Vocational knowledge and its specification

Abstract

The contemporary pressure to codify vocational knowledge is economically driven. However, it represents just one of many kinds of knowledge codification that have occurred throughout history. Such codification of knowledge leads to and serves to reinforce differences in the value afforded various kinds of knowledge, education and learners. Three main types of problems with codification are identified: the difficulties involved in codifying knowledge, the inappropriate dualisms that can develop and the omission of important knowledge. Yet codification of knowledge has become important economically in a globalising economy, and the limits imposed on globalisation by the tacit nature of important knowledge is being recognised. In order to tease out the nature of tacit knowledge, Polanyi's concepts are outlined and related to advances in contemporary theories of knowledge and learning. A recently developed taxonomy of types and qualities of knowledge is used to illustrate the pervasiveness of tacit knowledge and as a basis for examining various codification agendas. It is concluded that the value of codification relates to the motives for engaging in codification, but that there are dangers in confounding the codes with the knowledge itself. A holistic approach to teaching and learning, which develops plural ways of knowing is outlined and advocated.