There exists controversy over whether there is a defined way in which vocations or occupations are taught. ‘Vocation’ and ‘education’ were first used in combination in
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reference to education for middle class occupations such as merchants and master craftsmen (Georg & Kunze, 1981). With time, vocational education came to be associated with the education of young people from the lower social strata, and it has been from this earlier reference that the words ‘vocational education’ as used today have been derived (Pahl, 2014). Vocational teaching methods in Germany evolved from what was known as the ‘Frankfurt methodology’ which developed characteristic features of didactics for vocational education (Ott, 2011). Following this, there was a focus on experimental methods with attempts to adapt these to vocational learning. These were controversial, particularly with respect to their orientation to the scientific disciplines. Ott (2011) indicates that these experimental methods were broad in that they took in a broader work field including its associated working processes as well as encompassing an approach of interoccupational didactics. It is a point that informs this research that the pedagogical processes that are particular to a specific trade or occupation should be studied to bring out what may be particular. Harkin (2012) suggests that rather than looking for a universal vocational pedagogy, it might be helpful to move away from a one-size-fits-all approach and towards a study of overlapping pedagogies relevant to the subject area. Pahl (2014) makes a similar observation that for an ideal didactic case, occupation didactics that considers a particular occupation is more meaningful, despite the high costs that may go with associated research activities. It is occupations and knowledge about them that should be key to research, and general vocational education research may be premised on existing knowledge related to occupations, including that of teaching and learning research in an occupation. Teaching and learning processes particular to an occupation may bring a refinement and visibility to learning processes in a specific occupation. A vocational pedagogy may presuppose the specific pedagogic processes that are associated with each occupation, to the point that some occupation-specific aspects of pedagogy may be blurred or omitted. There is ground for research in pedagogic processes within specific vocations, just as there is ground for research that will build to the development of a broader vocational pedagogy. Pahl (2014) sums it up thus:
…future research should be conducted in particular at two levels to a greater extent:
Expansion of the occupation and vocational training research on as many occupations as possible
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Research on higher level vocational education theory and the possibility of an overall didactic concept for nonacademic and academic vocational education (Pahl, 2014, p35)
A universal pedagogy for vocational education is not within easy reach as various researchers argue (Gessler and Herrera, 2015; Pahl, 2014; Herrera, 2015; Ojimba, 2012).
Even country contexts may generate specific challenges that affect methods used for teaching vocational education and training, and hence the quality of VET graduates. For instance, in Nigeria, among problems associated with VET curricula, there is a shortage of highly competent teaching staff with appropriate experience in technology; there is, as well, heavy reliance on the method of dictating notes to VET students (Ojimba, 2012).
That it could be possible to develop a universal vocational pedagogy remains contested.
Other special requirements or elements come into play that suggest that a pedagogy that is used within a context or country is influenced to some extent by the contexts within which vocational education takes place. This suggests that lecturers may adopt methods that are congruent with the settings in which vocational education takes place.
Specifically, this relates to how vocational education seeks to link with work or where graduates of vocational education fit on completion of their studies. Though not particular to post high school vocational education, research based on the vocational didactics of Denmark, Germany, Norway, Spain and Sweden (Gessler & Herrera, 2015) presents six core criteria that the design of a vocational didactic has to meet:
Table 3.1 Core criteria which a vocational didactic should meet (Gessler & Herrera, 2015) Outcome orientation
The outcome of the vocational education endeavor requires that the design of learning opportunities is made to shape the practical requirements of the workplace or the work that the graduate will do.
Cultural-historical embedding
A vocational didactic should reflect the cultural character and changes of that system, including its inherent objectives, values and norms.
Horizontal structure A vocational didactic has to reflect a horizontal structure, which should align with a professional domain.
Vertical structure A vocational didactic should align with the corresponding levels of that occupation.
53 Temporal structure
A vocational didactic has to be aligned with the respective objectives pursued in a particular phase of (work) life: vocational orientation, vocational development and education and further vocational training and re-orientation.
The changing nature of work
A vocational didactic need not adapt to only the employment model or standard occupations but should also orient to the changing nature of work, risk of poverty and exclusion and reality of global supply chains.
These special requirements that a vocational didactic has to meet can be used as a point of reference to interrogate the influences and motivations that surround the pedagogic processes that lecturers use in training automotive mechanics in the context of Swaziland.
For instance, with respect to outcome orientation, the pedagogic processes of lecturers for automotive mechanics may need to be seen in the context of the requirements that exist on the ground in terms of the options available for an automotive mechanics graduate. This is with respect to the competencies that available job or practice opportunities require. Not only that, these available job or practice opportunities should ideally provide an environment in which the worker will improve capability so that he or she can progressively handle work that is more complex in the automotive mechanics occupation. These requirements will not remain static as a country develops. Okoye and Arimonu (2016) argue that VET has a direct impact on the development of any country, and in the Nigerian context its neglect has contributed to rising unemployment, poverty and crime. If technical and vocational education is an engine to power growth and economic development in a country, then the methods that lecturers use to transfer these skills and knowledge should relate to the capacity for capabilities to sustain that development.
In the context of the special requirement of cultural-historical embedding, the argument can be made that the processes that lecturers use to specialize students into automotive mechanics may reflect the influence of a vocational didactic that relates to the Swazi situation. This is in terms of the origins, changes, influences and direction of the VET system in Swaziland. Cultural and historical embedding relates to context, which has been discussed by a number of researchers (Lucas et al., 2012; Gessler and Herrera, 2015). Lucas et al. (2012) state that there will be contemporary challenges in each setting that a vocational pedagogy will have to deal with. These will influence the pedagogic choices that the teachers make.
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On the other hand, with regard to the assumptions that a vocational didactic should relate to both the horizontal and vertical structures within that vocational occupation, the pedagogic practices of the lecturers need to be interpreted in terms of what lateral and vertical opportunities they provide within the trade of automotive mechanics. For the latter, the research uses Winch’s theory of epistemic ascent (Winch, 2014). This requires that vocational education and training provide the means for a worker to move from a lower level towards expertise, rather than merely provide for entry into the lowest level of the trade. With respect to the two assumptions of temporal structure and changing nature of work, the point here is that a vocational didactic is linked to each. For the former, a vocational didactic may link to whether it is initial vocational education and training or continuing vocational education and training. For the latter, it may be linked to what new changes there are in the nature of the work as well as how issues of poverty or social exclusion affect vocational education and training. It is necessary to indicate that for the Swazi situation, though these last two assumptions may be implied, the extent to which they are rigorously pursued or interrogated as central to VET is minimal. It is also possible that the last two assumptions of Gessler and Herrera (2015) find prominence in more economically advanced countries with a commitment to innovation. Yet this idea is challenged by an observation made by Habib and Nsibambi (2014) in the Ugandan context, that in countries where there is trauma and civil strife, such as in periods following war, TVET could be an effective tool for providing skills to enable people to earn non-violent livelihoods. This may suggest then that countries that are developing but are stable and without easily identifiable divisions or readily visible ‘pockets’ of poverty or social exclusion, may not seriously pursue VET for such a purpose.