Serving two masters: how vocational educators experience marketisation reforms. (2nd January 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Locke, Patrick; Maton, Karl
• Is Part Of: Journal of vocational education & training. Volume 71:Number 1(2019)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 20
• Publication Date: 2019-01-02
• Subjects: Vocational education -- marketisation -- education reform -- Legitimation Code Theory -- autonomy codes -- TAFE -- VET; Vocational education -- Periodicals; Technical education -- Periodicals; 370.11305
• DOI: 10.1080/13636820.2018.1480521
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1363-6820

Abstract

Abstract: Contemporary education reforms that draw ideas from the political and economic fields are said to be altering the nature of vocational education. While there are substantial policy studies on the effects of marketisation reforms, fewer analyse the perspectives of vocational educators on such reforms. How vocational educators negotiate the potential clash of values when marketisation reforms are enacted within the sector remains relatively unexplored. This paper aims to incorporate these perspectives in order to explore and help explain the responses of vocational educators to such changes. To do so the paper draws on concepts from Legitimation Code Theory, a sociological framework for analysing practices and beliefs. Specifically, it enacts 'autonomy codes', which reveal how external forces impact upon the internal practices of a social field. These concepts are used to analyse the beliefs and perceptions of a group of vocational educators in Australia who are undergoing marketisation reforms. The analysis suggests that many educators are experiencing a growing 'code clash' between the goals they attribute to reforms and their own beliefs about public education and the expectations of their students, one which problematises their capacity to reconcile these sets of values and colours their views of changes in the sector.