The vocational–academic divide in neoliberal upper secondary curricula: the Swedish case

Abstract

A historical tension between a more general and a more specific focus in post-compulsory education is made visible in some educational systems by the division into more academic and more vocational programmes. Embedded in this tension are questions of social justice and the purposes of education. In addition, division into academic and vocational programmes has class dimensions since youth with working class backgrounds are often over-represented in vocational programmes. This study investigates how this tension is handled in the Swedish upper secondary curriculum, which reflects an international neoliberal policy trend in promoting competition, employability and employer influence over the curriculum. By analysing how the educational content of vocational educational and training (VET) programmes and higher educational preparatory (HEP) programmes is contextualised, we found that the two programme types were based on very different logics. In VET programmes, knowledge is strongly context-bound and often related to regulating behaviours. This contrasts sharply with the way knowledge is contextualised in HEP programmes in which less context-bound knowledge and skills such as using concepts, models and critical thinking are dominant. Students in VET programmes are trained to ‘do’ and to ‘adapt’, while the students in HEP programmes are trained to ‘think’ and to ‘imagine possibilities’. Thus, students from different social classes are prepared for very different roles in society.

Keywords:

• Curriculum evaluation
• vocational education
• equal education
• social class

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Corrigendum

Notes

1. The diploma goals, including the descriptions of programme specialisations, consist of approximately 1–2 pages (700 words) and can be found in Lgy 11.

2. Examples of themes are the following: Language and communication; A scientific approach; To do or to think; Subordination/Control; Knowledge verbs; What the student will be able to do; Exam work; What shall the student be able to do at the end of training?; What is the role of the student in, and what is the relationship to, society?; Classification and knowledge in horizontal and vertical discourses; The ‘Range’ of knowledge.

3. In fact, according to Bernstein (2000), this is one of the most fundamental trends in the latest transition of capitalism and the global organisation of knowledge in (especially higher) educational institutions. Bernstein describes this as singulars becoming increasingly regionalised, e.g. physics being contextualised towards engineering or chemistry being contextualised towards medicine. According to Bernstein, this is a part of a dramatic change in the way knowledge is being organised and transmitted in which market relevance is the guiding principle. In line with this discussion, one way of describing the dominant organisation of knowledge in VET under a market-steered curriculum would be ‘generic’. However, this discussion is beyond the scope of this article.

4. The verbs presented in the table are often used in the diploma goals but do not always represent the exact wordings, i.e. the table is not based on an exact word count. For instance, formulations such as ‘… a person works alone with many different tasks …’ ‘… develop students’ ability to work both independently and in teams …’ ‘… solve problems independently’, ‘… functioning in a team’ ‘… ability to cooperate with others …’ (Diploma goals, Vehicle and Transport programme, Restaurant and Management programme) all fall under the verb ‘Work independently/in group’ in the table.

5. Access to university would require students to do an additional 300 h of study to complete two courses in Swedish and one in English. It is worth noting that some VET programmes include foundation subjects as part of the programme core, meaning that a Health and Social Care student, for example, ‘only’ needs to take one extra course in English and one in Swedish to become eligible for higher education.