Reflections on the emancipatory potential of vocational education and training practices: Freire and Rancière in dialogue

Abstract

This paper focuses on the issue of emancipation in education practices in general and in vocational education and training (VET) in particular. The principal aim is to contribute to the discussion of particular traditions of emancipation in education in connection with VET practices. The exploration of ongoing educational debates on VET policy-making and the issue of emancipation in VET reveals that, ultimately, emancipation in VET is understood as a specific function for socio-economic integration. The paper discusses this functionalist orientation and contrasts it with a vision on emancipation as a feature of an educational process rather than an educational outcome. Freire's and Rancière's core concepts of emancipation guide the discussion regarding the latter interpretation of emancipation in VET practices.

Keywords:

• education
• VET
• emancipation
• P. Freire
• J. Rancière

Notes

1. We aim to explore what is meant by emancipation in education and pedagogy; consequently, we refer to the critical theory and critical pedagogy tradition and the relation emancipation–education. However, it does not mean that the above-mentioned approaches represent the only possible way to discuss emancipation, but they are certainly appropriate for the aims of this paper.

2. In more recent works, Biesta focuses on civic learning and he refers to the classification of socialisation and subjectification (Biesta 2011). However, we consider ‘qualification’ as a core concept for our research in VET practices, thus, we take his previous texts (Biesta 2009a, 2009b) into consideration, specifically, where he uses the classification of qualification, socialisation and subjectification on education.

3. See Rowlands (1997); Luttrell et al. (2009), for an in-depth development of the term empowerment.

4. See Rowlands (1997) and Foucault (1979) to grasp the concept of power in personal and social relationships and Foucault's studies on ‘governmentality’.

5. ‘Thinking education in economic terms’ (under the framing of knowledge based-economies) can be identified with an omnipresent global policy and practice in education, rather than with an exclusive aim in VET (see Masschelein and Simons 2002; Dale 2005; Robertson 2009a, 2009b; Popkewitz 2011).

6. Beech (2002) provides an in depth analysis of educational reforms in Latin America during the 1990s. He argues that, regarding VET, there is a similar trend in educational reforms within the whole continent. The common pattern is an employability and competency-based approach, as also pinpointed by Jacinto (2010).

7. Biennale of Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), Uruguay, 2008.