The volume addresses education policy in higher education, vocational/professional education and the reform of education systems. Contributions span Africa, America, Asia, Australia and Europe. It helps researchers, policy makers, students and practitioners to understand processes of policy making, its theory, practice and outcomes.
This open access Springer Brief provides a systematic analysis of current trends and requirements in the areas of knowledge and competence in the context of the project “(A) Higher Education Digital (AHEAD)—International Horizon Scanning / Trend Analysis on Digital Higher Education.” It examines the latest developments in learning theory, didactics, and digital-education technology in connection with an increasingly digitized higher education landscape. In turn, this analysis forms the basis for envisioning higher education in 2030. Here, four learning pathways are developed to provide a glimpse of higher education in 2030: Tamagotchi, a closed ecosystem that is built around individual students who enter the university soon after secondary education; Jenga, in which universities offer a solid foundation of knowledge to build on in later phases; Lego, where the course of study is not a monolithic unit, but consists of individually combined modules of different sizes; and Transformer, where students have already acquired their own professional identities and life experiences, which they integrate into their studies. In addition, innovative practice cases are presented to illustrate each learning path.
A collection of the theories, practices, and policies of vocational education and training written by international experts The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training offers an in-depth guide to the theories, practices, and policies of vocational education and training (VET). With contributions from a panel of leading international scholars, the Handbook contains 27 authoritative essays from a wide range of disciplines. The contributors present an integrated analysis of the complex and dynamic field of VET. Drawing on the most recent research, thinking, and practice in the field, the book explores the key debates about the role of VET in the education and training systems of various nations. The Handbook reveals how expertise is developed in an age of considerable transformation in work processes, work organization, and occupational identities. The authors also examine many of the challenges of vocational education and training such as the impact of digital technologies on employment, the demand for (re)training in the context of extended working lives, the emergence of learning regions and skill ecosystems, and the professional development of vocational teachers and trainers. This important text: Offers an original view of VET’s role in both the initial and continuing development of expertise Examines the theories and concepts that underpin international perspectives and explores the differences about the purposes of VET Presents various models of learning used in VET, including apprenticeship, and their relationship with general education Explores how VET is shaped in different ways by the political economy of different countries Reviews how developments in digital technologies are changing VET practice Discusses the challenges for universities offering higher vocational education programs Draws on both recent research as well as historical accounts Written for students, researchers, and scholars in the fields of educational studies, human resource development, social policy, political economy, labor market economics, industrial relations, sociology, The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training offers an international perspective on the topic of VET.
This publication addresses the pressing issues of vocational teacher education (VTE), focusing on institutional, organizational and governance aspects. Firstly, it summarizes the results of the four-year Erasmus+ capacity-building project "New Mechanisms of Partnership-based Governance and Standardization of Vocational Teacher Education in Ukraine" (PAGOSTE), funded by the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. The project's focus has been governance in VTE in Ukraine. Secondly, it goes beyond the narrow project context and explores challenges as well as good practices in VTE systems of other countries in and outside of Europe. Therefore, contributions from England, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Germany, Austria and Switzerland complement the Ukrainian context and provide readers with a more comprehensive understanding of VTE systems.
The COVID-19 pandemic posed a serious challenge to teaching across the educational system. Many young people in Africa now perceive education as fraudulent and not useful in providing employment and sustaining their lives. Thus, it becomes sacrosanct for teachers to adjust their methods of teaching in line with the reality of our time. This book will serve to help teachers and lecturers to be dynamic, efficient and effective in their chosen profession. It was written by scholars with many years of teaching and researching on professional development in different specialties in Africa, and has been peer-reviewed by eminent and highly rated scholars from various universities throughout the continent.
The volume is devoted to the research of comparative vocational education and training, placing a special emphasis not only on theoretical development, but also on methodological approaches and on achieving excellent research outcomes by strictly concerning comparative studies in vocational education and training. This volume contains scientific contributions by renowned researchers of vocational education from all over the world.
With the exponential growth of English-Medium Instruction (EMI) provision in higher education, which is rapidly outpacing empirical research, this book outlines approaches to EMI in a range of regional contexts to exemplify different interpretations of implementing EMI policy in higher education. The book provides an in-depth understanding of evolving interpretations, challenges and current policies on a global level, through the exploration of case studies from Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Mexico, Nepal, the Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey and Vietnam. The case studies, which outline how EMI policy is implemented, are presented in three sections, at the national, institutional and classroom levels (macro, meso, and micro), using a variety of research tools, including policy analysis, stakeholders' conceptualisations of EMI, observations of EMI in practice and context analysis
Professionalization has become a given in the worlds of work and education. For a wide variety of professions, public and private organizations and training and further education courses, professionalization is an inescapable reality. However, it takes on diverse, even contradictory meanings, according to what it represents: a managerial imperative imposed by public or managerial policies, or a set of goals defined by an ideal of service or quality of work. The purpose of Encyclopedia of Professionalization is to discuss the current challenges facing professionalization and, by exploring major research traditions, to clarify the meanings associated with this concept and the various phenomena it encompasses. Three major notions of professionalization are examined: the manufacturing of professions in pursuit of autonomy, the rise of professionalisms embodying notions of a job well done, and the construction of renewed professionalities at the very heart of work situations and training systems.
This book addresses what is, perhaps, the single most important issue for vocational education; its relatively low standing in an era of high aspiration. The work explores the nature, extent and consequences for an educational sector that whilst having an increasingly important role in contemporary societies is seen to be of low standing across both countries with developed and developing economies. Some of the standing is associated with the occupation it serves and this is highlighted in an era of high aspiration by young people and their parents. The consequences are far-reaching. This includes how governments and community view and support vocational education, parents and familiars advise about participation in it and young people’s decision-making associated with their post-school pathways. More than describing this problem, the focus of this collection is how this issue can be redressed through the actions of supra-government agencies, governments, schools in tertiary education institutions, industry and professional bodies and employers. It sets out the quality and extent of societal sentiments in shaping how vocational education and the occupation it serves are projected, across countries, continents and cultures, and offers a range of perspectives and contributions from scholars on how this issue might be redressed. These contributions are drawn together and synthesised into sets of propositions, practices and approaches directed towards governments, schooling and tertiary education institutions, educators, researchers, industry and professional bodies and employers. In this way, the book seeks to provide an authoritative, seminal, comprehensive and central text to understand and respond to this central issue for vocational education.
An important contribution to the international discussion on higher education globalization and worldwide rankings of higher education institutions, this volume criticizes the existing one-dimensional and aggregated international ranking models and suggests an interesting and exciting new approach of multi-dimensional mapping of higher education institutions. The text gives readers a window on the unique process of developing a new approach to creating effective transparency in the diversity of higher education systems. It describes the conceptual, practical and methodological frameworks relevant to this new approach, whose development was based on theoretical and empirical literature on diversity in higher education. The authors report on the design methodology and research that were applied to develop the new instrument and also place it in the context of current supranational and national higher education policies. The new system emerged from a top-level EU project to design the first European classification of higher education institutions as a tool for mapping the diversity of the higher education landscape. The editor and chapter authors are all international leaders in the field who took part in the multi-year project. They also explore the potential application of the classification in the contexts of the Bologna Process and the European Higher Education and Research Areas (EHEA and ERA). The book analyzes, too, how the system can be used at the level of individual higher education institutions, where the classification is shown to be a useful instrument for strategic institutional profiling. This volume will be of interest to politicians and policy-makers in higher education at the supranational, national and sub-national levels, and to leaders and managers of higher education institutions and associations. It is also highly relevant to staff members and advisors at different policy levels, to higher education researchers and students, and to all who are interested in the further development of higher education systems and institutions.