Towards a Framework of Knowing in Technical Vocational Education and Training (VET)

Abstract

Technical vocational education and training (VET) is shaped by tensions between policy‑driven, measurable notions of competence and the situated, relational, and materially embedded forms of expertise that define vocational practice. To address this tension, the study employs knowing as an analytic lens to examine how vocational knowledge is enacted, recognised, and valued within the visual cultures of Swedish VET. Four analytical dimensions—content, embodiment, valuation, and temporality—guide the exploration of how knowing becomes visible in 144 marketing images representing four VET programmes. Through a collaboratively conducted analysis of the visual material, the research team examined recurring representational patterns during a two‑day analytic session in the Norrköping Decision Arena. The analysis identifies contrasting vocational ontologies. In Building and Construction, knowing is associated with durable materials, large‑scale processes, externalised plans, and collaborative work extending across longer temporal horizons. In Hairdressing and Styling, knowing appears through fine‑grained embodied gestures, aesthetic judgement, and dialogic interaction with clients, characterised by immediate outcomes and short, repeatable cycles. Similarly, distinct ontologies were identified within Industrial Technology and Natural Resource Use, indicating broader patterns in how vocational knowing is visually structured across VET. The analytical framework has enabled a more nuanced reading of the visual material, clarifying how various forms of expertise are made visible, legitimised, or backgrounded through specific representational choices. This contributes to a more refined understanding of how vocational knowing is visually constructed and communicated across different educational contexts. While the visual data necessarily restrict the analysis to what images render observable, the framework supports a deeper examination of how vocational knowing is organised, negotiated, and valued across programmes with distinct material and epistemic conditions.