In this article we offer a comparative analysis of vocational education and training (VET) in two rural regional locations by situating the pragmatic problem of advising rural students against the backdrop of differently structured market-oriented vocational education systems in Canada and Australia, respectively. Each of these jurisdictions…

The article discusses the link between a curriculum based on academic subjects derived from disciplinary knowledge and a progressive pedagogy that endeavours to engage students from all backgrounds with it. Section 1 describes the realist theory of knowledge which justifies the argument for this accommodation between curriculum and pedagogy.…

In recent years, there has been increased interest within British Columbia in the issue of whether or how trades qualifications might transfer into academic post-secondary programs. Some BC institutions have already started, or will be starting, programs which incorporate this form of transfer credit. Colleagues at British Columbia Council on…

The sectoral divide between vocational education and training (VET) and higher education in Australia is blurring as a consequence of broader social and economic pressures for a more highly skilled population, but also as a consequence of government policies designed to develop tertiary education markets and to diversify institutional types. The…

This article explores teacher educator Lillian de Lissa's working life in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1944 the McNair report criticised residential colleges and their female staff as isolated and intellectually impoverished. However, in Australia and then as the foundation Principal of Gipsy Hill Training College, de Lissa was not…

Explores Australian universities' responsibility to provide the foundational or core knowledge (as opposed to simply vocational knowledge) needed by students, and the nature of that foundational knowledge. (EV)

This paper presents an overview of 15 years of international study designed to determine the nature of motivational beliefs, values and goals held by students from different cultural groups, the comparability of these beliefs, values, and goals with those promoted by classrooms and schools, and the impact individual, cultural/social, peer, family,…

Australia's system for helping youths make a successful transition from initial vocational education and training (VET) to working life was assessed through an analysis that focused on the following features that were identified by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as contributing to successful transitions: learning…