Conceptualizing vocational knowledge : Some theoretical considerations

This chapter argues that debates about the reform of vocational education have invariably neglected the question of vocational knowledge. It discusses the three approaches to knowledge that have characterized debates and reforms of Vocational Education and Training (VET) in the UK up to now. It then proposes a framework for analysing these approaches that draws on two traditions of sociological theory – social constructivism and social realism. Having identified the relationship between power and different concepts of knowledge that is made explicit by social constructivist approaches, the chapter examines in some detail the social realist approach and its distinctions between types of knowledge that were developed by Durkheim and Bernstein. Finally it suggests some implications of these analyses for the conceptualization of vocational knowledge.