Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Workplace Relations

Inquiry into the Role of Institutes of TAFE
Submissions

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Submission 61

Griffith University

Queensland

October, 1997

 

Submission to House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training

on the appropriate roles of institutes of technical and further education;

and the extent to which those roles should overlap with universities

 

Contents

Overview
Recommendations
Introduction
The Current Situation
Bases for Intervention
A Desirable Future Australia
A Productive Australia
Productivity in Relation to the Individual and Society
Vocational Education
Desirable Institutional Arrangements
Conclusions
References

Overview

"A vocation means nothing but such a direction of life activities as renders them perceptibly significant to a person, because of the consequences they accomplish, and also useful to his [sic] associates. Occupation is a concrete term for continuity. It includes the development of artistic capacity of any kind, of special scientific ability, of effective citizenship, as well as professional and business occupations, to say nothing of mechanical labor or engagement in gainful pursuits. We must avoid not only limitation of conception of vocation to the occupations where immediately tangible commodities are produced, but also the notion that vocations are distributed in an exclusive way, one and only one to each person ... In the first place, each individual has of necessity a variety of callings, in each of which he should be intelligently effective; and in the second place any one occupation loses its meaning and becomes a routine keeping busy at something in the degree in which it is isolated from other interests. No one is just an artist and nothing else, and in so far as one approximates that condition, he is so much the less developed human being; he is some kind of monstrosity. He must, at some period of his life, be a member of a family; he must have friends and companions; he must either support himself or be supported by others, and thus he has a business career. He is a member of some organized political unit, and so on. We naturally name his vocation from that one of his callings which distinguishes him, rather than from those which he has in common with all others. But we should not allow ourselves to be so subject to words as to ignore and virtually deny his other callings when it comes to consideration of the vocational phases of education." (Dewey, 1916, pp 307-308)

The nature of a desirable future Australia and a vision for a productive Australia compel fresh approaches to education as a whole and vocational education in particular. What is required is a more holistic view of vocation, affording value to a broad set of knowledges.

The current problems and issues for vocational education derive, in part, from dated ideas about the nature of production and required vocational knowledge. Moreover, they are out of kilter with desirable directions for Australian society as a whole and do not develop the knowledge needed to contribute to achieving such desired change. Changes in production, changes in required knowledge, and changes in societal -goals as well as changes that have occurred in the nature and range of Australian educational activities have eroded the distinctiveness of the mission and role of Institutes of TAFE. Moreover, the contemporary TAFE focus on vocational knowledge circumscribes their possible role in lifelong learning

The required changes necessitate a clear definition of the role of Institutes of TAFE and universities. Too much blurring may be hazardous as TAFE Institutes place a high value on practical knowledge and provide access to a diversity of students.

 

Recommendations

Recommendation I

Arrangements for educational institutions in Australia be based on a vision of a desirable future Australia, including a vision for a productive Australia. From this perspective, contemporary problems and issues are addressed more substantively and the likelihood is increased that more coherent and long lasting adjustments are made to the range of educational opportunities in Australia.

 

Recommendation 2

Visions for the role of education in Australia be inclusive of the needs of both individuals and society as a whole as well as interaction between them.

That

• the needs of individuals be taken to include knowledge, personal control and responsibility;
• the needs of individuals in relation with others: caring, justice, equity, harmony, interdependence, collaboration; and
• the needs of society: local, national and international interests and interrelationships, the economy, the environment. research and knowledge development.

 

Recommendation 3

Institutional arrangements for education be devised to overcome dominance of single sets of interests over others.

 

Recommendation 4

Counterbalances to competition be established to ensure that the long-term development and reproduction of necessary skills and knowledge, both in the labourforce and in the means of production of educational services, are not jeopardised.

 

Recommendation 5

The role of vocational education be taken to include not only capacities for technical activities, and the economic knowledges suggested in Table 4, but also:

• enables individuals to construct meaning,
• transforms individuals,
• enables individuals to engage in activities they find fulfilling, enables individuals to come to know themselves and society more fully, enables individuals to contribute to society as a whole through developing such characteristics as those given in Table 1,
• develops the re-constituting capacities listed in Table 5, and
• encourages critical voices in society.

 

Recommendation 6

Education be centred on the individual and the connectedness among the individuals' vocations in life, where vocation is taken to include not only paid productive work in an occupation, but also any other calling in which a person wishes to be effective and which they find personally and socially significant.

 

Recommendation 7

It is recommended that any changes in tertiary educational institutional arrangements advance existing arrangements against the following criteria

i. Interests

• Meet individual needs
• Advance social priorities (eg ecological, inter-cultural, quality of life, educational development of particular social groups (indigenous, NESB learners, ..), economic (macro-economic, enterprises), government - national, state and local, non-profit groups)
• Include plural interests in decision-making (personal, societal and economic)
• Advance the creation and advancement of knowledge
• Are adequately funded (responsibilities and sources)

ii. Access

• Provide equitable forms of entry
• Overcome disadvantage in delivery
• Articulate and advance recognition of existing knowledge
• Provide recognised credentials

iii. Curricula

• Develop knowledge for lifelong individual development
• Give equal weight to theoretical and practical knowledge
• Develop knowledge for responsible societal advancement

economic

cultural

intercultural

critical

ecological

knowledge development

 

Recommendation 8

Changes in tertiary institutional arrangements should be such that:

• high value continues to be afforded to both practical and theoretical knowledge
• the knowledge developed for vocational purposes focus primarily on the needs of individuals in relation to those vocations and the relationships between that vocation and the advancement of plural societal goals, both as important contexts for the development of specialised practical and theoretical knowledge
• special attention is given to the development of critical knowledge in vocational education
• a renewed focus on adult education and lifelong learning be focused in TAFE

 

Recommendation 9

Cooperation and collaboration should be encouraged between TAFE Institutes and universities in order to develop a fuller range of vocational knowledge and achieve fuller provision of a diverse range of educational services across the community. Such arrangements should acknowledge a renewed focus on adult lifelong learning for TAFE in the context of distinctive roles of TAFEs and universities.

 

Introduction

The last ten years have seen significant changes in the structures and expectations of tertiary education institutions in Australia. Vocational education has been transformed from a sector that was largely constituted by TAFE provisions, to the current circumstances where TAFE institutes are now but part of the provision for vocational education; and from a situation where the activities of TAFE institutes were distinct from higher education, to one where their is contestation about the boundaries and relationships between the activities of these kinds of institutions.

Dominant factors in impelling these changes have been an attempt to constrain public expenditure on education as a whole, an attempt to relate education more closely to economic reform, and an attempt to secure greater economic efficiencies in the delivery of tertiary education. Rather than fashioning a response to the current inquiry, confined to an appraisal of current circumstances and changes, this submission takes as its starting point the role that education should play in the social and economic development of Australia and the nature of social and economic change. From these considerations, goals and roles of vocational education are advanced, and then possible institutional arrangements are suggested.

Thus, in this submission, the two terms of reference :
i. the appropriate roles of institutes of technical and further education; and
ii. the extent to which those roles should overlap with universities
are addressed as follows.

First, the current situation of Institutes of TAFE is set in context in relation to other educational activities, the role of education generally, especially in relation to production and the public good, and changes in society and the economy. Problems and issues are identified, and bases are suggested for intervention. These bases are advanced from considerations of the relationships among production and other aspects of society, are outlined, and are then used to fashion recommendations related to the two terms of reference of the inquiry.

 

The Current Situation

In Australia, there exists a range of educational sectors and institutions. This range has developed to meet different kinds of perceived needs of individuals and of society as a whole. For the individual, the needs include their own growth and development across the lifespan, and, for society as a whole, the needs include the following to advance and develop justly and equitably culturally, socially, democratically, technologically, politically and economically, with due concern for citizens, the environment, and international relationships.

As in other countries, Australia has developed broad sectors that can be labelled schooling, vocational education and higher education. Pressures for change within these sectors have generally emanated from

i. crises within the productive sectors of the Australian economy;

ii the developing roles and policies of Government and its institutions; and

iii the evolution of cultural institutions and aspirations within Australian society, including those of the individual and family within the context of inclusivity and social justice.

Some of the inter-related developments (most relevant to the immediate circumstances of technical and further education in Australia ) which have given rise to the current set of institutional arrangements are:

• the rapid rate of technological innovation associated with economic activity
• historically high levels of unemployment, especially among the young
• gradual lengthening of the extent of compulsory education and increased participation in later years of schooling
• increased student demand for university places,
• implementation of national frameworks for qualifications standardisation, and
• increased distribution of responsibilities for vocational education across public institutions (schools, TAFE colleges, universities), industry and the private sector.

In arriving at the current arrangements, Australia has:

• created Colleges of Advanced Education, but eventually amalgamated them with Universities, creating a diverse university sector
• created a TAFE sector which brought together and formalised technical and adult education, but gradually led to diminished public provision of adult enrichment courses
• established government bodies charged with improving and expanding vocational education (eg National Training Board and ANTA)
• sought to encourage industry to engage in more training (through such devices as levies and membership of ITABs)
• continued to re-shape the vocational education sector through such devices as competency-based training, qualification frameworks, competitive funding basis, increased private provision, and narrowing of the time horizons and scope of vocational courses and
• increased the opportunities for vocational education in schools (through expansion of the range of credentials and the elements that are recognised on credentials)

Despite the current arrangements and the interventions that have led to them, many problematic issues, such as the following, still exist:

• the low status of vocational education and its impact on student demand
• establishing desirable relationships among learning producing and living
• establishing coherent relationships among "vocational", "academic" and" general" education
• preparing people for changing structures and relationships in society
• identifying and developing knowledge that prepares learners for known and unknown future work situations
• achieving specialisation, skilfulness and job readiness for particular workplaces
• establishing coherent relationships across educational activities and institutions
• low levels of industry training
• dissatisfaction of industry with the nature of knowledge that young people bring to the workplace

There is a range of social variables which are involved. These variables interact to create the current situation and can be modified to effect changes.

The operation of variables relating to social values and institutions as well as broad economic and social factors contributing to the stability of any given situation is mediated by a number of social processes, for instance those of say:

• political processes: executive Government, parliament, law
• financial arrangements
• news media
• entertainment
• market place
• work force
• family
• person/affective relationships
• family
• education

Thus, it is to education that an important role falls in contributing, to the current nature and problems of vocational and other forms of education in Australian society. However, education is but one of the mediating influences. Moreover, attempts to bring about change in major economic areas such as employment for example, through changes in education, will be sustainable only if they take account of some of the inter-relationships that are involved. In seeking then to intervene, firm bases for intervention, that take account of social mediation and the representation of interests in this mediation are important. The next section advances such bases.

 

Bases for Intervention

Against the long evolution of institutional arrangement in education in Australia and like countries, and the continuing problems that confront these institutions in meeting both individual and societal needs, this submission suggests that at least three inter-related bases for further interventions are needed. These are:

• a vision of a desirable future Australia (focusing on values and aspirations)
• a vision of a productive Australia (focusing on production: enterprises, labour, capital, aggregated formations)
• a clear understanding of the kinds of knowledges that are required to achieve these visions and their interrelationships

Against such substantive basis for further adjustment of the provision of educational opportunities in Australia, any changes may have a granter likelihood of overcoming seemingly trenchant problems. The remainder of this paper seeks to advance such visions and goals and to recommend changes in current arrangements that are necessary.

 

Recommendation I

Arrangements for educational institutions in Australia be based on a vision of a desirable future Australia, including a vision for a productive Australia. From this perspective, contemporary problems and issues are addressed more substantively and the likelihood is increased that more coherent and long lasting adjustments are made to the range of educational opportunities in Australia

 

A Desirable Future Australia

"the educational activities promoted by any society are intimately connected with what that society believes is a valuable form of life. Furthermore the particular values embodied in what is designated to be educational will be about the kind of persons that the society wishes its young people to grow up into - the kind of sensitivities, mental powers, basic skills and knowledge that are embodied in the traditions and the aspirations of that society.... Different societies will emphasize different values." (Pring, 1986: 181-182)

Campbell, McMeniman and Baikaloff (1992 a, b) used a Delphi technique, to identify the visions of leading Australian thinkers about a desirable future Australia, followed by multi-dimensional scaling, to cluster the goals that they identified. A total of 22 goals was identified and concept maps based on these goals were elicited. In their analysis of concept maps based on these goals five levels of goals were derived as depicted in Table 1.

While there may be other visions for a desirable Australia, the one depicted in Table I is a good starting point for identifying the kinds of knowledges that people need. For example, the individual and societal concerns which are represented in these levels, range across the development and transformation of individuals through to concerns about the planet and non-human life and about the economy. From this Table, one can identify three kinds of needs for human development in achieving a desirable future Australia. These are the development of-

• the individual in relation to the self (eg. knowledge, self-control and responsibility)
• the individual's relationships with others (eg. caring, justice, equity, harmony, inter-dependence, collaboration)
• society itself (eg. local, national and international interests and inter-relationships; the economy; the environment, research and knowledge development)

 

Table 1: A goal value system for a desirable future Australia (Campbell, McMeniman & Baikaloff, 1992 b, pp. 19-20)

Level	Goal Sets
1	A society which values its members intrinsically: ascription of inherent worth; care and compassion; equitable treatment
2	A society which displays international and ecological responsibility: concern for persons throughout the planet; ecologically sustainable developments; protection of flora and fauna A society which is committed to the development of individuals within an overarching concern with moral responsibility: knowledge; higher order cognitions; empathy; sense of personal control; spirituality/human spirit
3	A society with caring processes of interaction: harmony; collaboration
4	A society which provides supportive networks: families; neighbourhoods A society which offers supportive identities: national; regional; global
5	A society with a robust economy: intellectually driven; value added; diversified-based

 

Recommendation 2

Visions for the role of education in Australia be inclusive of the needs of both individuals and society as a whole as well as interaction between them

That

• the needs of individuals be taken to include knowledge, personal control and responsibility;
• the needs of individuals in relation with others: caring, justice, equity, harmony, inter-dependence, collaboration; and
• the needs of society: local, national and international interests and interrelationships, the economy, the environment, research and knowledge development.

Some of these emphases are emphasised more than others in different periods in our recent history, in Australia, the UK and the USA, paralleling socioeconomic crises, as depicted in Table 2. As can be seen from the table, while there has been some alternation between emphases on the individual and on society, there have been periods when there has been some emphasis on both. As the table also indicates, the emphases on the individual or society and on both have not been inclusive of the full range of concerns identified in Table 1. For example, it is often the case that the needs of society are totally represented as the perceived needs of industry.

 

Table 2: Changes in Educational Emphases over Time (Modified from Stevenson, 1993b)

EMPHASES	CRISES	CHARACTERISTICS
Individual Development: Learning from experience and doing (also an instrument of social improvement) (Dewey, 1916)		Progressive Organisation of ideas and information through construction and reconstruction of experience in pursuit of vocation
Needs of Society: Scientific efficiency (Bobbitt, 1924; Charters, 1924)	Post-war reconstruction; Great Depression	Develop routinised automated manual dexterity, related to industrial demands
Individual Development: Needs of Society: Tyler, 1949		Studies of the learner, the subject matter and society; aim for plural outcomes drawn from all aspects of social life
Needs of Society: Behaviourism (Mager, 1962; Skinner, 1954)	Depression	Develop observable, measurable performance on predicted tasks
Individual Development: Humanism (Maslow, 1971; Rogers, 1969) Adult learning (Knowles, 1979, 1980); UNESCO Report on Learning to Be (Faure et al, 1972)		Help individuals to develop in ways that are important to them
Needs of Society: OECD Report on Competencies Needed in Working Life (OECD, 1980)	Depression, 1983	Develop functional competence for work as needed in changing workplaces
Individual Development: Reform of Society:- Critical Theory in Adult Education (eg. Boud, 1987; Brookfield, 1987, 1988, 1992; Mezirow, 1985)		Empower through learning, and unmask oppression, so that "right" action can be determined and pursued
Needs of Society: Industry driven education (National Board of Employment, Education and Training, 1988; Secretaries of State for Education and Science, Employment and Wales, 199 1; William T Grant Foundation Commission on Work, Family and Citizenship, 1991)	High levels of youth unemployment, economic and political crisis	Teach to industrial standards and for industrial needs in changing workplaces. Develop competencies", and "core skills"
Late 1990s Reform of Society: Redefinitions of work and working life (Handy, 1989) Flexible accumulation of capital and Post-Fordism(Harvey, 1989) Competition for the provision of education and training-. Conversion strategies e.-. flexibility in delivery, credit transfer, workplace learning	Decreased role of government, conversion from public to private spheres	Intellective and connective skills; mobile knowledge worker; symbolic analysts
Needs of Society: New categories of workers for a global economy (Karpin, West)

 

Recommendation 3

Institutional arrangements for edification be devised to overcome dominance of single sets of interests over others.

 

Recommendation 4

Counterbalances to competition be established to ensure that the long-term development and reproduction of necessary skills and knowledge, both In the labour force and in the means of production of educational services, are not jeopardised.

 

A Productive Australia

The question of what does and will constitutes productivity in contemporary and future workplaces is problematic. There is now a considerable literature suggesting discontinuities in economic directions, and these have been conceptualised as post-Fordist, post-Eurocommunist, post-structuralist, postmodernist, post-cultural and so on. While such theses are contestable, the bases on which they are derived merit consideration. Some of the bases are:

• The structure of economies is changing with respect to the individual, familial, local, national, and global dimensions of production
• The balance is moving from core to peripheral work with implications for both and for a layering of society
• The life spans of a job, an individual's attachment to an employer, an individual's career and an individual's life plans are reducing
• The balance of what constitutes productive work is shifting from design and making of goods and provision of services to the continuous re-visualising, re-financing, re-creating and re-marketing of new and different goods, services and spectacles
• Global foci, mobility in work, and use of technology for attending and doing work are increasing
• Access to work is reducing; there are increasing demands for welfare; and the need for individual subsistence measures is increasing
• Current extensions of the pre-crisis period are being achieved through increasing consumerism; increasing individual, company, national and global indebtedness; increasing intensity of work for those wit h jobs; time and spatial displacement of resourcing, production and consumption; increasing invasion of private life by work; and increasing commodification of culture and relationships
• There are increasing needs for new kinds of knowledge and knowledge production, symbolic analysts, intellective and connective skills and flexible specialisation

Thus, there is a tension between what can be argued are new, qualitatively different, economic circumstances, and what can be argued are merely current devices for extending past economic circumstances. Nevertheless, what seems to be emerging (even in the streets of Australia, today) is a continuum of kinds of work as depicted in Table 3. Although the table identifies two ends of a continuum with a point in-between; rather, the reality is probably greater continuity between the two ends.

 

Table 3: Continuum of Economic Conditions suggested by Contemporary Economic Discourse

Core Work	Intermediate Work	Peripheral Work
Intensive technological innovation	Intensive technological application	Intensive technological services
Global competitiveness, financing, design, production and marketing of goods, services and spectacles	Immediate productivity/ Intensification of labour	Sweatshops
Paper, commercial and marketing entrepreneurialism; Creating new sectors of production	Adaptation to new enterprises Automation, deskilling/ Loss traditional craft skills	Subsistence Entrepreneurialis in the production of goods, service and spectacles; Artisanship / craft / technological expertise
Extensive mental labour/ challenge	Breakdown of division between mental and manual labour	Intensive manual labour / Monotony
Organisational innovation	Organisational adaptation	Exploitation of migrants, women, children
Mergers/ Bank and company failures	Redundancies / Relocations	Displacement / dispossession
Tele-commuting	Tele-commuting / work on premises with high accountability for time	work at home

 

In a society, which sees individuals solely in economic terms, then, such attributes as those listed in the following continuum of different kinds of economic knowledge would be important (Table 4):

 

Table 4: Continuum of economic knowledges

Economic Knowledge for Core Work	Economic Knowledge for Intermediate Work	Economic Knowledge for Peripheral Work
Plan strategically and opportunistically	Generate highly productive performance,	Create new goods, services, spectacles;
Innovate;	Apply a variety of skills,	Engage in piece-work;
Create new markets;	Continuously re-skill	Generate highly skilled work
Access, process and synthesise from critical information in a timely manner;	Analysis of information; Respond to sudden changes in directions and requests;	Piecemeal production of information for sale; Create market niches outside
Create and apply: new technology, equipment, materials, processes, techniques, company organisation and directions, structure of work and working arrangements; reconfigure direction, organisation, financing, methods and production	Adapt to new technology, equipment, materials, processes techniques, organisation, directions, structure of work and working arrangements	or to complement technology and its potential for cheap production

 

While such change may not be pervasive in Australia, examples can be found throughout the country as they can also in the streets of New York, Hong Kong and London. These changes, irrespective of their current extent, nevertheless signal changed local and global contexts for productive activity in the Australian economy. For Australia to be productive, it needs to determine where it will position itself economically with respect to such kinds of changes in the nature of constitute economic activity in the global context. Moreover, it needs to determine which of the possible economic scenarios it wishes to support, given the economic, social and individual benefits and disadvantages. Relationships among economic activity and the needs of the individual and of society as a whole are suggested in the following section.

 

Productivity in Relation to the Individual and Society

Against the arguments advanced above about a desirable future Australia, it is suggested here, that a desirable economy has the following characteristics.

A desirable economy be taken to be one that:

• delivers benefits not only to businesses but also individuals who contribute to those businesses
• delivers benefits not only to individuals, but to society as a whole and to groups within society
• improves rather than damages the natural environment
• is constituted by work which is fulfilling and challenging to individuals
• contributes to, rather than exploits, relationships with other countries
• contributes to the welfare of those without access to work
• is integral to the overall social and cultural development of Australia

For the Australian economy to achieve such characteristics in a changing world economy, it needs to focus more on what cannot be provided more cheaply by others. It needs to focus on (and add value to) its productive activities that harness the unique features of Australia and its people:

i. its resources,

ii. its unique location,

iii. its unique environment,

iv. its unique climate

v. its unique history and traditions,

vi. its cultural diversity,

vii. its innovativeness and leadership in research, and

viii. the resourcefulness of its people.

Desirable future Australian economic directions should be considered in terms of those productive capacities that harness the unique features of Australia and its people. In turn, this suggests new and imaginative responses to strengths, and greater confidence and persistence in creation, development, production, marketing, distribution and selling.

Whether or not an economy or a society has particular desirable features depends on capacities of individuals to re-constitute society and the economy For such reconstitution, the following kinds of capacities would be required (Table 5).

Table 5: Reconstituting Capacities

• Un-mask and disclose the nature of social and economic change and their inter-relationships
• Resist and change undesirable features of social and economic change
• Re-build relationships, the environment, cultures and community forms;
• Re-develop one's own capacity for self-and collective sufficiency
• Create cultural and ecological enrichment
• Innovate in culturally and ecologically friendly ways
• Produce and sell in culturally and ecologically friendly ways
• Configure work so that it engenders sharing, cooperation, responsibility, challenge, personal growth, social contribution and complements non-work activities and pursuits.

Even economic considerations open the window for non-economic knowledge and critique, which should be valued in a society for their own sake. In broad terms, kinds of knowledge that are transformative of individuals, enable individuals to come to know themselves and society more fully and to construct meaning-, enable individuals to engage in activities that they find fulfilling, which contribute to society as a whole through developing such characteristics as those given in Table I and which encourage critical voices in society are important to broad and diverse education. The development of such knowledge is hard to find in the vocational education sector as a whole.

 

Recommendation 5

The role of vocational education be taken to include not only capacities for technical

activities, and the economic knowledges suggested in Table 4, but also:

• enables individuals to construct meaning,
• transforms individuals,
• enables individuals to engage in activities they find fulfilling,
• enables individuals to come to know themselves and society more fully,
• enables individuals to contribute to society as a whole through developing such characteristics as those given in Table 1,
• develops the re-constituting capacities listed in Table 5, and
• encourages critical voices in society.

 

Vocational Education

Reconstitution of economic activity in order to generate more and better productivity, while still contributing to individual and overall societal goals is a tall order. Such plural concerns often lead to unhelpful dualisms or polarisations of concepts, such as: -

• theoretical vs practical
• academic vs vocational
• knowing vs doing
• mental vs manual
• breadth vs depth
• training vs growth, development
• competence vs ability, excellence, knowledge;
• economic growth vs quality of life;
• productivity vs conservation; and so on

This is undesirable in a rapidly changing world where there is a need for more continuity between life and work roles and the kinds of knowledge needed in different pursuits. One possible key to fashioning an approach to the securement of plural social, economic and individual goals lies in the idea of vocation advanced by Dewey (I 916, pp. 307-308), almost 100 years ago.

"A vocation means nothing but such a direction of life activities as renders them perceptibly significant to a person, because of the consequences they accomplish, and also useful to his (sic] associates. The opposite of a career is neither leisure or culture, but aimlessness, capriciousness, the absence of cumulative achievement in experience, on the personal side, and idle display, parasitic dependence upon others, on the social side. Occupation is a concrete term for continuity. It includes the development of artistic capacity of any kind, of special scientific ability, of effective citizenship, as well as professional and business occupations, to say nothing of mechanical labor or engagement in gainful pursuits.

We must avoid not only limitation of conception of vocation to the occupations where immediately tangible commodities are produced, but also the notion that vocations are distributed in an exclusive way, one and only one to each person... In the first place, each individual has of necessity a variety of callings, in each of which he should be intelligently effective; and in the second place any one occupation loses its meaning and becomes a routine keeping busy at something in the degree in which it is isolated from other interests. No one is

just an artist and nothing else, and in so far as one approximates that condition, he is so much the less developed human being; he is some kind of monstrosity. He must, at some period of his life, be a member of a family, he must have friends and companions; he must either support himself or be supported by others, and thus he has a business career. He is a member of some organized political unit, and so on. We naturally name his vocation from that one of his calling which distinguishes him, rather than from those which he has in common with all others. But we should not allow ourselves to be so subject to words as to ignore and virtually deny his other callings when it comes to consideration of the vocational phases of education."

It is suggested here, that education needs to overcome problems of meeting individual, economic and societal needs by centring education on the individual and the connectedness among- individuals' various callings. It is not enough in vocational education to focus on the immediate (or the long term even if knowable) needs of industry. It is the needs also of the individual, the meaning that the individual can assign to experience in work and other roles and the overall needs of that desirable society that we are seeking to procure that also need attention. Placing the individual, rather than industrial standards at the centre of the curriculum is imperative, in seeking to achieve this kind of connectedness. Ironically, the needs of industry itself are best met through a primary focus on individual development in the context of what is thought to be a desirable vision for society as a whole.

 

Recommendation 6

Education be centred on the individual and the connectedness among the individuals' vocations in life, where vocation is taken to include not only paid productive work in an occupation, but also any other calling in which a person wishes to be effective and which they find personally and socially significant.

 

Desirable Institutional Arrangements

Questions of the role of TAFE institutes and their links with universities need to be posed in such a broad framework as the one described this far in our submission. Even so, there can be dilemmas, for instance, any decisions have, on the one hand, to be seen as rational and democratic and on the other hand they are being made under pressure from groups who will strive for arrangements that will advantage the interest of their group over others. We have suggested as a strategy that the roles of institutions be judged against their capacity to develop valued knowledge that can sustain a viable future for Australia.

The foregoing suggests at least the following three sets of interrelated factors as a basis for institutional arrangements: (i) interests (ii) access and (iii) curricula. It is recommended that future institutional arrangements advance interests, access and curricula in the following ways:

 

Recommendation 7

It is recommended that any changes in tertiary educational institutional arrangements advance existing arrangements against the following criteria

i. Interests

• Meet individual needs
• Advance social priorities (eg ecological, inter-cultural quality of life, educational development of particular social groups (indigenous, NESB learners,..), economic (macro-economic, enterprises), government - national, state and local, non-profit groups)
• Include plural interests in decision-making (personal, societal and economic)
• Advance the creation and advancement of knowledge
• Are adequately funded (responsibilities and sources)

ii. Access

• Provide equitable forms of entry
• Overcome disadvantage in delivery
• Articulate and advance recognition of existing knowledge
• Provide recognised credentials

iii. Curricula

• Develop knowledge for lifelong individual development
• Give equal weight to theoretical and practical knowledge
• Develop knowledge for responsible societal advancement

economic

cultural

intercultural

critical

ecological

knowledge development

If one were to map current institutional arrangements against these factors, the picture would took something like the following (Table 6).

 

Table 6: Current Tertiary Educational Institutional Arrangements

Factors	TAFE	Intermediate or Un-represented	Universities
Interests	Economic Educational development of particular social groups Government	Concern-for intercultural, ecological and quality of life issues Differential levels of government intervention / control Focus on the differential needs of individuals and on lifelong learning	Creation and advancement of knowledge Meeting individual needs Ecological, Inter-cultural Quality of life Economic Government
Access	Recognition of prior learning Articulated courses "Second chance" education National portability or parts of qualifications National recognition of credentials	Inadequate concern for equity	Barriers to entry Limited recognition of prior learning Portability of whole qualifications International recognition of credentials
Curricula	Knowledge for immediate economic utility Bridging courses High status for practical knowledge Low status for theoretical knowledge	Emphasis on inter- cultural and ecological knowledge	Knowledge for immediate economic utility Critical knowledge Development of new knowledge Lower status afforded practical knowledge

 

From the table, the current arrangements position TAFE in two seemingly incompatible ways:

i. as an institution, concerned largely with progressing an economic agenda in the short term interests of industry, without a wider concern for individual or societal development (notably with no space to develop such capacities as those outlined in Table 5), and
ii. as a social welfare arm of government in securing "second chances" for those un-served or unhelped by other available educational arrangements

The consequence of these two distinctive features is that they both lead to TAFE with a specific limited role, sometimes negatively defined. On the other hand, the university sector (like schooling) is more positively defined. It seeks to meet a more plural set of interests, although patchy in its concern for inter-cultural, ecological and equity concerns. Universities are only newly coming to a focus on lifelong learning. The pressure on universities to become more economically responsive, rather than engaging in purely academic pursuits is eroding the extent to which TAFE can be seen to be distinctive in this way.

Other erosions to the uniqueness of TAFE have, as discussed earlier, occurred through the increasing private provision of vocational education, the vocationalisation of secondary education and changes in the nature of knowledge needed in rapidly changing workplaces. As also indicated earlier, the focus on adult and continuing education in TAFE has also been Gradually diminished in an increasingly user-pays approach to non-vocational courses in TAFE.

Another consequence of the current positioning of TAFE is being locked into responding to forces which operate to preserve the past (See Figure 1). With its focus on contemporary industry standards, it is more responsive to enterprises and institutions, regulation and factors of production than to the demands of -globalisation and post-industrial society; to such values as the quality of life, inter-personal relationships and the environment; or to a range of aspirations such as those of the self and the self in relation to others. Ironically, this singular focus does not serve industry well, because of qualitative changes in the range of capacities needed for post-industrial work.

The dilemma is that TAFE represents an enormous public asset and has a pervasive presence in the community; but the regulatory forces on TAFE have impaired its capacity to adopt the kind of holistic stance with respect to knowledge that is required for emerging social and economic circumstances. There is now a more diverse set of vocational education providers. The nature of the distinctiveness that could once characterise TAFE has been eroded. Universities and TAFE sectors now share engagement in mass education, an emphasis on the development of vocational knowledge and both contest the same market (school leavers). Universities differ primarily in terms of the plurality of interests that are addressed and included, the repertoire of knowledges that are developed, diversity of student population, level of final qualification and most significantly their role in knowledge creation rather than transmission.

The scope for preserving totally distinctive providers of vocational education is reduced; and there is a need for the kind of knowledge developed by TAFE to include more of the long-term personal needs and aspirations of students. More focus on lifelong learning is important.

Recommendation 8

Changes in tertiary institutional arrangements should be such that.

• high value continues to be afforded to both practical and theoretical knowledge
• the knowledge developed for vocational purposes focus primarily on the needs of individuals in relation to those vocations and the relationships between that vocation and the advancement of plural societal goals, both as important contexts for the development of specialised practical and theoretical knowledge
• special attention is given to the development of critical knowledge in vocational education
• a renewed focus on adult education and lifelong learning be focused in TAFE

 

Conclusions

It is concluded that the nature of a desirable future Australia and a vision for a productive Australia compel fresh approaches to education as a whole and vocational education in particular. What is required is a more holistic view of vocation, affording value to a wider set of knowledges.

The current problems and issues for vocational education derive, in part, from dated ideas about the nature of production and required vocational knowledge. Moreover, they are out of kilter with desirable directions for Australian society as a whole and do not develop the knowledge needed to contribute to achieving such desired change. Changes in production, changes in required knowledge, and changes in societal goals as well as chances that have occurred in the nature and range of Australian educational activities have eroded the distinctiveness of the mission and role of Institutes of TAFE. Moreover, the contemporary TAFE focus on vocational knowledge circumscribes their possible role in lifelong learning.

The required changes necessitate a clear definition of the roles of Institutes of TAFE and universities. Blurring may be hazardous as TAFE Institutes place a high value on practical knowledge and provide access to a diversity of students.

 

Recommendation 9

Cooperation and collaboration should be encouraged between TAFE Institutes and universities in order to develop a fuller range of vocational knowledge, and achieve fuller provision of a diverse range of educational services across the community Such arrangements should acknowledge a renewed focus on adult lifelong learning for TAFE in the context of distinctive roles of TAFEs and universities.

 

 

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