and VET. By development of these collaborative structures through the school-based course, our tentative results point to relevant knowledge of what the practical teachers` work tasks need to be, what content is identified as necessary for the education of practical teachers, how the education should be organized and how practical teacher education can contribute to strengthening the connection between the educational institution and the field of practice in teacher education.
Our tentative results point to the necessity of a school-based course (15+15 ECTS) for practical teachers that focuses on guidance related to the development of comprehensive vocational teacher competence. This implies that the practical teacher facilitates the students gain experience with planning, implementing, and assessing teaching, and handling the challenges it entails. In addition, students need to learn what comprehensive vocational teacher competence involves, such as colleague collaboration, and school development through colleague guidance. This highlights the necessity of the teacher education school as a learning organization with qualified practice teachers where the school as a whole is responsible for the students' pedagogical practice together with the practice teachers. Collaborative structures for research and development projects are also necessary.
The development- and research processes in the project as a whole and in this innovation will result in new practical results and documented knowledge on possibilities and challenges concerning collaborative structures and content between institutions of vocational teacher education and VET-schools.
ReferencesCanrinus, E. T., Bergem, O. K., Klette, K. & Hammerness, K. (2015). Coherent teacher
education programmes: Taking a student perspective. Journal of Curriculum Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2015.1124145
Darling-Hammond, L. (Ed.). (2006). Professional development schools—schools for developing a profession. Teacher’s College Press.
Dreyfus, H. L. & Dreyfus, S. E. (1986). Mind over Machine: The Power of human intuition
and expertice in the era of the computer. Free press.
Eikeland, O. (2012a). Symbiotic Learning Systems: Reorganizing and Integrating Learning Efforts and Responsibilities Between Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) and Work Places. Journal of the Knowledge Economy. Springer. DOI 10.1007/s13132-012-0123-6
Eikeland, O. (2012b). Action research and organisational learning—a Norwegian approach to doing action research in complex organisations. Educational Action Research Journal, 20(2), 267–290. DOI: 10.1080/09650792.2012.676303
Heggen, K., Smeby J.-C. & Vågan, A. (2015). Coherence: A longitudinal approach. In J.-C.Smedby & M. Suthpen (Ed.), From Vocational to professional Education (s. 70–88). Routledge.
Hiim, H. (2010). Pedagogisk aksjonsforskning [Educational action research]. Gyldendal Akademisk.
Hiim, H. (2013). Praksisbasert yrkesutdanning [Practice based vocational education]. Gyldendal Akademisk.
Hiim, H. (2017). Ensuring Curriculum Relevance in Vocational Education and Training:
Epistemological Perspectives in a Curriculum Research Project aimed at Improving the Relevance of the Norwegian VET. International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET). Vol. 4 no.1 pp. 1-19. http://dx.doi.org/10.13152/IJRVET.4.1.1
Koenen, A.-K., Dochy, F. & Berghmans, I. (2015). A phenomenographic analysis of the
implementation of competence-based education in higher education. Teaching and Teacher Education. Vol. 50 pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.04.001
Lester, S. & Religa, J. (2017). Competence` and occupational standards: observation from six European countries. Education and Training. Vol. 59 (2), pp. 201-214. DOI: 10.1108/ET-01-2018-0024
McNiff, J. & Whitehead, J. (2006). All you need to know about Action Research. Sage Publications.
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. Basic Books.
Sennet, R. (2008). The Craftsman. Penguin Books.
Sylte, A. L. (2020). Predicting the Future Competence Needs in Working Life: Didactical
Implications for VET. International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training, 7(2), 167–192. https://doi.org/10.13152/IJRVET.7.2.3
The Ministry of Knowledge (2017). Kunnskapsløftet. https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/meld.-st.-28-20152016/id2483955/
The Ministry of Knowledge (2017). Lærerutdanning 2025 [Teacher Education 2025].
White paper nr. 28 (2015-2016). Fag – Fordypning – Forståelse — En fornyelse av Kunnskapsløftet. https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/meld.-st.-28-20152016/id2483955/
Young, M. (2004). Conceptualizing vocational knowledge. Some theoretical considerations. In H. Rainbird, A. Fuller & A. Munro (Ed.), Workplace learning in context (pp. 186-200). Routledge.
02. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)
Paper
Close-to-practice Research on Vocational Didactics: An Example of Researcher/Teacher Collaboration
Martina Wyszynska Johansson1, Emil Larsson2
1University West, Sweden; 2Kunskapsförbundet Väst, Sweden
Presenting Author: Wyszynska Johansson, Martina
Close-to-practice research in educational contexts such as a Swedish upper-secondary school vocational education and training (VET) involves a collaboration between researchers and VET teachers. Here, an example of research collaboration between a building and construction teacher and a researcher is presented. In the Swedish context, close-to-practice research has been recently advocated as a means to strengthen the scientific base of teacher education (cf Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009). Therefore, the Swedish government has piloted a national programme to fund and stimulate the growth and trial of collaboration models between academia and the school called in short ULF. ULF stands for Utbildning (Education), Lärande (Learning) and Forskning (Research). Common projects often involve interventions to improve different aspects of education, e.g., teaching and instruction activities. Sometimes there is a close connection to a school’s quality assurance work. However, the explicit goal is to facilitate collaboration between academia and schools on an equal footing. Eplicitly, the need for creating symmetrical relations between the researchers and teachers prcatitioners are emphasized along with the presumed and sought for complementarity of each part’s contributions. Close-to-practice research presents however considerable challenges due to the tensions surrounding different interpretations of teacher knowledge as professional and academic. According to the Education Act, both scientific grounds and proven experience are two stipulated bases for education in Sweden. In particular, the relation between these two, cognizant of theory/practice division, may influence the collaboration practices (Bergmark & Erixon, 2020). To sum up, close-to-practice research presents challenges regarding the variety of knowledge contributions as well as the level of engagement on the part of teachers practitioners (Anderhag et al., 2023; Magnusson & Malmström, 2022). Swedish VET is mainly school-based and integrated with upper-secondary education. The vocational teacher works in a Building and Construction Programme, one of the 12 vocational programmes. Vocational teachers are responsible for assessment of student performance in school and in workplaces, e.g., building sites. That is why a close co-operation with the appointed supervisors is required for students’ vocational learning. Previous research on learning to become a building constructor shows traces of apprenticeship traditions still present. As a result, students may encounter a strong division between theory learnt in school and practice at building sites (Berglund, 2009: Fjellström, 2015).
The aim of the article is twofold, to illuminate 1) how a vocational teacher and a researcher develop knowledge of teaching practice regarding vocational didactics, and 2) to develop a methodology for researcher-practitioner collaboration. The focus for the collaboraton is on the integration of vocational knowledge across school- and work-based parts of education as a central and generic issue in vocational education and training. The research questions are as follows: What characterizes a collaboration between a vocational teacher and a researcher in close-to-practice research? How does the process of collaborative researcher-vocational teacher knowledge development in student work-integrated learning emerge?
Self-study is used as a theoretical approach (Cooper & Curtis, 2021; Kitchen et al., 2020; Vanassche & Kelchtermans, 2015) in line with the study’s main interest in the theory/practice interface in vocational didactics generated from self-understanding of experience. The intention driving the study is to reflect the researcher-teacher practices within the institutional framework of upper-secondary VET (Craig & Curtis, 2020; Ergas & Ritter, 2020). The main interest for the collaboration is to investigate the events that the teacher stages to help the students connect their learning experiences in workplace-, and school-based parts of education. When the teachers and researchers make meaning of actitivities they stage together the collaboration can contribute to self-understanding of various facets of collective me-as-a-teacher, which is formed through and in social relations in teacher communities (Mokuria & Chhikara, 2022).
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThe study is a part of an ULF project called Conceptualising vocational knowing in learning communities at University West. Following upon her earlier semi-structured interview with the teacher that was the initial part of the ULF project, the researcher was also granted access to the vocational teacher’s classroom, workshop and to some extent workplaces. The starting point for the collaboration was therefore an invitation to come and see rather than the need for change or improvement. Thus, she followed the teacher’s group of six students during approximately one term of their third final grade. Together with a colleague she used field notes, transcribed interviews and recordings of lessons and study visits at workplaces. Martina run a journal to collect material for so called interim texts that she shared with the teacher (Cooper & Curtis, 2021). The texts summarized running observations, their interpretations and preliminary hypotheses, all of which was free for Emil to share with his colleagues and the headmaster, which he did. The teacher kept commenting these short texts throughout and they served as a basis for recurrent discussions also recorded and transcribed. The data generation and data analysis went on therefore iteratively.
As a method, a narrative, open-ended inquiry is used to study collaboration between the teacher and the researcher (Cooper & Curtis, 2021; Mokuria & Chhikara, 2022). A starting point was broadly about the teacher’s ways to connect and integrate the students’ learning in a system of exchange between two days of school instruction and three days of workplace-based training in a week. This shared research interest served as an entry point for the collaboration as relational, ongoing and unfinished work (Pinnegar et al., 2020). Accordingly, the narrative weavs together the result about the teacher’s work with vocational didactics (as displayed in a choice of activities that bind together vocational knowing and learning across settings) with a model for collaboration as relation-building between the teacher and researcher in close-to-practice research in VET.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe study’s contribution is two-fold. Apart from presenting an empirical example of vocational didactics, it also presents a model for collaboration between the vocational teacher and the researcher that builds on ongoing shifting in positioning as the two parts build their relationship of trust. The collaboration enables and is enabled by constant shifts between different me-as-a teacher positions that evolve and interact with each other. In the dialogue, me-as-a-teacher-educator, me-as-a-researcher interact with me-as-a-vocational-teacher and me-as-a-vocational teacher-of-another-kind. With the help of self-study as a methodology for collaboration, the teacher’s specific method is deconstructed by a joined effort (Cooper & Curtis, 2021). The teacher’s method is a strongly bounded and recurrent round of questions or prompts to systematically interrogate the students’ experience of workplace-based learning. This method’s reconstruction, which is performed in collaboration points to the method’s contingencies such as 1) the teacher’s presence in workplaces and his strategic involvement in the production that goes on in building sites 2) parallel, that is, the teacher’s and the students’ learning of new methods and innovations. The vocational didactics example shows how a particular work tasks in the production at a building site can be integrated in VET instruction. In contrast to Berglund (2009) and Fjellström (2015), work tasks in running production can be used in classroom instruction to support the students’ opportunities to develop multidimensional vocational knowing.
The collaboration featured initial open inquiry; collective narrowing of a study object, that is, a specific vocational didactics method, collective data production and analysis through putting forth hypotheses by the teacher and the researcher, activating different ”teacher selves” and work division between the teacher and the researcher. The findings show how the instruction can be organized to encompass student experience of work-integrated learning to create a meaningful whole for the students and the teacher.
ReferencesAnderhag, P., Andrée, M., Björnhammer, S., & Gåfvels, C. (2023). Den praktiknära forskningens bidrag till läraryrkets kunskapsbas: en analys av kunskapsprodukter från kollaborativ didaktisk forskning. Pedagogisk forskning i Sverige.
Berglund, I. (2009). Byggarbetsplatsen som skola-eller skolan som byggarbetsplats?: En studie av byggnadsarbetares yrkesutbildning [Doctoral dissertation, Institutionen för didaktik och pedagogiskt arbete, Stockholms universitet]. https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A235820&dswid=7640
Bergmark, U., & Erixon, P.-O. (2020). Professional and academic knowledge in teachers’ research: An empowering oscillation. European Educational Research Journal, 19(6), 587-608. https://doi.org/10.1177/1474904119890158
Cooper, J. M., & Curtis, G. A. (2021). Employing self-study research across the curriculum: Theory, practice, and exemplars. In S. W. Watson, S. Austin, & J. Bell (Eds.), Conceptual analyses of curriculum inquiry methodologies (s. 155–181). IGI Global.
Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (2009). Teacher research as stance. The Sage Handbook of Educational Action Research. London: Sage, 39-49.
Craig, C. J., & Curtis, G. A. (2020). Theoretical roots of self-study research. In J. Kitchen, A. Berry, S. M. Bullock, A. R. Crowe, M. Taylor, H. Guðjónsdóttir, & L. Thomas (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (2nd ed., pp. 57–96). Springer.
Ergas, O., & Ritter, J. K. (2020). Introduction: Why explore self in teaching, teacher education, and practitioner research. In Exploring Self Toward Expanding Teaching, Teacher Education and Practitioner Research (Vol. 34, pp. 1–16). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Fjellström, M. (2015). Project-based vocational education and training: Opportunities for teacher guidance in a Swedish upper secondary school. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 67(2), 187–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2014.983957
Kitchen, J., Berry, A., Bullock, S. M., Crowe, A. R., Taylor, M., Guðjónsdóttir, H., & Thomas, L. (Eds.). (2020). International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices. Springer.
Magnusson, Petra, & Malmström, Martin (2022). Practice-near school research in Sweden: tendencies and teachers’ roles. Education Inquiry, 14(3), 367–388. https://doi.org/10.1080/20004508.2022.2028440
Mokuria, V. G., & Chhikara, A. (2022). Narrative inquiry as a relational methodology. In S. White, S. Autin, & J. Bell (Eds.), Conceptual analyses of curriculum inquiry methodologies (s. 1–27). IGI Global.
Pinnegar, S., Hutchinson, D. A., & Hamilton, M. L. (2020). Role of positioning, identity, and stance in becoming S-STTEP researchers. International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices, 97-133.
Vanassche, E., & Kelchtermans, G. (2015). The state of the art in self-study of teacher education practices: A systematic literature review. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 47(4), 508–528. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2014.995712
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