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Exploring the impact of school type on post compulsory vocational courses and transition guidance
1. Exploring the impact of school type
on post compulsory vocational
courses and transition guidance
Graham Garforth ttxgg7@nottingham.ac.uk
Supervisors: Prof. R. Murphy & Prof. S. McGrath
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 School of Education Postgraduate Research 1
Conference, University of Nottingham
2. Today
• Definitions
• Student transition & guidance literature
• Importance
• Aim
• Methods
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 School of Education Postgraduate Research 2
Conference, University of Nottingham
3. Definitions
• Vocational Education (VE)
• Post Compulsory Education (16+)
• Information and Guidance (IAG)
• School/Institution Type
• Progression/Transition
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 School of Education Postgraduate Research 3
Conference, University of Nottingham
10. “Students wants do not emerge in a completely
voluntary fashion, but as a consequence of
structural dispositions, … their concerns and
ambitions… So students' want formation is
neither reducible to individual emotion-cognitive
processes, nor previous socialization or
structural processes, instead it emerges in
relation to, and between these processes and
contexts.”
Daoud & Puaca (2011), p. 615.
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11. Aim
To explore the effect that post-16 institutional type
attended has on information and guidance received
and the transitionary effect of this on students.
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Conference, University of Nottingham
12. Why?
Student transition is not entirely determined by
macro influences, if we understand more about how
students can improve their power, it may result in
positive social change for individual students.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 School of Education Postgraduate Research 12
Conference, University of Nottingham
13. Importance
• Course design & the aim of VE – employability/HE
• Student expectations & motivation
• IAG policy change
• Increasing no. vocational students
• 2013 rise of the compulsory leaving age
• Paucity of IAG research
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Conference, University of Nottingham
14. RQ. Transition
Influences?
RQ. Transition
Expectations?
RQ. IAG used?
RQ. Difference
due to institution
type?
RQ. Expectations Met?
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15. Thank you
Any questions?
Comments?
Graham Garforth ttxgg7@nottingham.ac.uk
Wednesday, July 18, 2012 School of Education Postgraduate Research 15
Conference, University of Nottingham
17. References
Daoud, A. & Puaca, G. (2011) ‘An organic view of students’ want
formation: pragmatic rationality, habitus and reflexivity.’ British
Journal of Sociology of Education. Vol. 32(4), pp. 603-622.
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Hinweis der Redaktion
VET – Hayward – any learning leading to an understanding of work, to include BTECs, applied alevels, OCR nationals, diplomas, apprenticeships
Not suggesting that all routes are available to everyone, due to....
Students from lower socio economic groups are more likely to leave education. Finance, education, class, gender, location, culture, religion, ethnicity, family background/occupation, parents (intervention, encourage, know the system) (Also, impacted by ability, behaviour). Impact on: pre-entry guidance, lack of transferability of quals, prejudice admission Students attitude barriers & financial concerns, used informal trusted peer network.
Students often lack info. To make choices. Effectiveness of IAG questioned e.g. Pring, Wolf, Osfted. Mislead or given incorrect information – content, teaching style, assessment. Can lead to wrong course, not understand, doesn’t match expectations. Reliance advice needs to be available to all. Suitable progression routes need to be identified. IAG not only progression influence e.g. Hayward, 2006.
Transition is also influenced by youth decision making see Hodkinson. As influenced by macro factors e.g. life history, socio-economic and cultural context & IAG. Can be linked to Bourdieu – habitus – the individuals view of the world is derived from the macro factors their social group, aspirations and power influences on their location and context. Hodkinson and Sparkes suggests that young people try to make pragmatic rational decisions based on partial information and the macro factors. They call this arena the ‘horizon for action’ where decisions are influenced by the ‘dialectic of constraint’ life changes and action are influenced by macro factors. Bloomer highlights how these decisions are not linear and entirely predictable, thus need to be seen from students own perspective. Thus need an interpretative, mainly qualitative approach to understand social construction of reality. Bourdieu and Giddens structuration are useful here.
Teachers blame students for lack of motivation, but researcher like Foreman-Peck indicated it was the school IAG at fault. Winch suggests that IAG staff need – detailed labour market knowledge, employment trends, students knowledge/skills/abilities/interests [link to policy change – can schools provide this if Foreman-Peck notes hubris?] Reasons – financial incentives (Bourdieu power link) – Ofsted suggests schools without sixth forms give best advice.
Like Jenkins, argue should not be structurally deterministic.
25% L3 students gained at least one vocational qualification Political importance – 50% HE target, NEET figures 1 in 4 in some areas Schools ability to provide VET (resources, staff, employer access, timetable, written assessments – Ofsted, Wolf) & where do they aim for? HE?
Business students from the North West will be tracked from Year 11 to Year 12. Semi-structured interviews. Business for class practicality & as is offered in variety of institutions, has HE progression route. L1- field: The field of interest for my study is post 16, level 3 qualification offering institutions with course focus on academic progression to higher education Field is the social space where interactions between people take place (Thompson;2008). Here the agents positions are compared to the field of power, such as political power over IAG reform, VET aims and VET course recognition – depends on view point e.g. from SFC, school. Maton (2005) suggests establishing the social space’s historical, local, national, international context in league tables, policy & uni view of business and VET. Semi-structured interviews will be held once a year to collect in-depth data. Staff and parents will be interviewed to collect contextual data. Bourdieu's three level approach will be used to analyse the interactions within the field, the relationships between social agents and the habitus of social actors. Daoud suggests need to see from angle of all the main players, Bourdieusain framework is useful to do this, can give meaning to complex interactions outlined by Bloomer. Level 2: Structure of relationships between agents The next level looks at the relationships between agents to include the capitals, for example cultural access to information and economic capital and access to resources, economic, social and cultural credentials of the agents and education institutions to reflect competition for resources and pedagogic products. Economic (money and assets), cultural (knowledge, tastes,aesthetic, cultural, language, narrative, voice), social (affiliations, networks, family, religious, cultural, heritage) (Thompson; 2008). Level 3: Habitus of agents (students and institutions) Bourdieu defines habitus as being owned by an individual or institution that is formed subjectively through past structure, for example, education and life histories, which helps to shape the present and future (Bourdieu; 1994). Habitus is “how the ’outer’ social and ’inner’, self help to shape each other... We carry history with us to our present being and we make choices to act in certain ways an not others. It is an ongoing and active process continually making history, but not just from our own doing.” (Maton; 2008, p. 50-51). This can compare existing data of students from different institutions for research question one and five through interpreting their accounts and individual context.