Promoting learner voice in VET: developimg democratic, transformative possibilities or further entrenching the status
- Authors: Foley, Annette , Golding, Barry , Angus, Lawrence , Lavender, Peter
- Date: 2013
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Journal of Vocational Education and Training Vol. 65, no. 4 (2013), p. 560-574
- Full Text: false
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- Description: In order to critique the notion of ‘learner voice’ in vocational education and training (VET) policy, this paper draws from a project conducted by the authors on behalf of the Australian National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC). The term ‘learner voice’ is used extensively throughout NVEAC documentation to describe the engagement of ‘disadvantaged’ students within the VET system. However, the concept of ‘voice’ being advocated, we argue, is a particularly ‘thin’ one which is linked to notions of client feedback, managed participation and the commodification of training rather than any broad sense of democracy, equity or social transformation. The paper critically examines current practices in relation to learner voice within the VET policy framework and their implications for the contested role of VET in contributing to social equity and redress of social and economic disadvantage.
Learner voice in VET and ACE: What do stakeholders say
- Authors: Golding, Barry , Angus, Lawrence , Foley, Annette , Lavender, Peter
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Paper presented at AVETRA 2012 15th Annual Conference Canberra p. 1-10
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- Description: Our paper presents some initial findings from research funded by the National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC) and conducted in a range of VET and ACE organisations in three Australian states and the Northern Territory with a view to identifying the mechanisms and systems used to capture learner voice. The paper also draws upon recent research in the UK and Europe that has provided critical insights into the benefits to learners' experiences and successes that result from taking learner voice seriously in the Further Education (FE) setting.
- Description: 2003009274
Learner voice in VET: who speaks? Who listens?
- Authors: Angus, Lawrence , Golding, Barry , Lavender, Peter , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: ECER 2012, The Need for Educational Research to Champion Freedom, Education and Development for All
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This paper reports on research conducted by the authors on behalf of the Australian National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC), which was established in 2009 to provide independent advice to the Standing Council on Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment (SCOTESE) on how disadvantaged learners can achieve better outcomes from vocational education and training (VET). The paper draws on interviews conducted with more than 60 VET managers and staff, students and student organisations, and a range of VET stakeholders in all Australian states and territories. The authors were required to conduct a review and analysis of effective models and underpinning principles for gathering and responding to feedback from learners, particularly disadvantaged learners. Participants were asked particularly about learner voice regulatory frameworks and provider accountability for acting on feedback from learners, particularly disadvantaged learners.
“Learner voice”: Who speaks? Who listens?
- Authors: Angus, Lawrence , Golding, Barry , Lavender, Peter , Foley, Annette
- Date: 2012
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: ECER 2012, The Need for Educational Research to Champion Freedom, Education and Development for All
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: The paper will report on an ongoing research project being conducted by the authors, on behalf of the Australian National VET Equity Advisory Council (NVEAC), in which we are required to conduct “a review and analysis of effective models and underpinning principles for gathering and responding to feedback from learners, particularly disadvantaged learners”. The term “learner voice” is used throughout the NVEAC documentation to describe engagement with students of vocational education and training. But the “voice” that has unashamedly dominated the policy discourse in vocational and adult education and training in recent decades has been that of business and industry. Recently, however, particularly in England during the final term of the New Labour administration, and increasingly is some Scandinavian and European countries, a renewed emphasis on policies of social inclusion has introduced the notion of “learner voice” into policy considerations. Especially important are the voices of learners who are perceived to be disadvantaged or marginalised. In Australia, too, discourses of both inclusion and human capital have led to policies of involving students, their interests and their views in some way in the education project. The engagement of students with the tertiary education sector and institutions has come to be regarded as a way of promoting students’ learning by making their education and training more relevant to, and inclusive of, their “needs” while simultaneously contributing to the more efficient utilisation of human capital in an increasingly competitive national economy. Such inclusiveness, therefore, is promoted as facilitating the twin virtues of equity and efficiency, and is seen by some as having the potential to empower learners and transform their learning experience, and also to transform and expand Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Adult and Community Education (ACE). The paper will critically examine the dynamics of the vet policy framework and the range current practice in relation to learner voice. It will particularly emphasise contradictions in both practice and policy in relation to who speaks and with what authority, and who listens to what effect.