Exploring the symbiosis and tensions between vocational practices and the aspirations for vocational education and training in Aotearoa New Zealand

Transforming Vocational Education and Training (VET) to include social justice and environmental sustainability dimensions to meet 'just transitions' aspirations, globally and in Aotearoa New Zealand, requires looking beyond traditional yet narrow economic imperatives. This paper reports on the novel use of the Theory of Practice Architectures as a practice-theoretical approach to explore the conditions of possibility inherent in vocational practices as the sites where transformations for VET and just transitions occur. Using an eclectic approach to research design, an ethnographic case study of the vocation of beekeeping in a work- and study-based context was conducted over a period of one-year. The findings located tensions between the strategic focuses of the existing VET system framework in Aotearoa New Zealand against various practice arrangements and traditions of the vocational practices of beekeeping, illuminating why disparate and contentious experiences between training and work manifest. By making these tensions visible, critical questions and transformative possibilities inherent in empirical, site ontological accounts of vocational practices were identified, supporting the theoretical, strategic and practical contributions of practice-based research to inform VET research, policy and practice going forward.