Conference Agenda

Since the 1990s, the status, actors and methodologies of vocational and adult education have significantly changed. The interest in gaining knowledge that promotes their aims has become predominant among national and supranational political and economic decision-makers and commercial players. This is visible, for example, in the topics of research, development and innovation (RDI) projects and programmes that they are funding. At the same time, resources and space for self-directed, independent research in managerialist academia have become increasingly scarce. Therefore, the status of the previously underestimated area of vocational and (vocational and work-oriented) adult education has been rising. However, this has largely happened through the expansion of non-university actors – or vocational and adult education institutions - specialising in RDI and university researchers in topics and methodologies that can compete for external funding. While the pressure of policy- and industry-relevance is most explicit in vocational and adult education research, the challenge of maintaining autonomy and creating scientific knowledge that tackles local and planetary social, economic, and environmental inequalities is most urgent for the academic community.

In our previous selected mappings of vocational (and vocationally oriented adult) education research from the past 30-40 years, we have found that its expansion has primarily relied on the growth of policy-led and development-oriented contracted projects. (e.g. Heikkinen, Lassnigg, Molzberger, 2024; Lassnigg, 2025). Considering the globalisation of production and consumption, and commodity and service chains, it is alarming that the conceptual and methodological approaches of the expanding comparative studies remain shallow and uncritical. Most studies seem to take for granted a nation-state-centred (or Europe/EU-centred) methodology, adopting economist vocabularies and interpretations from supranational agencies (e.g. the UN, OECD, EU). Besides decontextualised teaching-learning issues, they hardly problematise the givenness of their target institutions and systems. There are hardly any dialogues with other fields of educational research, social and natural sciences, nor with alternatives to mainstream economics.

In the symposium, we raise the question of whether a cultural approach can provide opportunities for developing self-critical, conceptual and methodological vocational and adult education research. We also ask the conditions for such a shift, taking the realities of the research field into account. We reflect on the rather marginal (marginalised) attempts towards cross-cultural research and reflections on conceptualisations and methodologies with a cultural approach in vocational and adult education. Culture is a slippery concept, associated with diverse disciplinary, political and practical discourses. (e.g. Heikkinen, 2021). It is commonly brought into discussion as something external, impacting educational solutions and status divisions, or as a residual for unexplainable research findings. Furthermore, researchers seem to avoid articulating and debating the tension between (nation-statist) economist, systems and institutionalist approaches with relational, educational and contextualised approaches. (cf. Marhuenda, 2022). In previous attempts, a ‘cultural’ approach has primarily supported and enabled critical reaction to mainstream (hegemonic) research and policy discourses. (Heikkinen et al, 2024). Yet, suggestions for alternative historical, conceptual and empirical research related to culture have remained fragmented and unsystematic. We assume that reconceptualising culture, work and education in vocational and adult education is needed and requires joint cross-cultural research that clarifies their contexts and functions, traces the political impacts behind them, and relates them to politically, socially and environmentally ‘burning issues’.

Our symposium invites participants to a cross-cultural exercise to discuss the meaning and function of the ‘cultural’ approach in vocational and adult education research. We first introduce some ideas briefly, coming from our different cultural, linguistic and disciplinary contexts. They will be commented on by the discussant, followed by a discussion with the audience.

This presentation reminds of the conceptual differences in using "culture" in the singular and using "cultures" in the plural when analysing and theorizing education. The focus is on the meaning of work and occupational culture(s) in vocationally oriented adult education, critical for research and policy discourses in German-speaking countries (Molzberger, 2024), but very influential across political and linguistic borders. Culture (sg) is a fuzzy term with inherent dualistic meanings, such as culture vs. civilisation. In 19th-century Germany, the representation of the Prussian ‘Kulturstaat’ (Bollenbeck, 1994; Casale, Molzberger 2025) legitimised a hegemonic strategy against ‘less developed’ countries and communities. Cultures (pl.) refer to practices that are shared collectively (Alkemeyer et al., 2018). In the German concept of Beruf, this collective dimension, as well as a certain normative dimension, is still inherent. Besides the ‘promise’ to find more in your work/labour than earning a living, Berufe (professions/occupations) are functional to the powerfully defined divisions of labour in reproducing society. In this sense, Wolf-Dietrich Greinert (2004) refered to respective models of work cultures (Arbeitskulturen). Work cultures understood as reciprocal actions of collectives are not necessarily formalised. For example, they often have their own languages (‘Berufssprache’ by practitioners and their jargon may differ from the technical language taught in VET). Work cultures were formed by but also exist independently from regulations and institutionalised VET-systems with their respective organisations, accountabilities and laws. As invisible institutions (Rosanvallon, 2024), they are built by collectives from below. In a disputed and contradictory world (Heikkinen et al. 2024) and as a non-deterministic concept, “culture” – as well as “Beruf” and “Bildung” – elude their methodisability.

Alkemeyer, Th., Bröckling, U., Peter, T. (Eds.). (2018). Jenseits der Person. Zur Subjektivierung von Kollektiven. Bielefeld: transcipt Verlag. Bollenbeck, G.: Bildung und Kultur. Glanz und Elend eines deutschen Deutungsmusters. Frankfurt a.M./Leipzig: Insel 1994 Bolder, A., Dobischat, R., Kutscha, G. & Reutter, G. (Eds.) (2012). Beruflichkeit zwischen institutionellem Wandel und biographischem Projekt. (pp. 7–23). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Casale, R., & Molzberger, G. (2025). On the studium generale as pars pro toto of the university and its amorphous transformations. Pedagogia oggi, 23(1), 26–33. Greinert, W.-D. (2004). European vocational training ‘systems’ - some thoughts on the theoretical context of their historical development. European Journal of Vocational Training 32. https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/files/etv/Upload/Information_resources/Bookshop/399/32_en_greinert.pdf. Heikkinen, A., Lassnigg, L., & Molzberger, G. (2023). What crisis are we in actually? The (Nordic) Bildung Hype in Adult Education. In Ebner von Eschenbach, M., Käpplinger, B., Kondratjuk, M., Kraus, K. & Niemeyer, B. (Eds.). Re-Konstruktionen. Krisenthematisierungen in der Erwachsenenbildung (pp. 179–192). Opladen: Barbara Budrich. Molzberger, G. (2024). Kontroversen allgemeiner und beruflicher Bildung Erwachsener – Versuch über ein rhizomatisches Geflecht und eine doppelt zweigeteilte institutionelle Struktur. Debatte, 7(2), 138–149. Rosanvallon, P. (2024). Les institutions invisibles. Paris: Le Seuil.

2. Lorenz Lassnigg takes steps towards a meta-level. Starting from the recognition that the concept of culture is not only fuzzy and unclear because of confusion and unqualified use, but does not even have a clear and consensual meaning in ‘serious cultural theory’ (Müller-Funk 2010/2006); rather, a genealogy of various meanings and understandings can be found that cannot lead to consensus, but to diverse understandings. From this contention, the question can be reasonably asked what kinds of concepts of culture might/can contribute to understanding better VET and its position/role within education and society. (Williams, 1983). This more general question can be made more concrete by reflecting first on how VET researchers have addressed/understood concepts of culture, and second on how concepts of culture are addressed in new attempts to develop theories of VET. (e.g. Heikkinen 2021; Esmond et al, 2023). One – conceptually quite ‘easy’ - and not uncommon – way to use concepts of culture for understanding VET is simply to name some residual aspects of key ingredients of VET that cannot be explained by other means or concepts as ‘culture’, e.g., work culture, school culture, enterprise culture, class culture, organisational culture, occupational culture, assessment culture, knowledge culture, achievement culture, etc. This raises the question of what these “cultures” might have in common (mostly referring to some unexplained behavioural or meaning-loaded aspects of ingredients), and how these ‘cultures’ relate to more general and sophisticated concepts of culture. From this contention, the question can be raised whether a more sophisticated concept of culture is necessary to gain explanatory power. (Reckwitz, 2019). The reference to culture in the new attempts towards VET theory can be illustratively compared to earlier forms of integrating concepts of culture into VET or education theory approaches.

Esmond, B., Ketschau, T. J., Schmees, J. K., Steib, C. & Wedekind, V. (Eds.). (2023). Retrieving and recontextualising VET theory. bwp@ Spezial 19 - August 2023 - Update Februar 2024. https://www.bwpat.de/ausgabe/spezial19 Müller-Funk, W. (2010/2006). Kulturtheorie. UTB 2828. Tübingen: Francke. Heikkinen, A. (2021). Culture and VET: An outdated connection? In Opening and Extending Vocational Education (pp. 361-381), ed. by Philipp Eigenmann, Philipp Gonon, Markus Weil. Peter Lang. Reckwitz, A. (2019). Das Ende der Illusionen. Politik, Ökonomie und Kultur in der Spätmoderne. Berlin: Suhrkamp. [engl. 2021, End of illusions; Polity] Williams, R. (1983). Keywords. A vocabulary of culture and society. Revised Edition. New York: Oxford University Press.

3. Anja Heikkinen assumes that research communities take for granted that their concepts are embedded in disciplinary-specific (theoretical) frameworks. Yet, researchers' conceptions tend to intertwine with common-sense, political, professional and disciplinary interpretations. (Narotzky, 2007). They have a critical role in constructing narratives and ’models’ of vocational education, providing identity-constituting myths and pitching brands for the competitive advantage of VET, a component of the organisation of economy/industry/work, politics, society and education. Claims about distinctive theoretical and methodological frameworks of VET seem to defend their disciplinary status and funding and justify dominant political and practical agendas. In the search for competitive ‘VET theory’, identifying countries and infrastructures that are attractive in global competition, they tend to favour institutionalist and economist comparisons of systems and ‘regimes’. (e.g. Esmond et al., 2023). The interest focuses typically on the German-speaking countries, where developing ‘VET theory’ has closely linked with (national) culture and its distinctive spirit (Geist). The dominance of the English language, adopted into political, practical and research discourses, further hides the diversity of conceptualisations. Yet, the worldviews and religious sentiments underlying their linguistic manifestations may not be uncovered without cross-cultural analyses. Despite the diversity of discourses on culture, the ‘cultural approach’ refers to the anthropological nature of evolving concepts, institutions, and practices of VET. To understand humans and culture in the work and vocational education requires exiting the narrow insider focus on humans and their culture and emphasising the nonhuman perspective. (Schendel, 2024; Rockström et al., 2024). This implies recognising how education contributes to capitalogenic social metabolism, disturbing the biophysical system of the Earth and exploiting humans and nonhumans during world history. (Moore, 2022; Alam et al., 2023; Frankopan, 2024). In drafting a ‘cultural approach’, analysing religious and normative human-centred interpretations is critical. While religions may have stabilised distinctive emotional and moral beliefs to work, occupations and education, more critical is the justification of human exceptionalism and ‘cultural evolution’ through technologisation that has enabled hierarchisation and colonial exploitation of humans and nonhumans. In the current ‘entrepreneurial and innovation culture’ and ‘quintuple helix’ policies, education and research are expected to provide human and intellectual capital for competitive innovation systems, spearheaded by comprehensive digital transformation. (Carayannis, 2012; ERRIN, 2025; EU, 2022). Understanding how power over social metabolism in diverse human-nonhuman assemblages is justified requires self-critical, historicising analyses of the links between education and culture and developing methodologies beyond human-, Global North- and Capitalocene-centred frameworks. (Schendel, 2024).

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