VET pedagogy and school dynamics in a space of intersecting powers (VETPOWER)

Based on fieldwork, documentary assemblages and dialogue seminars with key players, VETPOWER investigates how pedagogy and school life within vocational education and training (VET) is framed by society’s representation of work life options, future life trajectories and ideas about ‘the good life.’

The purpose of VETPOWER is to investigate how the institutional and pedagogical dynamics of vocational education and training, including transitions between internship and school classes, form the life prospects of students in a space of intersecting and hierarchising powers of occupation, gender, class, race and place, and contribute to existing practice-oriented research on VET. VETPOWER centres on three VET-tracks: Preparatory vocational training (FGU), track ‘Care, health and education’, and track ‘Technology, construction and transportation’

The contribution of VETPOWER will be to think about, imagine and experiment with use of knowledge beyond technical, utilitarian or evidence-based use. Consequently, VETPOWER will contribute with knowledge about the powers of VET firmly anchored in practice. It will contribute to society’s reflection on VET dynamics and how to change the framing and conditions of VET beyond discussions of how to supply the labour market with skilled labour in e.g. care work and craftsmanship.

VETPOWER’s foundational idea is that it is impossible to face the inequities and improve the quality of VET if we do not know how inequities reside and work from within ‘the good universalist intentions’ of vocational education and training.