Billett S (2001) Vocational educators: Understanding practice at work. In C. Velde (ed.) International Perspectives on Competence in the Workplace: Research Policy and Practice (pp41-64). Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordecht, The Netherlands. CHAPTER 5: VOCATIONAL EDUCATORS: UNDERSTANDING PRACTICE AT WORK STEPHEN BILLETT Faculty of Education Griffith University 1. Introduction This chapter uses sociohistorical and sociocultural theory to propose a means to understand and identify what comprises competence in vocational educators’ practice. In doing so it does not aim to be prescriptive. Only when the perspectives that contribute to a view of what comprises the occupational practice in the particular cultural setting (e.g. nation, state, educational system) and the situational requirements arising from the particular manifestation of practice have been accounted for can the requirements for competent performance be understood fully. Accordingly, this chapter aims to describe a means by which these requirements can be identified and described. The conceptual basis is founded within what has been described as cultural-historical activity theory (Cole 1998) or what Wertsch (1991) refers to as the sociocultural approach. An analysis based on two lines of social development are deployed in this account; one informing the occupational view and one the situational requirements. The culturally determined need for vocational educators is found in sociohistorical and sociocultural sources. Together, these sources provide the goals for, procedures and conceptions of vocational educators’ practice and inform how they have evolved into a particular sociocultural practice or occupation (Scribner 1985). The delineation of the occupation permits an understanding of how vocational educators’ practice is distinct from those in other educational sectors (e.g. compulsory or higher education). Moreover, it explains also how the occupational practice, and therefore what is required for performance, differs across countries according to their cultural needs. The occupational conception is typically that which is used as a basis for identifying the content and intents of courses that prepare or develop further vocational educators, or as a basis for understanding their work for employment and promotional purposes within a cultural setting (e.g. nation, state). However, this conception is unlikely to be singular or uniformly agreed up. Instead, within the cultural setting, different interests may well have distinct views about what comprises the occupation role and should constitute its primary focus. So the conception of the occupation is likely to be contested. However, while deeply informative and purposeful in its own right, this historically and culturally constructed conception of vocational educators’ work is an ideal that is disembedded from actual practice, yet is prescriptive. Only when occupational practice is manifested (embedded) in particular circumstances is it possible to identify the actual requirement for performance at work. This is because situational requirements shape the basis by which work has to be conducted and judgements made about performance (Billett 1998). What may be deemed competent performance in one setting may be quite inappropriate in another. Accordingly, it is not possible to advance a view about what comprises vocational educators’ practice and performance without accounting for these situational requirements. Together, and drawing on these two lines of development, a scheme is advanced for identifying and describing what comprises competence in vocational educators’ work. The scheme comprises, firstly, a sociocultural and historical account for a idealized but contested conception of vocational educators’ practice and, secondly, situational factors comprising categories of activities and interdependence that account for how vocational educators’ work is manifested in particular circumstances. Prescribing at the occupational level (what should be) and describing at the situational level (what is), respectively yields a basis for understanding vocational educators’ practice. There is both reciprocity and tensions between these two levels; between the contested, idealized but disembedded occupational account and the embedded and actual situational account. These tensions are likely to endure. Regardless, they need to be acknowledged when considering the requirements for performance of vocational educators, how they should be prepared for their role and how their professional development might best proceed. 1