In/equality and choice in senior secondary school students' outcomes : Queensland's reforms of vocational education and training in schools

Abstract

The extension of compulsory education to Year 11 and 12 has been implemented in Queensland since 2006. The research project reported in this thesis was designed to develop a detailed picture of young adult outcomes from the innovation in Queensland's Senior Learning. It provides insight into the relationship between the expected benefits of these changes to senior education as promised in Government policies and evidence of actual outcomes students obtained through their learning and training. The focal research questions are: Are young adults provided equal opportunity for learning and training through the Senior Learning policy and what factors affect their learning outcomes and post-school pathways? The issues of how to improve the capacity of secondary schools to provide comprehensive vocational education and training programs for young people and how to offer effective pathways are the focus of much debate. A review of the research literature points to the need to better understand young people's work/life trajectory made possible through reforms to schools in terms of in/equality education with respect Government education and training policy (Chapter 2). Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis were used in this study, including the analysis of statistics (by Excel and SPSS) as well as texts. Document analysis provides the core means for examining where and how the idea of "education for equality" is expressed by VETiS policies and how these policies relate to VETiS outcomes, especially the transition from learning to work and/or further education and/or training. Young adult's VETiS outcomes arising from Government sponsored innovations in Senior Learning are engaged by using data to explore at macro, meso and micro levels, and their interaction (Chapter 4 and 5). At the macro level, the 2006 and 2007 VETiS School Statistics (NCVER, 2008, 2009) provide data which focuses on Year 12 students' VETiS outcomes nationally and for respective States and Territory. At the meso level, the analysis concentrates on accounts of Year 12 outcomes 2008 (Queensland Government, 2009b) from all 440 Queensland secondary schools. Young adults' VETiS outcomes are analysed in terms of different variables such as geographical dimensions (Remoteness Area), school size and representation by different political parties to explore how policy actors and regions (such as school location and size) influence the implementation of the senior learning reform as well as the young adults' freedom of choice with respect to different pathways. At the micro level, sixty-one schools' annual reports and curriculum are analysed to explore the question of how policy actors characterise VETiS implementation, and their accountability in relation to the effects of VETiS on students' education and work life trajectories (Chapter 9). Through analysing this range of evidence, this study found that students' VETiS outcomes are unequal in relation to the level of Certificate qualification, the location they are living and their Indigenous identity. Young adults' choices for VETiS courses and their post-school destinations show that socio-economic background and the location influencing the choices of young adults' schooling and post-school pathways. Such social privilege makes it difficult for students from disadvantaged backgrounds to obtain as equal opportunities as their peers to access to VETiS. Besides that, the conflict between achieving VET qualification and academic qualifications such as QCE and OP reflect two differing perspectives on the role of senior learning experience. In one way, academic achievement remains the school's primary concern of most secondary schools, with vocational education remaining a focus for curriculum reform. In another way, vocational training is seen as valuable learning experience for acquisition of specific vocational competence, at least by part of the school population. Therefore, students' different VETiS outcomes and the factors that influence such outcomes require a new interpretation of equality in education. The analysis of students' VETiS outcomes needs to focus on an issue of space rather than specific individuals. This may provide insights into education in/equality and possible interventions. Based on the foregoing theoretically informed and empirically grounded analysis, this thesis argues that the inadequate and inconsistent VETiS information publicly provided by these particular schools invites interrogation of their accountability for school performance. VETiS outcomes are not confined to the qualifications students obtain from school; much valuable informal or nonformal learning occurs in community and VETiS workplace settings (Chapter 10).

Date of Award	2011
Original language	English