It is not easy to decide whether true education takes place within the closed doors of a classroom or while practicing and experiencing what is learnt because learning is complex and multifaceted. With that perspective, while I agree with most of the beliefs and ideas put forth in the paper[1] titled, “Vocational pedagogy: what it is and why it matters”, I would like to highlight the reasons why the pedagogical approaches elucidated are applicable to most contexts and not easy to apply to some others, including my own.
I am in agreement with the notion of a skill-based and structured approach for ensuring greater “engagement” by overcoming “mythical” assumptions and basing the desirable outcomes on facts and research. Most secondary school English departments that I have worked with, follow a similar approach involving the development of “skills needed for success” (pp.4) in any field that the student may want to explore. However, as an ESL language teacher, the ability to create “the ethic of excellence” (pp.6) is quite challenging. This is because of the multiple skill levels that students are placed in within a class in itself. However, in a Literature class, positive reinforcement has always elevated personal accomplishments to powerful engagement tactics.
The paper catalogs the vast discrepancies between theory and practice and laments the diminishing scope or under-utilization of methods in vocational education. Vocational teachers, it says, often rely on a “narrow range of methods” (pp.9) while research outlines a wider outreach mechanisms that teachers could make use of. The list (Fig 3, pp.9) draws attention and serves as a gentle reminder to showcase the same. The list provided is exhaustive, but it is true that many of these methods still find their place on paper and theory and are rarely put to use. Upon reflection, I am able to clearly draw a parallel to my experiences as a teacher and my own teaching practices. As a teacher bound to a curriculum, teaching often became ‘completing the syllabus’. I was invariably time-bound and faced little time to experiment theoretical concepts. Learning methods seemed really interesting to read but difficult to execute. But unlike in the work or occupational context, in schools, there is still time to drive home the learning, while in a vocation, passion and ‘craftsmenship’ (pp.6) comes from the love for the field, which ultimately comes from the engaged and not resigned/passive student.
But there have been times when I have interwoven a ‘blend of methods’ (pp.9) to create the perfect ‘fabric’ for my students. I have on many occasions created opportunities for students to experience through practice and play. For instance, if in a Literature lesson, students often fail to engage with the Shakespearean context (it is difficult for the current day teenager to visualize how the times might have been/ the lifestyle etc.) it is down to creating the experience. I followed this hurdle by working with other colleagues and organized a Shakespeare Week, where the main atrium of the college building “became” the scenes of a myriad plays. The walls were done up with his quotes, classrooms had the theme of his plays and were done up with the props. We were as it were on a ‘realia’-ganza. Through masquerade parades and a sit down poetry competition, students transformed into set designers, poets, artists, photographers – a super engaged workforce that we had suddenly created! From an English classroom, they seemed to anthropomorphize clay models to king’s statues and strode across the atrium as triumphant architects of the Globe. Students also got an opportunity to create their own versions of the times through Apps such as Minecraft and visual storyboards. While this was on though, teachers poured in and complained about losing valuable lessons or “teaching hours”.
The role of the teacher in a vocational context is also quite different from my own as a senior school teacher. I was more of a facilitator (pp10, Fig 4) and supervisor who carried the experiences, language style and the culture (linguistic style/sentence construction, use of idiomatic language/expressions) to my students. Hence, the role to educate the students, was not totally driven by industry experience unlike the vocational teaching contexts. In the vocational context, the need to learn the skill is greater, the urgency is stronger and the passion to earn is a motivating factor that drives learning as well. But in a school/college context, as stated at the start of the essay, learning is complex and multifaceted.
RAJASHREE ANAND
[1] Source: “Vocational Pedagogy: What it is and why it matters” Lucas, Bill. Edge Foundation.
"Think for a moment that you are a student," she asks at my interview.
