Ammattikoulutuksen ja ammattikorkeakoulutuksen tutkimuspäivät 2012
Puheenvuorossa esitellään havaintoja ja huomioita ammattikoulutuksen ja ammattikorkeakoulutuksen tutkimuspäiviltä Tampereelta 7.-8.11.2012. Tutkimuspäivien tavoitteena oli ammattikorkeakoulutuksen ja ammatillisen koulutuksen tutkimuksen levittäminen ja toimijoiden verkostoituminen. Pääteemana oli Arvot muutoksessa.
Cross-cultural Understanding on the VET and Vocational Higher Education
Opiskelija Dong Seob Lee (Tampereen yliopisto, ammattikasvatus)
The cultural diversity and internal variety of education is currently challenged by the unity of knowledge, skills and competences, showing converging reality at macro-level and divergent and heterogeneous character at the micro-level. The international session from Austria, Sweden, South Korea, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, and Japan unfolds the dynamic, complex picture of the reforms of VET, vocational higher education, labour market policies, and their curricula and contents. In addition, it makes it difficult to define unstable positions of institutions, professionals, and individual learners in the progress of industries from labor-intensive to capital-intensive, and ultimately to technology-intensive.
Faced with these challenges, Dr. Mikkio Eswein traced the change of meaning and values of education and work among younger Japanese between 2001 and 2011. In the period of recession she found out that traditional work- and organization-committed values had gained importance, especially among temporary and female workers. Dr. Lorenz Lassnigg pointed out different approaches for the historical analysis; “in order to understand the reforms of Austrian education and training sector, I think, we can cross the different disciplines, different perspectives, and different theories to approach. We can find very fundamental ideas in different entities, systems and disciplines. Different issues of reform in education and training are tackled by very different disciplines. For instance, people from management discipline are very much trying to make theories of the New Public Management (NPM) work.” In response to Fay Lund-Nilsson´s interpretation of changes in forest workers´ vocational education, Anja Heikkinen commented about differences in the historical and cultural backgrounds of Swedish and Finnish forest work, “If you’re looking into the history related with the VET, the ownership of forest can help to explain it more widely… In Finland forestry belongs to agriculture and therefore solutions in VET may have been different than in Sweden.”
Stefanie Stolz brings out the essential challenges of school-to-work transition between Finish and Swiss VET. She pointed out that steering and reforming process concerning VET and school-to-work transitions are mainly influenced by national discourse although both countries have already or will implement national qualification frameworks under the trans-national agenda. Dong Seob Lee focused on the complexities and challenges in reforming engineering sector of the Ammattikorkeakoulu and Korea Polytechnic University since 1990. He unfolded the meaning and value of vocational education in a process of locating unstable positions between “capitalism” and “community values” on a non-linear timeline in response to different perspectives, concerns and issues of competency based curriculum in different context.
Timo Nevalainen speculated a concept of entrepreneurial education how it is seen in real practice of Finish vocational higher education context. Anja Heikkinen pointed out “when the entrepreneurial education, yrittäjyys, is translated, it is important to identify what different connotation it has had in the Finnish context. It’s more earning one’s living that makes something else profits”. Furthermore, Katrin Kraus said “entrepreneurship education should be critically analyzed because it brings people to show some kind of attitude itself in all institutions and all settings”.
In a series of Marjatta Huhta’s research group presentation, she argued that many studies for the company are not collected as best theory and practice. “The Ammattikorkeakoulu should provide the values to look at profound phenomenon for a coming ready solution.” Anja Heikkinen asserted that “master thesis is a whole academic process both for personal and collective purposes. Hence, how she/ he manage through this process and during this development, the product should be useful afterwards, to give values for the enterprise. In response to that, Marjatta Huhta said “there are some developmental innovations related to the business, I think, the more dialogical studies for most business student.” Furthermore, Erja Turunen commented that “we expect that most of thesis in the Ammattikorkeakoulu are willing to work for some organizations, it is only something for our students. We expect to the master students would be the developers. It’s very often that they do it to be truly as an action research, for they are involved. If they are involved, so they are starting at the beginning and they come out. Most of master programs at the Ammattikorkeakoulu are part time basis for 2 years, which makes it possible for really do something for all the time. Then, have any enough time and include that master thesis? Because some students are delay their studies.”
The issue of inclusion and exclusion with disabilities in dual VET system in Germany can be differently perceived from different actors of sub-cultures in accordance with what angles we are looking for and looking at. The inclusion policy can be perceived as an evil in that the State tried to save their national budgets so that it should be carefully reflected beyond educational and training context. Dr. Manfred Wahle also pointed out in his presentation “the domination of the well-established system of sheltered workshops in the area of VET is without being linked with enterprises, vocational schools and universities in a region. The widely missing cooperation of parents, teachers, instructors and researchers in order to develop adequate concepts of inclusive VET. It should not only think in the framework of education but implement suitable didactical methodological concepts.”
Finally, with the interaction of different cultures in this international session we can grasp more in-depth and holistic pictures which find a feasible solution to the dilemmas that each country faces, while tracing back to the history, and can come to take a proper shape of future VET and vocational higher education to engage in local community and to reflect on the values and meanings of education and training.
Koulutuksen arvovalinnat ja haasteet
Yliopettaja, TtL Heidi Kassara, Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulu
Sessiossa oli kaksi esitystä. Ensimmäinen esityksen piti Lahden ammattikorkeakoulun Innovaatiokeskuksesta YTM Susanna Vanhamäki, joka kertoi mielenkiintoisesta työelämälähtöisestä oppimisesta EcoMill -ympäristötehokkuustyöpajassa. Hanke on ESR -rahoitteinen. Siinä tavoitteena on työelämän kanssa tehtävä yhteistyö, ympäristötehokkuus, opetusteknologiset menetelmät ja projektin oppimistaidot. Se on työelämälähtöistä oppimista käytännössä ja osana perusopetusta, jossa tärkeänä on tietojen ja taitojen lisäksi asenteet ja projektioppiminen. Hieno esimerkki tästä on ammattikorkeakoulun ja oppimiskeskus Fellmanin kanssa tehty projekti, jossa osana kestävää kehitystä kunnostettiin opiskelijoille pajoissa vanhoja kierrätettäviä pyöriä opiskelijoille osana kestävää kehitystä. Opiskelijat ovat tehneet myös Mukkulan koulun jätehuollon suunnitelman. Tähän mennessä saatu palaute on hyvää.
Saman session toisen esityksen piti Hämeen ammattikorkeakoulusta Eija Laitinen. Hän on aloittanut väitöskirjan tekemisen aiheenaan ammattikorkeakoulun opettajien kulttuurienvälinen kompetenssi. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena on lisätä tietoa, jota voidaan käyttää koulutuksen kehittämiseen ja kansainvälistymisen ohjaamiseen. Aihe on tärkeä, koska niin kulttuurienvälisyys kuin kansainvälisyys koskevat meitä kaikkia entistä enemmän. Laitinen korosti, että kulttuurienvälisyyttä voi oppia ja opettaa. Kokemus on tarpeen, mutta kulttuurienvälisyys ei synny pelkästä kokemuksesta, vaan siinä tarvitaan myös itsereflektiota.
