Capacity building: beyond state and market

Abstract This article considers what happens to education under the impact of twin dynamics of neo-liberal reform and globalisation in an Australian Institute of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) located in the state of Victoria. The pattern of policy reform in TAFE is documented in order to emphasise the significant extent of marketisation, commercialization and decentralisation in the vocational education and training sector. The responses by TAFE teachers and managers to these reforms are illustrated. The analysis indicates that while some teachers and managers either actively resist or espouse these reforms, most work out innovative ways of reconciling their old educational commitments with new entrepreneurial demands. These hybrid practices or capacity-building strategies are described and theorised. The article suggests that capacity-building entails a renorming of educational practice, but questions the political significance of these emergent practices given the contested image of the capacity builder – as teacher or as soft-skill manager.