Re-Professionalising vocational educators or just reshaping practice

Abstract

This paper discusses whether the likely changes in the role of vocational educators can be viewed as re-professionalisation or merely changes to accommodate emerging economic imperatives. It holds that during the last decade, the professional practice of vocational educators has been constrained by governmental directives that were concerned to meet the needs of 'industry'. The goals for programs, as well as the means of instruction and assessment were determined and mandated by others with the intention of securing adherence to industry prescriptions. Now, with the demand to address enterprise needs and the marketisation of vocational education, a broader role and enhanced discretion is being expected of vocational educators. However, these new demands bring complications and concerns about how best to balance different clients' needs. To what degree are teachers being expected to be complicit in addressing enterprise needs at a cost to individuals? Hence, this reshaping of vocational practice seems problematic. Is it returning educational leadership to educators or just granting some discretion to achieve government goals which now place an emphasis on the market and enterprises as a priority over student