Training for a Profession as a Vocational Teacher: The Transition from the Course to the Workplace

Vocational colleges in Denmark, teacher professionalism, and coherence

Vocational teachers’ pedagogic education and its historical development can be seen in the light of an expanding state and growing professionalism (Duch & Andreasen, 2017a). During the course, the teachers teach at vocational colleges, and the state has played a central role in developing the dual model at vocational colleges, in other words, the education takes place at the vocational colleges as well as in practical training (Greinert, 2004). The above-mentioned changes to the governance of vocational colleges and the teacher training can be seen as altered relations between the welfare state, bureaucracy, and professionals (Carvalho, 2012). Welfare issues such as social inequality and the match between labour, supply, and demand are politically and administratively handled via reforms of vocational educations (Jørgensen, 2014). The relation between bureaucracy and professionals—in this case at vocational colleges—may vary as some professionals operate in the bureaucracy as managers and administrators designing organizational and administrative frameworks, while employees in collegial collaborations may establish other forms of professionalism with different relations to bureaucracy (Evetts, 2009). At vocational colleges, this is manifested in evaluations and quality systems (Friche, 2010). Likewise, the political-administrative systems, the managers’ organizations and the teachers’ organizations have different takes on why the new teacher training program was needed (Duch & Rasmussen, 2016). The consequence may be, as the analysis will examine, that two different professions at the same vocational college have different understandings of transitions from the course to the workplace. Different approaches to teacher training courses in an educational market may, therefore, become decisive in the sense that marketization concerns not only external factors such as supply in a market but also the internal significance of marketization when professional groups have different priorities (e.g., Fejes, Runesdotter, & Wärvik, 2016).

Research questions

As mentioned, the new teacher training course changes how vocational colleges formally plan practical training and integration in the course, which may require new administrative and managerial approaches at the colleges. Likewise, the new course requires that teachers within such organizational frameworks use the pedagogic training. The research question is: Which organizational frameworks are planned by managers for teacher training, and how do the vocational college teachers apply the pedagogic training using collegial teamwork? Based on the answer to the question, the managers’ and the teachers’ approaches are compared in order to discuss how coherence can be qualified in a marketized education program. The purpose is to qualify teachers’ education to benefit students’ learning at vocational colleges.

Analytical tools

British professor Julia Evetts (2003; 2009; 2011; 2013) studies professions in terms of different traditions, values in professions and the conceptual development of theories of professions. This article is based on her ideal types of professionalism (Evetts, 2009). Evetts identifies two ideal types of professionalism, organizational professionalism and occupational professionalism, which are constructed for micro- and macro-levels but are applicable to analyses at the micro-level, which she finds particularly interesting: “the complexities at micro levels are particularly interesting and worthy of further analysis” (Evetts, 2009, p. 248). Evetts’ aim is to demonstrate that a new form of professionalism has emerged as a consequence of new public management and how this new form differs from earlier forms of professionalism.

Organizational professionalism implies a controlling discourse that is based on rational and formal authority. The basis is standardized procedures defined in a hierarchical decision-making structure. The occupational professionalism is the discourse that teachers create as professionals. There is a collegial authority, and the work is controlled by the professionals based on their professional discretion. The authority is assigned via trust from students and employers, for example, businesses, and employers at the vocational college, for example managers, whereas control is exercised by the practitioners. The two forms of professionalism are illustrated in Table 1.

The columns in the table show the ideal types of professionalism and the rows show the discourse, authority, procedures, decision-making and control as described above.

In this article, the two forms of professionalism are analysed in light of the program for vocational teachers and its effect on tasks at vocational colleges, both for managers and teachers. I use the ideal types as analytical tools for my empirical study of different understandings and practices of professionalism and apply them at two levels: at the meso-level in order to analyse administratively constructed models at four colleges, and at the micro-level to analyse two teachers’ learning trajectories that deviate from the school models because the teachers participate in collegial teamwork. Organizational professionalism is thus understood as the managers’ intended and planned learning trajectories for the employees, and occupational professionalism is seen in light of the teachers’ experienced learning trajectories at the vocational college. Learning trajectories are here seen in a socio-cultural tradition that recognizes formal as well as informal learning (Eraut, 2010; 2011).

The implication of using Evetts’ ideal types is that teachers and managers are seen as separate actors, although in reality, from a social cultural standpoint, they are two sides of the same coin in an organization. However, as an analytical tool, it is helpful to analyse the actors, managers and teachers from the point of departure that their professionalisms differ. In academia, it is discussed whether and how professionalism should be understood in new ways in view of current societal developments (Noordegraaf, 2007; 2015). Using concepts such as hybridized professionalism and organizing professionalism, Noordegraaf (2007; 2015) demonstrates that professionalism is developing in relation to its surroundings, which is in line with the changes Evetts (2003; 2009) analyses. The point of using ideal types as analytical tool is to examine two diverging conceptions in a specific context instead of going into a more general theme of the development of professionalism.

In the analysis of the workplace context, I apply Professor Michael Eraut’s approach, which is based on his empirical analyses. Eraut (2007, p. 418) lists three important factors for new employees’ learning at their workplace: allocation and structuring of work, including individual participation, expectations to employees’ performance and progress, and challenges and relations at work. As far as supporting individual employee’s learning trajectory in the workplace, Eraut (2011, p. 11) mentions teamwork and emphasizes collaborative work, facilitating social relations, joint planning and the ability to engage in and promote mutual learning. I use these terms to categorize the teachers’ learning trajectories in collegial teamwork (see Table 2, Appendix 1 below).

Method

The article is based on focus group interviews with managers in the fall of 2014 from four vocational colleges with very different approaches to teacher training (Barbour, 2007). Follow-up meetings with the management were held in 2015 and 2016. The managers represent the strategic, the organizational and the practical matters in relation to the teachers’ education. They are hierarchically placed in the organization—some are in top management, some are in mid-level management, and some are close to the teachers and the daily teaching. As a group, their statements thus range from strategic approaches to practical problem solving. I interviewed two managers at one school and three managers at three schools. The schools chose the managers and the number of managers to inform about the different levels in the organization in relation to the teacher training course. In the interviews, I asked about the school viewpoint on the course and how it works to integrate it; how they view the coherence between workplace and course. I also conduct document analyses of school procedures to examine how the schools work with the teacher course (Prior, 2011). In the analysis, I focus on two of the four colleges, as cases with variation (Yin, 2014): a technical college and a health and social care college, with procedures that emphasize the period before and the period during the program and representing different views on learning trajectories. Table 2 (Appendix 1) gives an overview of the school models.

Focus group interviews were held at each of the four vocational colleges. Teachers were interviewed with a focus on their application of the curriculum in their teaching. Two focus group interviews with the same teachers were conducted at three of the colleges during spring and fall 2016; only one focus group interview was conducted at the commercial college, since the teachers had completed or were close to completing the course. A total of 20 teachers are included in the study. Eight were observed for one day in their classroom at the vocational college (see Table 2, Appendix 1). The observations focus on how the teachers apply the curriculum in their teaching, and the meaning and form of collegial teamwork vary significantly. In the two selected cases, colleagues at the team office play a central role socially and in terms of joint planning. The other informants mention collegial teamwork, but the role of the physical premises stands out in observations of Brian and Bodil (teachers at the colleges), and they and their school are therefore central cases in the analysis. The method is participant observation in the sense that I spoke sporadically with colleagues and students but communicated continuously with the informant about using the course (Kristiansen & Krogstrup, 2015). The observation day starts with a brief meeting where the teacher being observed informs the observer of the didactics in the day’s classes at the vocational college and ends with a recapitulation.

The question technique and interview guides were very open, and only in the later categorization did I use the above-mentioned approach to teamwork. The focus group interviews and individual interviews have been transcribed (Bloor, 2001), and field notes were typed up immediately after observations (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 2001).

The initial analyses focused on the total material (Table 2, Appendix 1), after which two cases were selected, for example, the technical college with the teacher Brian and the health and social care college with the teacher Bodil. Below, the managers’ planning of the organizational framework for the course and the teachers’ transition from course to workplace are analysed.

Management’s control of transition from the course to the workplace

The analysis consists of two parts: organizational professionalism (i.e., the management’s planned model for transition from the course to the workplace) and occupational professionalism (i.e., the teachers’ transition from the course to the workplace).

At all the colleges, the managers have developed a standardized procedure for handling the course: the technical college have a pre-course procedure, the health and social care college have a during-course procedure. Both models contain some measure of control. The difference lies in the ‘authority’ in relation to the outcome of the program (Evetts, 2009). The health and social care college has a rational approach; the objective is to change practice, and one of the outcomes, amongst others, is defined as including IT in teaching. The management anchors the model in theories on transfer, and, in that sense, the model has an explicit learning vision. Teachers are paired and conduct a teaching experiment in the classroom that is observed by a colleague. The expectation is that this will link teaching and the course. Likewise, management has decided that employees learn most by being with colleagues employed in the same type of vocational college and with a similar educational background. This implies a hierarchy of vocational teachers in different types of vocational programs (Duch & Andreasen, 2015). We might say that the transition is well defined and management imposed.

The technical college only operates with pre-course procedures, among other things in order to prepare the teachers for completing the program. The aim is that HR managers establish a dialogue with the teachers to support their learning objectives, but the individual teachers define their goals. This indicates a broad learning vision, and the managers at the college emphasize the integration of new pedagogic knowledge in the organization. The aim is to find a qualified approach to the course as alternating training, but a specific method has not been defined.

Based on the concept of organizational professionalism, we can thus say that the managers have designed rational models to comply with the above-mentioned formal requirements for vocational colleges and to handle the educational requirements for the teachers via an organizational, standardized approach. At the health and social care college, the model reaches all the way into the classroom, whereas the technical college emphasizes preparation for the course and engages in ongoing dialogue afterwards. This model is less hierarchical regarding how individual teachers can apply their training in their teaching.

At the two other colleges, the school models differ. The school models at the commercial college and the combined college focus on the time during the course, but the understanding of transition is different. The combined college emphasizes the coaching of employees directly in relation to exam papers but in the long term sees the teachers as agents in the realization of its pedagogic value basis in close cooperation with the management. The commercial college involves teachers in the course directly in its committees as a means of organizational learning. An underlying objective of the models—except at the social and health care college—is to ensure that the employees are prepared for the educational level in the course, which may be especially challenging for teachers in technical subjects, as many of them are skilled workers (Duch, 2016).

Teachers’ transition from the course to the workplace

After having analysed school models, I now address teachers’ transition from the course to the workplace. Using Eraut’s (2011) terms, the potential for collaborative work differs widely for the eight teachers who were observed (see Table 2). Uffe from the technical colleges does collaborative work, the teachers at the health and social care college explicitly demand it, and the teachers at the combined college talk about it in the interviews. Facilitation of social relations is observed for Brian from the technical college, Bodil from the health and social care college, and Tue from the combined college. All observations except one include joint planning—Dorthe is only observed in the classroom. The ability to engage in and promote mutual learning is mentioned by Brian from the technical college and is expressed as a wish by the other teachers. Three teachers—Tue, Bodil, and Brian—deviate in the sense that all the mentioned forms of collegial collaboration are present in the data. Since both Tue and Brian teach in technical programs at vocational colleges, even though they are employed at different schools, Brian is chosen as a case in the following analysis, as is Bodil. Tue, unlike Brian, finds it difficult to apply knowledge from the course in his teaching, and he emphasizes collaboration and pedagogics less. As mentioned, the cases were selected to ensure variation in terms of vocational colleges, school models and their transition from the course to the workplace. In addition, the role of the physical premises stands out in the cases of Bodil and Brian. The facilitation of social relations is not observed in the case of Fie, even though she works at the same vocational college as Bodil.

Bodil is observed on one day of teaching at the health and social care college and Brian is observed at a technical college. During the day, they both spend time at an office where they discuss current teaching-related issues with a few, close colleagues. They both have approximately four years of teaching experience, are around 40 years of age, but their educational backgrounds differ. Brian has a four-year vocational education at EQF level 3 or 4, Bodil has a 3.5-year, medium-cycle higher education at EQF level 6. Brian says that he and the team have developed both the content and the organization of the teaching he implements. In Evetts’ (2009) terms, the procedures are thus developed by the teachers. Bodil sees the process as management-imposed, so she and the team attempt to fill out a framework that they basically see as flawed. These procedures are, in Evetts’ (2009) terms, standardized. Both teachers are organizationally interested and involved. Brian finds that he is included by the management and has great autonomy and influence; Bodil experiences success in being able to influence forward-looking organizational initiatives and in counteracting management decisions that she sees as detrimental. Bodil encounters inconsistencies and barriers to the teaching she wants to practice based on knowledge she has gained in the course, whereas Brian focuses on new opportunities. In Evetts’ (2009) terms, “trust” between the teacher and the management differs.

They also have different experiences with the course. In the first focus group interview, Brian talks about unexpected success in the educational system, getting good grades and devoting a lot of resources to decoding the examination system. Bodil finds the exams easy, and she talks about differences in relation to her former job in the healthcare sector and misses opportunities to work with the vocational education at a higher theoretical and reflective level. Brian finds it more difficult to transfer knowledge from the course to his own teaching. However, they both see collegial collaboration and social relations in the office as central. In Evetts’ (2009) terms, they both prefer that the professionals construct the discourse, the authority and the procedures.

Coherence in a diverse market

The analyses lead to the conclusion that school models, as an expression of organizational professionalism, represent different forms of rational procedures. However, managers have different approaches to establishing coherence between the vocational college as an organization and the teacher training course. The social and health care college has chosen a special learning approach and procedure that emphasizes direct transformation to teaching at the college. The technical college focuses on supporting the individual teachers and their goals to ensure pedagogic development. As mentioned, the two other colleges have different models.

If we compare school models with the form of occupational professionalism as it appears in observations and focus group interviews with teachers, a different picture emerges. At the social and health care college, the case with Bodil shows social relations and joint planning, but she expresses that she prefers teamwork and the ability for mutual learning. Her learning trajectories deviate from the assumptions in the school model. The case of Brian at the technical college demonstrates a professionalism that is developed via teamwork, social relations, joint planning, and mutual learning. One interpretation is that there is coherence between this and the school model, since teamwork supports his individual goals and thus potentially his pedagogic development, which is a goal of the school model. According to Brian, there are different collegial discourses, so the coherence that emerges is not clear-cut or general to the school.

The technical college and the health and social care college have different approaches to organizational professionalism, and Bodil’s and Brian’s learning trajectories in occupational professionalism differ even though they both participate in collegial collaboration, which contributes to shaping their professionalism. The school models do not appear to play a central role in the teachers’ work day; instead, Brian forms alliances with his team and others who favour pedagogy, but he sees himself as being in opposition to another group of teachers. We can thus say that overall the course reinforces Brian’s professionalism in an interplay with the team (Muzio & Kirkpatrick, 2011). In contrast, the course polarizes Bodil in relation to the managers, because she is now in a position to argue against their decision and her autonomy in pedagogic planning has been restricted. Conceptually, this amounts to a reduction of her work as a teacher, and we can theoretically talk about a change of the profession or a new form of professionalism (Muzio & Kirkpatrick, 2011; Noordegraaf, 2007; 2015). Evetts’ (2009) two ideal types thus analytically illustrate certain difficulties in transforming knowledge from a teacher training course into an organizational context due to a discrepancy between the intended learning trajectory in the management’s school model and the learning trajectory experienced by teachers and demonstrated in observations. The question is whether the two forms of professionalism can be developed and can support each other via learning processes supported by management or colleagues, which Eraut (2010) finds to be crucial in his analyses of newly graduated professionals. As mentioned, the teachers, except Brian, talk about forms of collaboration that are not being practiced and lacking possibilities for learning through collaboration. Based on this, all the teachers have opportunities for development, even though we have to talk about personal professionalism, as they all exhibit different learning trajectories and professionalism (Bathmaker & Avis, 2013).

As described in the introduction, the teachers’ training course takes place in a market that is affected by various factors, for instance whether the supply of modules matches the schools’ logistics in terms of planning, the geographic placement of modules and the price. The above analyses draw attention to the issue of whether the supply promotes organizational and occupational professionalism. Bodil’s and Brian’s cases illustrate a point here. In Brian’s case, a connection is formed between what he calls “bodies” that favour pedagogy and the team’s collegial work. The school model, the teamwork and the course encourage him to pursue a professionalism that goes against that of other colleagues. Brian becomes a frontrunner and the client—in this case, those who favour pedagogy—in a market logic is satisfied. The challenge to the vocational college and to the provider of the course is those colleagues who are not participating in the process of change. The market challenge is thus whether the client sees this need and whether the provider can deliver ‘a product’ that covers this new demand. It cannot be a standard product, since the colleague at the same technical college does not participate in similar collegial collaborations, see. Table 2. In other words, the market exhibits some diversity, and internal relations at the vocational colleges may demand different things from a provider (Fejes et al., 2016).

In Bodil’s case, we do not find the same coherence between organizational and occupational professionalism, since she also wants collegial collaboration that is not possible. In a market situation, providers thus have to choose between educating for an occupational profession where the management does not assign the same value to collegial collaboration (the school model and standardized procedures) and the teachers. The providers therefore have to be able to deliver an educational product that satisfies managers as well as teachers, and this requires different supplies. Likewise, technical colleges and health and social work colleges have different demands for providers in terms of organizational learning.

The above analyses give rise to the question of how interaction between the two forms of professionalism can be promoted with a view to coherence and thus increased use of the teacher training course in teaching at vocational colleges. As possible answer is found in the concept of hybrid professionalism with reflexive practice and trade-offs in the relation between organizational and occupational professionalism or in organizing professionalism, where professionals take on new roles (Noordegraaf, 2007; 2015). Such new understandings of professionalism can challenge the content in the existing teacher training course. The practical implications of this understanding in the context of vocational colleges require more research.