A typology of occupational teachers’ capacities across the three academic levels

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the pedagogic activities of teachers, who are involved in professional or work-related provisions. It uses a dual professionalism concept at the initial stage to investigate how teachers acquire and apply their teaching know-how or capacities from curriculum development to teaching strategies. The study of the acquisition of knowledge relies on concepts by Clandinin (1985), Shulman (1987), Becher (1994) and Bernstein (1996). The understanding of the application of know-how refers to theories by Eraut (2004), Evans et al. (2010), Loo (2014) and Winch (2014). In particular, recontextualisation processes are used to understand the acquisition and application of the teachers’ capacities. In so doing, a list of contextual activities is ascertained from the various recontextualisation processes. These activities are derived from the teachers’ pedagogic activities across three academic levels and varied disciplines. Thus this chapter offers development of these analysed descriptive narratives and metaphors culminating in a typology of these teaching activities. The empirical data is from a project (Loo, 2018) which investigates the types of teaching and learning using forms of recontextualisation to understand how certain kinds of knowledge such as occupational, disciplinary and pedagogic are acquired and applied in teaching contexts. The participants teach on pre-university or technical and vocational education and training (TVET), first-degree or higher vocational and professional education. The disciplines of these teachers include gas fitting, equine studies, fashion and textiles and airline studies at the TVET level, dental hygiene and accountancy at the higher vocational level, and the training of doctors and Emergency Medicine clinicians at the professional level. There are 21 participants in total with seven from each of the three academic levels. The empirical data is drawn from a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews and supporting documents such as curriculum specifications. The findings from the analysed empirical data offer insights into how the teachers acquire and apply their pedagogic and professional know-how. Occupational knowledge refers to the teachers’ professional practices in their disciplines such as airline studies and accountancy, which are used in their teaching practices. The findings also provide additional insights into how the teachers’ capacities/know-how are selected and relocated – recontextualised – for use in the different teaching contexts and technical provisions that they deliver. In so doing, these activities offer a typology of the different recontextualisation processes about the teaching activities at the three academic levels. This typology, drawing from the different classifications of the literature review and analysed empirical data, contributes to a greater understanding of how teachers with professional practices rely on and apply their pedagogic and professional experiences to facilitate their teaching of work-related programmes. It offers different forms of disciplinary knowledge that the teachers refer to and how they make it relevant to their particular discipline. Additionally, the typology points to the symbiotic relationship between teaching and professional practices, the reliance on real-life experiences as well as the appropriate teaching strategies that are employed in education. The findings have implications for occupational teachers, managers of work-related provisions, teacher educators and policymakers.