scholarly journals Vocational Students’ Ways of Handling the Academic/Vocational Divide

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Ferm
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Vocational Identity ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Vocational Students ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
Strategic Choices ◽  
Types Of Knowledge

Purpose: The focus of this article is on Swedish vocational students’ own thoughts about different types of knowledge and how these thoughts relate to the forming of their vocational identities. The article reports on a study which investigates how vocational students handle the division between theoretical and practical knowledge as they learn to become skilled industrial workers. Theoretical and practical knowledge are often presented as dichotomies in a hierarchy, where theoretical knowledge is more highly valued than practical knowledge. The division between theoretical and practical knowledge is known in research as "the academic/vocational divide". This divide is particularly relevant to vocational students, as they need to deal with both types of knowledge as they navigate between the contexts of school and work.Methods: This study is part of a research project on vocational students’ learning and identity formation. The empirical material is based on qualitative interviews with 44 students enrolled on the industrial programme at Swedish upper secondary schools.Findings: The study revealed three different ways in which vocational students handled the academic/vocational divide: Placing higher value on practical knowledge than on theoretical knowledge, reinforcing the separation between school and work, and selecting theoretical subjects as useful tools for the future. Conclusions: Two conclusions drawn from the study are that students are aware of the status differences and divisions between practical and theoretical knowledge, and that they handle the academic/vocational divide in an active manner. Students make choices that will help them form a vocational identity or that will give them opportunities for further education and alternative careers. This article challenges and contradicts the image of vocational students as unmotivated and unintellectual, instead portraying them as knowledgeable actors who make strategic choices for their future and are active in forming vocational identities within vocations that require deep and advanced knowledge. 

scholarly journals Gendered Vocational Identities – Female Students' Strategies for Identity Formation During Workplace-Based Learning in Male-Dominated Work

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-354
Author(s):  
Lisa Ferm ◽  
Maria Gustavsson
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Community Of Practice ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Vocational Identity ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Industrial Workers ◽  
Work Community ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Male Dominated

Purpose: This article investigates female vocational students' strategies for becoming part of a workplace community, what these strategies are and how they are tied to the formation of vocational identities within male-dominated industrial work. Of particular interest is how female students enrolled on Swedish upper secondary industrial programmes experience workplace-based learning at industrial workplaces as part of their vocational education. The theoretical framework derives from Wenger's concept of community of practice, but his theoretical concept does not explicitly include gender dimensions. Therefore, the concept of community of practice is also combined with Paechter's assumption of gender, whereby femininity and masculinity can be considered as different communities of practice. Methods: The article draws on evidence from a Swedish study based on interviews with 20 female students enrolled on the industrial programme at six upper secondary schools. In this vocational programme, there is a distinct gender distribution and only a small minority of the students on the programme are girls. In the analysis, the focus is on the female students' strategies used during workplace-based learning to become part of the work community which consists almost exclusively of male workers.Findings: The female students deliberately negotiated vocational identities as female industrial workers to become accepted in the male-dominated work community. The findings highlight three specific strategies that the female students used: Acting like gender does not matter, acting like boys (not like drama queens), and acting tough and joking around. The female students' strategies were part of – and tied to – a complex vocational identity formation process that featured contradictory requirements. By taking individual responsibility, they identified relevant information for becoming industrial workers and chose to act like boys. The female students saw no problem with being a girl, yet they struggled with implicit, diffuse and hidden gender structures and prejudices in the male-dominated industrial companies. Nevertheless, they strived for what they perceived to be an attractive vocational identity as industrial workers; it was an alternative, atypically feminine way of being that attracted the female students. Conclusions: The study concludes that female students mostly rely on their individual agency when interacting with others in the male-dominated workplace community. A "gendered vocational identity" is formed which shows that the identity formation of female students is a complex double process, in which vocational and gender identities are formed simultaneously and in parallel within the male-dominated workplace. 

scholarly journals Being Able to Stay or Learning to Stay: a Study of Rural Boys’ Educational Orientations and Transitions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Maria Stenseth ◽  
Unn-Doris K. Bæck
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Education ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Upper Secondary School ◽  
Upper Secondary Education ◽  
Upper Secondary ◽  
Educational Orientations

AbstractThis study explores the influence of geographical location on young pupils’ educational orientations and their transition from lower to upper secondary school; it pays particular attention to the voices of male youths from a rural area. More specifically, it investigates the interplay between gender and geographical contexts and the significance of these factors in understanding the processes associated with educational orientations. Margaret Archer’s framework is used to analyse how pupils’ agency is constrained and/or enabled by objective structures. The data material consists of qualitative interviews with 18 pupils transitioning from lower to upper secondary school in Norway. Each of the pupils was interviewed twice: first when they were in their last year of lower secondary education, and then during their first year of upper secondary education. The findings show that pupils consider geographical locations when making decisions about further education and work. In addition, they believe that education beyond compulsory schooling benefits their life in the rural areas. However, unlike their urban counterparts, pupils from rural areas appear to have a more constraining transition to upper secondary education. Through the analyses in this article, it becomes clear that both geographical location and gender are key factors for understanding processes connected to education.

“The Sympathy of Experience With Life!” – Understanding Practical Knowledge From Heidegger to Gadamer and Back

2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (2 supplement) ◽  
pp. 165-179
Author(s):  
Alina Noveanu
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
Phenomenological Hermeneutics

"For both Gadamer’s project of a philosophical hermeneutics as for Heidegger’s early understanding of facticity (Faktizität) as practical knowledge, the problem of application is central and is always linked to the specific conditions under which an individual decides to act within a community. Both also agree on the fact that the sciences of man do involve more than the epistemic subject, this is why the context i.e. the phenomenological concept of ‘world’ becomes part of the understanding process, one that cannot be ignored or transformed into an abstract matter. Understanding is therefore also in a specific way ‘historical’, as the application is dictated by momentary circumstances in life situations, which come before any use of theoretical knowledge and thus do not represent an appendix to theory. While Gadamer continuously insisted on the idea of a practical knowledge (Wissen) that surpasses the separations between theory and praxis, sophia and phronesis, Heidegger radicalized the idea of active thinking as an experience of language in connection to an essential ‘perception’ of Being itself, that goes beyond any subjectivity. The term by which he often characterizes this essential thinking (wesentliches Denken) is Vernehmen: a kind of receptive thinking. This conception of receptive thinking, as some conversations around the Zollikon Seminars and Le Thor/Zähringen will briefly show, lead Heidegger also to some interesting considerations on the human body. Keywords: practical knowledge, historicity, life, body, Vernehmen, phenomenological hermeneutics, world. "

Registered nurses’ knowledge and care practices regarding patients with dysphagia in Saudi Arabia

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 896-909
Author(s):  
Manal Abdullah Khoja
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Traffic Accidents ◽  
Brain Injuries ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Tertiary Hospital ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Speech And Language Pathologists ◽  
Self Administered Questionnaire ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the knowledge and practices of nursing staff caring for patients with dysphagia to determine any needs for further education programmes. Design/methodology/approach A self-administered questionnaire with close-ended questions was completed by nurses at a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia to measure the depth of their dysphagia knowledge. Findings From 316 potential participants, a sample of 174 nurses completed the questionnaire. The results revealed that the participants had partial theoretical and practical knowledge about nursing care for patients with dysphagia. Of interest, 78 per cent of the nurses reported that they had received less than 1 h of training in dysphagia, and only 4 per cent were aware of speech and language pathologists’ role in dysphagia management. Practical implications As the medical professionals who have the most contact with the patients, nurses have a central role in the care of patients with dysphagia. This study provides information that will guide strategies for in-service nurse education dysphagia programmes. Originality/value The estimated Saudi prevalence of dysphagia is high due to increased incidence of medical conditions commonly associated with dysphagia, such as stroke, cerebral palsy and traumatic brain injuries from traffic accidents. Nurses play a pivotal role in caring for these patients. However, little is known about the level of care patients with dysphagia require in Saudi hospital settings.

Nauczyciel – badacz. O zastosowaniu badania w działaniu przez nauczycieli i przyszłych nauczycieli języków obcych

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (23) ◽  
pp. 125-139
Author(s):  
Magdalena Witkowska
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Classroom Teaching ◽  
Teaching Skills ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Teaching Activities ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Teacher Trainees

Action research (AR) as a research method has been recommended in the process of educating foreign language (FL) teachers as well as developing their teaching skills for decades. Many teacher education experts, including Elliott (1991) are of the opinion that the method contributes to teachers’ professional develpoment as they can extend their theoretical knowledge of the processes of learning and teaching through gaining the practical knowledge. Moreover, action research evokes the need for reflection upon one’s teaching activities. One may wonder whether FL teacher-practitoners apply AR in their teaching and how, if at all, it influences their classroom teaching. In order to learn about it, the author of the article conducted a questionnaire which provides interesting information about FL teachers’ attitude towards AR. The article aims at promoting AR as well as encouraging FL teachers and teacher-trainees to use the method in their work.

scholarly journals The Use of “the Big Five” in Assessing Levels of Adaptation in Dental Students at Various Stages of Their Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 08025
Author(s):  
Larisa Litvinova ◽  
Lyubov’ Gubareva ◽  
Atsamaz Kaloyev ◽  
Yelena Grishilova
Keyword(s):  
Big Five ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Social Contact ◽  
Dental Students ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Human Adaptation ◽  
Social Contacts ◽  
Actual Behaviour ◽  
Individual Character ◽  
Academic Workload

Current approaches in psychology look at human adaptation reserves as part of individual character. “the Big Five” evaluates subjects’ actual behaviour and levels of reserves of adaptation on each of the five scales. The results show reliably identifiable changes between the first and third years of study. Students acquire traits associated with introversion and reduce their social contacts (р≤0.01). A reduction to average is also visible in “Attachment – Detachment” (р≤0.05) and “Playfulness – Practicality” (р≤0.01). It can be seen that there is a reduction in the adaptation abilities of dental students between the first and third years in terms of social contact and the application of practical knowledge. Mastering the disciplines under study becomes harder, while the amount of theoretical knowledge and practical ability required increases, necessitating higher levels of concentration. Taking into account the increase in academic workload during this period, some of the above can be put down to stress.

scholarly journals Qualifications and Certificates v Practical Knowledge and Experience: Is There a Winner?

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Eddie Fisher ◽  
Yorkys Santana González
Keyword(s):  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Systematic Investigation ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Theoretical Knowledge ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
Pilot Studies ◽  
Advanced Level ◽  
Face To Face

There appears to be a continuing and inconclusive debate amongst scholars whether theoretical knowledge or practical experience is more important in related and associated areas such as education, recruitment and employability. This research, limited to a literature review and face to face interviews, conducted a systematic investigation to obtain and analyze valid and reliable research data to establish whether theoretical knowledge or practical experience are of paramount importance. The outcome of this research suggests that a hybrid approach should be adopted, with the major focus being on practical experience supported by relevant theoretical knowledge and not the converse. A number of additional recommendations are presented how to balance and close the gap between theory and practice including a redesign of ordinary and advanced level educational teaching. Far greater emphasis needs to be placed on young people gaining early practical experience inside and outside the classroom. This can be achieved by developing practical workshops (pilot studies) for use in safe laboratory-type environments and by extending work placements within organizations during term times.   

E-scaping the ageing body? Computer technologies and embodiment in later life

2010 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 987-1009 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTINA E. BUSE
Keyword(s):  
Technology Use ◽  
Internet Use ◽  
Practical Knowledge ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Later Life ◽  
The Body ◽  
Computer Technologies ◽  
Computing Skills ◽  
Ageing Body ◽  
Complete Theories

ABSTRACTThis paper explores the embodied dimensions of computer and internet use in later life, and examines how technology use relates to constructions and experiences of the ageing body. It is argued that previous research on technology use and embodiment has neglected older bodies, in contrast to research on gender and disability. Furthermore, while earlier theorisations presented internet use as disembodied, it is argued that the experience of using such technologies is grounded in our embodiment. In the light of these limitations and arguments for more complete theories of the body, this paper explores how technology use relates to various aspects of embodiment. These issues are examined in the light of data from qualitative interviews and time-use diaries completed by retirees in 17 households in the United Kingdom. By examining the ‘technobiographies’ of these older computer users, it is shown that changes in body techniques are prompted and in some cases required by broader cultural and technological change. The findings evince the process of acquiring computing skills as an embodied competency, and as a form of ‘practical knowledge’ that can only be ‘learned by doing’. These experiences of technology use were embedded within constructions and experiences of ageing bodies. Although the participants drew on discourses of ageing in complex ways, their coding of computer technologies in terms of the competences of youth often reproduced hierarchies between young and old bodies.

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