Australian Educational Researcher Vol. 18, No. 3 1991

An Analysis of How and Why a TAFE Course was Changed:

The Implications

Peter McKenz ie

Abstract. The Federal government has indicated that vocational education, especially education that is technically oriented, is essential to Australia's economic future. The Federal government has also expressed concern at the educational inequaiities faced by certain groups in society.

The Associate Diploma of Technology (Computing) a cross-accredited course giving access to a university degree, was designed to address both of these concerns. This article examines how the course has been altered and the forces behind these changes. This examination is carried out by exploring different perspectives of the course, such as: the government, TAFE, and the students and the teachers.

The resulting evidence suggests that students have taken up the government's rhetoric; they believe they will be snapped up by industry and gain err~loyment in high technology areas, and think that social issues are a waste of time. The evidence also indicates that the course is being targeted more towards young adults who have failed to get into a university course than towards the original target of women and immigrants.

Introduction

This is an account of how and why a specific course was set up and in particular the forces that shaped and altered its direction and contents.

The thematic concerns of this article are: the consequences for the course of the government's strategy of linking concern for social justice with economic restructuring; the effects on the course of the emphasis on technological vocational education and its pursuant links to the workforce; and the impact the lived experiences of the participants had on the course's structure and content.

Background Information

The course - an Associate Diploma of Technology (Computing) (ADTC) with an articulated Bachelor of Technology run at Monash (previously Chisholm Institute)

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- was developed in response to twin concerns of both the federal and state governments. The first concern was how Australia's workforce could respond adequately to increasing technological change in Australia and overseas (see, for example, Australian Education Council Report 1985). The second concern was that large numbers of people, especially women and other disadvantaged groups, were left 'without hope of obtaining the stimulation and companionship of work' (Kirby Report 1985).

Context

TAFE gained a separate and recognisable identity with the relezse of the Australian Committee of Technical and Further Education Report (Kangan Report) in 1974. Kangan believed that vocational training was only a part of the education TAFE should provide. A TAFE education should be for the development of the whole person: '... his personality, social skills and manual skills' (Kangan 1975).

However, Kangan's ideals were not to last long. In 1980 the Commonwealth placed TAFE under the guidance of the Commonwealth Tertiary Education Commission (CTEC). By doing this the Commonwealth could assert more control over TAFE's direction. However the Commonwealth only funded specific programs and buildings; it was the states who provided the majority of funding for TAFE at that stage. 'The Commonwealth provides grants to TAFE which supplement the much greater total funding by the states' (CTEC 1984: 6). So its control was not direct. However, TAFE institutions were interested in running courses that attracted funding from whomever, and took note of the direction in which the Commonwealth was pointing. This trend has become even more noticeable recently, with the suggestions by the Commonwealth that TAFE should compete with industry in providing technological training. There was also the suggestion by Dawkins that the Commonwealth directly fund the TAFE colleges.

M e t h o d o l o g y

This study was carried out using a method described by Faulkner as 'multimethod inquiry'. Faulkner (1982: 80-81) describes it as 'Multiples in data collection - a triad of, for instance, observation, interviewing, and archives or records'.

Observation was carried out using the participant observer approach as recommended by Byme, Houston and Thomson (1984:111-134) for use in TAFE institutions. Byme et al. claim this technique caters for the uniqueness of TAFEs and describes the situation in as much detail as possible. They found that this 'persuasion' gives the opportunity to do self-evaluation 'grounded in day-to-day educational reality' (Byme et al. 1984: 46). Some of the advantages derived from this method are mentioned by Smith as 'direct on-site observation, freedom of

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access, intensity of observation, triangulation and multimethods, sampling, and attention to muted cues and unobtrusive signs' (Smith 1978: 22).

In this study, I interviewed in depth 20 students and 6 staff (out of 12 staff) over a period of 3 years and took notes from about 100 students. Interviews were taped, transcribed and given back to the participants for feedback and corrections before being used.

As a precaution, all the names used are pseudonyms. The gender has been kept the same but the migrants have been given Anglo-Saxon names to protect them. In some cases teachers of specific subjects have had mention of the subject's name deleted. These precautions should be sufficient to disguise the identity of the participants.

Literature Review

The Vocational Ideology

Kantor and Tyack (1982) along with Bacchus (1988) argue that the present trend of diverting education towards vocationalism, but claiming it will solve the nation's ills, has its origins back at the start of this century. Kantor (1982: 27) contends that this change in the direction of education had three main objectives:

1) To provide more skilled personnel to meet the acute shortage of skilled workers;

2) to make workers understand their role in the factory; 3) to "weaken union control of job entry" by giving management the

"prerogative in the administration of the factory".

It was because education became vocationally oriented as a means of solving the country's ills at the start of this century that, Kantor and Tyack (1982) argue, education is once again being diverted towards vocationalism. Since it was believed to be efficacious then it should be again. 'In fact whenever an economic crisis or major economic problem arises ... the policy makers resurrect such solutions as vocationalizing the school curriculum' (Bacchus 1988: 43).

The rationale used to support vocationalism now is, as suggested by Bacchus, based on a perceived economic crisis: that is, the country is slipping behind its competitors because its industries are not utilising high technology. An example of that rhetoric in the Australian arena is provided by Ralph Willis (the then Minister for Employment and Industrial Relations): 'We are not keeping pace with our trading partners in implementing or developing new technologies. A crucial impediment in our doing so is a lack of knowledge' (1984: 55).

Ryan (1989) argues that such rhetoric has led to the argument, by governments and industry, that a closer relationship with schooling is now an economic necessity. Ryan (p. 18) further claims that technological progress requires better

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educated workers generally: in other words, economically relevant schooling will be of educational benefit to all.

There is a view held by a number of educationalists (Burke 1987; Giroux 1989; Grosch 1987; Kliebard 1990; Ryan 1989) that this rhetoric is designed to change people's attitudes towards vocational education. It does this by redirecting the blame for unemployment and poverty onto an educational system that is perceived to be failing to meet student's needs by not providing them with the appropriate vocational skills. Thus it becomes education which bears the responsibilities for the country's woes rather than the economic infrastructure put in place by governments and industry. For instance, Giroux states that in America 'schools have become the new scapegoat for the incleasing failure of the ... economy to compete in the world economy' (1989: 728).

In an American setting, Kliebard suggests that this 'educationally relevant schooling' is a way of formulating policy that will change the 'curriculum in line with the requirements of a modem industrial society by providing needed job skills' (1990: 12). Kliebard calls this rhetoric 'symbolic action' which is used, he says, to 'organise allegiances, perceptions, and attitudes' by providing 'status' to those who agree and sanctions to those who oppose it (p. 11).

Sweet (1987) has found that up until the late 1980s there was no detailed database of information concerning employment in high technology or the training required. This meant that there was not enough information to draw useful conclusions about what qualifications employees needed, or how fast high technology jobs were being created. However, in a survey of course reviews held at TAFE colleges over a ten year period, Sweet found 'the reviews did not support the proposition that new technology had increased the skills demanded in trade occupations. If anything they directly contradicted the proposition' (1987:111).

It would appear from the evidence that TAFE is being redirected towards vocational education by a number of different sources. Ashenden suggests that there is 'an exclusive focus on Australia's declining competitive position and the catalogue of evils which will surely flow if we do not lend all our educational energies to catching up' (1987: 156).

The Federal Context

In 1983, the Hawke Labor government came into power and brought with it a concern over equity in educational opportunities. The government showed its concern over 'Participation and Equity' in education at both secondary and tertiary levels by creating many new programs, such as the Participation and Equity program and traineeships. Another concern stemmed in part from the perception that Australia was not providing its students with enough advanced technology skills. As Ralph Willis said:

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We are not keeping pace .... A crucial impediment in our doing so is a lack of knowledge and appreciation of the advances that can be achieved in the production process through new technologies . . . . the sophistication of technology is demanding a much higher grade of skills for its application (1984: 55).

The context and rhetoric seem much the same back then as they do now. The Prime Minister has been saying, lately, that we can no longer be content to be the lucky country, we must become the clever country.

CTEC noted the government's concerns and presented its response in the 1984 triennium report (which it first proposed in the previous triennium report 1982): ' ... the council continues to favour the introduction of two tier courses' (p. 119). The purpose of a two tier course is to enable students to start a course at TAFE and finish it at a tertiary institution. CTEC (1984:21) in fact specifies what type of course it prefers this two tiered option to fit into: 'the very cornerstone of its strategy for achieving increased participation and equity in advanced education is the increased provision of associate diploma courses' of which '... the majority of units ...be specially designed [to provide students with vocational skills and] ... an adequate preparation for entry to the second year of ... a degree course (CTEC 1984: 121).

The chairman of CTEC, Hugh Hudson, is even more specific about TAFE's role when he writes in the Chairman's Report (1985: 21) 'TAFE has become an integral part of the tertiary sector' and later on suggests that TAFE should be involved in two tier courses that link to degree and diploma courses provided at universities and CAEs.

The State Context

The state context is important because of the changes the Labor party in Victoria made to education when this course was being conceived. TAFE in the early eighties had a large component of secondary school subjects. In fact it was not until 1984 that TAFE ceased being funded by the Education Department. At that time, TAFEs were seen as competing with high schools for students. The government commissioned Jean Blackburn to review post secondary schooling to see what steps were necessary to keep students at school longer. In 1985 the Ministerial Review of Post Compulsory Schooling Report (Blackburn Report) was published with a number of recommendations. One of the recommendations adopted by the government was particularly relevant to TAFE.

Recommendation 3. That within the public sector the Education Department be responsible for all schooling at Years 11 and 12 and that the allocation of resources between the Education Department and TAFE reflect this responsibility. Resources used to provide

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Years 11 and 12 courses in TAFE should be frozen at present levels pending evaluation and transfer (Ministerial Review of Post Compulsory Schooling 1985: 19).

There was also a move to amalgamate technical schools with high schools, put in a new curriculum and call them secondary colleges. TAFE would then be totally separated from the education department with no formal links to the technical sector.

The TAFE Perspective

The government's attitude was also reflected in the TAFE sector, one of the consequences of this being the re-orientation of TAFE towards vocational education. An indication of this was the Technical and Further Education Board becoming the State Training Board (STB), with Further Education being hived off (lost?) into the Department of Employment Education and Training.

In short, TAFE needed to find a new target audience and create new teaching programs. The STB in tune with the government had already decided on one direction: 'in the short term, critical shortages ... threaten the State's continual economic and employment growth' (STB 1989: 27).

An indication of the change in emphasis was the statement in 1989 that TAFE's role was to be 'responsible for vocational education and training at preparatory, operator, trade, post-trade, technician (or para-professional) and in some fields, professional levels' (STB 1989: 4).

On top of these changes to TAFE there has been the continual reduction of funding over a number of years. The director of Frankston TAFE, John Allen, in a news release said that 'TAFE colleges have accepted the government's cuts to funding over a number of years in a very positive manner and ... that to simply introduce further funding cuts can only result in fewer student places and further cuts in staffing levels' (Allen 1990: 2).

In this environment, a course proposal that would attract funding would be very attractive to the TAFE colleges. As early as 1984, the staff at Frankston TAFE college had been urged to develop courses that attracted funding. One of the teachers, Frank, from the Community and Social Services Department, recalled the director calling a special meeting for all staff. At that meeting the staff were encouraged to the option of creating courses that attracted funding.

So it was that the seeds for a particular course meeting this option were sown. A course proposal was quickly written up and approved and full scale planning commenced for the running of the articulated course. (For details of the courses development, see McKenzie 1991).

The course accreditation documents were provisionally approved for five years by VPSEC. On the 10th February, 1986, the bridging program commenced. Four weeks later, 116 students started the first year of the Associate Diploma at

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Holmesglen and Frankston TAFEs. In early April, the TAFE Board issued its guidelines, which after intense lobbying also included accreditation of TAFE Associate Diplomas as post year 12. Selected staff at Holmesglen TAFE spent Easter rewriting the syllabus documentation according to these new guidelines. In July, the TAFE Board accepted this document and also agreed to the course's accreditation for five years.

So, even as the course was starting, conflicting demands between the post secondary sector and TAFE resulted in changes. In this case the changes were that the syllabi became more prescriptive and biased towards the interests of those involved in the rewriting. That is, the syllabus took on the business studies emphasis of those involved in the rewrite.

Local framings may also be found in many of the documents associated with the course's accreditation. For example, the Needs Statement of the course: '(there are) needs for diplomates ... who are technologically literate ... who will contribute towards satisfying the national need for ... technologically orientated workforce' (Submission for Accreditation 1986: 6)and from the course's rationale which is: 'to provide students with a wider range of educational paths to reach a vocational goal or career' (Submission for Accreditation 1986:18).

The Student Perspective

In this section, I first want to examine the expectations which students had of the course, and then examine what effect those expectations are having on the course. Then I want to examine the focus of the course, to determine if it is being changed from its intended target group and, if so, to identify the influences controlling the change. Finally, I will examine the difficulties students are facing in doing the diploma.

Vocational Expectations

When the students start the course, most of them seem to focus on the last part of the course's title, Associate Diploma of Technology (Computing). As they have not usually studied a computing course before, this focus tends to mislead them into thinking that this course will consist mostly of computing and computer related subjects. They also expect that they will be initiated into the rites of computing, which will 'with a bit of luck (lead to) a really high paying computer job. Hopefully (a) manager of such a place' (Lisa).

At the start of the year (1990) half (48 students) of the first year students were surveyed to get some idea of their expectations. One of the questions they answered was "What type of job do you see yourself doing after completing the course?' Typical responses were 'computering programming', 'sales of computers', 'systems analyst', 'a really high paying computer job'.

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A large number of the first year students interviewed (46 students) expressed dissatisfaction with the subjects they had to take, particularly the humanities subjects. Indy, an immigrant student, is being retrained on Workcare. He expresses the view of the majority of those students interviewed:

Indy: Society and Technology has too much research, lots of assignments. Can discuss most of it in class. An essay of 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 words to me is useless we are just wasting time writing essays. After Society and Technology is finished we don't need it. It is not related to computers. Another subject Individual and the Organisation is (the) same. I drop this subject to survive important subjects. If (the) other subjects have work on them (i.e., assignments) I won't have enough time to s[,end on computers.

A similar situation was found by Kliebard (1990) when he examined vocational education in America. He proposes that the vocational curriculum has changed students' perceptions of what is worthwhile or rewarding. Humanistic subjects, to take one example, are not exactly delegitimised but their standing visa vis the frankly occupationally oriented subjects in the curriculum has waned significantly (1990: 25). Kliebard postulates that this change has occurred because students are examining which subjects would be 'indispensible [sic] vehicles to achieving certain high-status occupations' (p. 25).

Students also questioned the vocational nature Of other subjects. For example, the subject, Computing I, does not deal with computer operating systems. Mark believed that this could be useful in the outside world. He wanted the subject to include more work on the computer. Mark: 'the hands-on use of computers in the first year is limited. I think it would be handy to learn DOS in this year'.

Even the immigrants who have such trouble understanding the technical terms stick with computing because they believe it is the main subject, and a passport to a computing job. For example, Indy had a great deal of difficulty with computing even though he had dropped some of the 'non-important' subjects.

Interview: What do you think of computing?

Indy: I will not get used to the computer because I get sick in the stomach every time I have to use it. I used to hope that we would not have to use the computer in this class. I was afraid of making mistakes. I was so nervous I kept pressing the wrong buttons. How can I practice? I have no computer at home.

Two months later, commenting on this quote, he wrote:

I am still uneasy in using a computer because of lack of knowledge of operations ... because of this I am receiving extra tuition which is slowly

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overcoming this problem. (A special migrant fund is paying for this tuition.)

When these students get to second year of the diploma their thoughts are turning more towards the outside world and employment. This is it, they will have finished their diploma and will be looking for computer related work. At this stage of the course their ideas of career prospects match more closely those proposed by the course description. The students interviewed indicated that this change in perception of the course did not come easily, or indeed was not a very welcome one. It was as though the course had let them down in some way.

Tim: Not many employers know and not many people know about this course. More details [need to be] given to peoples [sic], college has to do more marketing, let peoples [sic] know this course is running. This course is designed to give bits and pieces. I am not sure where it is going to lead. Will I be able to find a job in industry? Will we get any job, main concern of most students. All of them is going back to Chisholm because they can't get a job [most of the second years have applied to do the degree as they have not yet been able to gain employment, even after many interviews in some cases]. We don't want a mickey mouse diploma and they just close the door [prospective employers]. We are not, when we finish the course, we are not qualified in programming. We are supposed to act between staff and management. Where's the job in that? If the student specialises on one area [there is a] better chance for a job. If a student wants to be a programmer go to programming classes not marketing [a second year subject]. If [you] only [want to become] a programmer [the course] doesn't need other subjects only programming.

A counter balance to that viewpoint was obtained from one of the diplomates who got a job in the computer industry running training programs for the general staff. Unfortunately, she was laid off after six months and has enrolled to do the degree whilst she is looking for another position.

Interviewer: Do you think diplomates are able to get jobs in the computer industry?

Jill: I think the jobs are out there, but companies don't know about it. My company [the ADTC] was quite happy to have me. They said that the diploma was very flexible and they liked that. They said I was better than someone with a degree. A lot of companies aren't wanting people who specialise, a COBOL programmer wouldn't be able to do the job I was doing.

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However, teachers in the course heard the grumbles of those enrolled much more loudly than the words of praise from those who had been able to find employment in computer related jobs. In fact, a lot of these grumbles had been documented in the evaluation of the course. So teachers would find it hard to miss even though the findings were very tactfully written.

The students enjoyed aspects of the program which would increase knowledge and skills in a future work environment. Students from both colleges appeared to lose interest in a topic if it did not fulfil this purpose ~valuation Training and Services 1987: 106).

One of the mature age first year students spoke about how these changes, made by the staff, affected her:

Mary: Programming seems to be taking over. The science subjects are concentrating more on this [computer technology/computing]. I showed some students from last year this year's computing assignment, and they said it was a lot harder. One of the guys [a first year student] spent about 60 hours on one assignment [a pascal programming assignment]. Not supposed to have a maths/science background before you start. It seems that you need a Masters, not quite.

Mary has since dropped out of the course for severalreasons: (1) 'I couldn't cope with the family, my son made me feel very guilty when I had to study on weekends' [Mary is a single mum]; (2) 'I was just too frightened. Some of the subjects just gave me a mental block'. She is currently doing 'bits and pieces to keep my hand in with school and gain some confidence' and hopes to come into the ADTC next year.

Target Population

As I have shown, in the federal context section, this course was developed under the Equity in Higher Education Program and as such was targeted at disadvantaged students, in particular women and immigrants. As we have seen in Mary's case the course was not initially very well received. To determine which audience they thought the course was for, a number of disadvantaged students were interviewed.

Interview: Who do you think the course is really aimed at?

Mary: I was told it was especially for women, affirmative action, to get women into the workforce. I believe that it is really aimed at year 12 students, the young ones who haven't got enough marks to get into a programming course. It must be. If it was really designed for mature age

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students there should be more of us. I would expect to see at least 80% mature age and 60% of these as women.

Interestingly, this same thought occurred to the accreditation board back in 1987 when it saw the breakdown of figures the program management group provided it with.

The Board commented on the composition of the actual student intake in 1986 ... did not fully reflect the aims of the course as presented ... in that the course was designed particularly to provide for women who have been educationally disadvantaged, rather than males who have completed year 12 (Director, Accreditation Board 1987, included in PMC minutes June 1987).

It would appear that this trend has continued down through the course's short history. According to the figures from a report on 1990 enrolments there were 24 women in first year and of these three were mature aged. (See Table 1 for a full breakdown of the enrolment figures.)

Table 1 A Breakdown of Students Enrolled in the ADTC

Total Enrolment 109

First Year 95 males 71 females 24

Second Year 14 males t 1 females 3

Of these

Non-English background 13 Disabilities 5 Sole supporting parents 3 Long-term unemployed 4

Source: Report to B. Tech. Course Committee 2/5/90.

All of the second year mature age women students [3] were interviewed to determine their views about who the course was meant for. Pam's views are representative of the replies given.

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Interviewer: Who do you think the course is targeted for?

Pam: I thought it was for people not at school a long time, people with disabilities, but I would not see it as how it is being run now though. Most of the kids going through now have done HSC or just failed it. I see it as a back door for them.

Interviewer: Is the course designed for disadvantaged students?

Pam: Not really. Still expecting a high level of education prior to the course. With Society and Technology fight, we had to write an essay on computers [using a word processor] but they never targht us to do it until after we done it. [They learnt to use the word processor after this assignment was due.] They [the staff] just expected us to be able to do it. Same thing in maths. By the time you had learnt it [the topic under study] it was too late, the ones that had done it passed [the test] well, the ones that didn't failed miserably.

D i f f i c u l t i e s F a c e d by S t u d e n t s

Responsiveness of the Course

A major reason given for running the common year of the course at TAFE was the assistance it was supposed to be able to provide for disadvantaged students.

TAFE has had experience in the provision of a range of bridging/support programs which will provide support for the socially or educationally disadvantaged type of intake envisaged (Course Guide V 1986: 4).

To assist in getting students used to studying again a four week bridging program is provided at the start of the course. This bridging program will be available for those people:

- without a background in technical subjects; - returning to study; - who need to further develop particular skills, e.g., maths, English (brochure for prospective students).

To see how these assistance packages had worked in practice I interviewed a number of students. One of these, an immigrant student named Paul, described his experiences:

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Paul: I been in Australia one year, from Lebanon. I have no English before I came. I spend 3 months in Migrant Department learning English. I went to office [at Frankston TAFE] to ask about computers, was recommended this course [ADTC] because it was especially for migrants. Brochure said especially for migrants, but not for migrants. I find lots of difficulties. Sometimes I don't understand what teachers are saying. They use big words, maybe others understand what they mean. Definitions or something, of words would help. I go to migrant English but they don't know technical words. Need more notes, handouts to study from can read and read again, to work out what is important. I am too busy writing down notes from board to take in verbal explanations. I don't know what to say in class. I feel stupid.

The student counsellor was approached to determine what concerns, if any, first year students from the ADTC had with the level of assistance provided. Jan was very busy and this interview was conducted in the library office while we were both waiting to take some books out. (Every appointment made to see her had to be cancelled as she was running at least half an hour behind schedule.)

Interviewer: What sort of problems did the first year associate diploma students mostly have?

Jan: The students had most difficulty in the technological areas as there were no subject specialists available for remediation. In fact there is none provided in computing or tech principles the students have technical assistance with the other subjects ... there are a lot of words and terms that some of these students have never heard of before, they need a glossary of terms for each subject. I think that they have these problems because they are unfamiliar with the subjects. They think smart people do subjects like maths and physics, I can't do them therefore I am not smart.

The Teachers' Perspective

In this section, I want to examine a number of areas that caused tension in the staff. The first area is the type of student staff think should be enrolled in this course, the second, the material each subject should contain and who should control any changes made to this material. The final issue is what expectations staff have of vocational education and the orientation it should have.

Target Audience

During the course of interviews with the staff involved in this course, a predominant feeling about the types of preferred students came through. This

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preference was for students who had a solid 'maths/science' background, the major reason being that the teachers would be able to cover the material in greater depth. This would then imply that students lacking such a background are not from a preferred target audience. Another related concern arising from the interviews was the lack of depth in the syllabus.

A number of teachers mentioned becoming bored with teaching their syllabus. They also stated that when the course was rewritten for accreditation in 1991, they wanted more depth in the topics that were to be included in the course and they wanted to discard the areas which they perceived as irrelevant.

Tom's responses are typical of those expressed by most of the staff who taught in the technology area.

Interviewer: Who do you see the course being targeted at?

Tom: Well, the first year to me ... it was originally targeted at people who had difficulty getting into a computing or a technology course because of their background and in particular it was for people who had been out of education for a while and perhaps people who had left school, got jobs and got married . . . . You've certainly got an incredible range of abilities in there now. The students that have passed physics, maths and English at year 12. The students that are really in some case battling [are those] with a year 10, year 11 standard and that's difficult. Quite often the year 12 students just slack off during the year and realise that they will have to work hard next year when they get to CIT. A lot of those year 12 students that we get, I think, are good. The course serves them very well. If we could isolate them we could meat up the course a bit more and serve them even better.

Some interesting points are made by Tom. One was 'when they get to CIT'. It appears as if he expects the exit year 12 students to go on to the degree, whilst those from disadvantaged backgrounds would stay on and finish the associate diploma. Another point is where he says: 'originally it was targeted at ...' implying that the course, in his view, is no longer directed towards its original audience, i.e., the disadvantaged.

Talking about changing, or beefing up subjects with Tom raised the issue of tension still existing between TAFE and CIT teachers. This is highlighted by the different prospects CIT staff feel graduates have as opposed to those of diplomates. Diplomates are seen to be doing a voeatiOnal course whereas the CIT students are undertaking a degree and as such nee~ an in-depth coverage of material.

Tom highlights these themes:

Interviewer: What do you think should be taught in your subject and what changes if any would you make to it?

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Tom: The TAFE teachers both at Frankston and at Holmesglen would like to change the technological principles component and did try to change it in 1989. The recommendations weren't taken up by the committee [the PMC], mainly because it was felt the course had to suit the needs of the degree area and the strands it went into and the strands the TAFE teachers wanted to cut wouldn't help that. For example, the TAFE teachers wanted to cut out the whole section on ... which goes for four weeks [but the CIT staff] wanted to keep that option open . . . . is another area which the TAFE teachers thought could be reduced quite significantly because it didn't specifically relate to what these students wanted, to the areas they were going into. And we were trying to increase the technology side in relation to computing. So that's what we wanted to do. But that hasn't been achieved.

In contrast to Tom's opinion, that the course should be beefed up and directed at year 12 students, is Craig's view that the course is 'too hard'. Craig is a new teacher to the ADTC program after two years of teaching other TAFE programs. Previously he was employed in the secondary area. 'I am very cynical of this course [ADTC], it accepts disadvantaged students and expects them to get through the entire course without any help. They should dilute the course a bit, the subjects are too hard'. Craig has been running catch-up classes for some of his slower students at lunch times which indicates that he believes these disadvantaged students require more assistance from staff.

The impression that disadvantaged students cannot cope with technological subjects may have come about because they are not in an appropriate learning environment. A large number of staff do not know how to teach adults or disadvantaged students, and have not been given any special training in this area. In a previous section, when discussing the state's influence on TAFE, I noted that TAFE was previously in competition with high schools for students, which meant that most of the staff had been used to teaching teenagers who were not educationally disadvantaged. This lack of experience was noted by the course committee who organised two afternoon sessions, devoted to strategies for teaching adults but not other disadvantaged groups, before the course started. These sessions were not followed up, mostly according to the staff involved because they thought they would be able to handle teaching adults and disadvantaged students, 'no worries'.

These findings arose from the course evaluation:

Staff lacked sufficient knowledge about appropriate strategies to be able to assess if the [teaching and learning] methods used were suitable for the students. The criticism was made that staff members tended to use the traditional teaching techniques and these were not suitable for use with adults or disadvantaged students (Evaluation and Training Services 1987: 45).

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Course Content

One of the teachers of a non-technology subject, Gary, had different ideas about the orientation that the course should have. Gary also felt that there should be some changes in the content.

Gary: The chief complaint put out by industry, by human resource managers ... is that the students who come in can't communicate. Industry is all about communication. What this course needs to do is to emphasise the importance of verbal communication, of written communication. Their [the students'] computer skills are adjacent to that and their communication skills are also adjacent to their computer skills. The two go together. The better they hone these skills the more employable they'll be.

There are a number of different beliefs about the vocational aspects of the course, some teachers believing that it must have more computing skills to get the diplomates employed whilst others believe that students should be aware of the social costs of technology.

Gary, for instance, would like to see more generality in the course.

... the students come here, see the word computing and that for them is a ticket to a career. The course as I read it was never designed to merely give them computer skills. If they had wanted that they could have learnt keyboard skills in a fast track situation probably in a half year's course.

Tom: What do the students want? ... I suppose when they come in they basically want a qualification which will give them a chance of getting into a job in the computing area. I suppose that's really why they do the course. I still think that time's got to show whether the qualification they're getting is going to be enough to sort of get them the job reliably. There's two areas of the curse. Are we just talking about the ADTC or the degree?

Interviewer: The ADTC.

Tom: We're just talking about the ADTC. It gives them a qualification, it doesn't give them an automatic ticket into a job. Their personality still comes into it a lot as well and obviously their innate capabilities also come into it. But I think that in most cases they're getting a reasonable overview of a lot of different areas which is good for the type of students we're getting. To answer your question though they're probably not getting what they want. What they want is a lot of computing and they aren't getting that.

A TAFE Course 17

Conc lus ion

The ADTC was reaccreditated this year [1991]. It should come as no surprise, then, in the light of the preceding comments, that computing was made the major focus of the course. Another four hours of computing were added to the first year and the more 'humanitarian' subjects were changed from compulsory to elective.

As already discussed, Kliebard (1990) argued that humanities type subjects are given reduced standing compared to the 'occupationally oriented subjects' because of the success of governments and industries in changing people's 'allegiances, perceptions and attitudes' to vocational education.

This ties in with the notion I have presented of governments and industry attempting to change people's perception about why Australia is having economic problems. This rhetoric, I argued, has helped produce a climate where society's expectations of the education system have been changed. In this environment the education system is blamed for not producing the 'advanced technology students' industry requires in order to become competitive. I demonstrated that some of the participants acted in a way that was consistent with this rhetoric, concerning the link between vocational education and Australia becoming competitive again. As Grosch (1987) said, the needs which 'industrialists and politicians claim that society must have ... are cleverly translated into the "needs" of the individual' (p. 155).

In this study, I encountered a good deal of conflict and contradiction. One cause of this was the way the students 'read' the course. They saw the rhetoric- reality gap between the promised employment in a high technology area and the fact that most students had to undertake further studies because they could not find employment.

The analysis of the staff perspective illustrated how a number of conflicts such as that between following the syllabus or interpreting it to suit themselves altered the course. Another pressure acting on the course was the contradiction involved in having a course designed for disadvantaged students being targeted more and more towards those with a 'maths/science' background.

As Kliebard argues, students doing vocational curricula seem to believe that certain subjects are 'indispensable vehicles to achieving certain high-status occupations' (1990: 25). Lyotard (1984) claims that knowledge itself has become 'mercantilised' so that students have become conditioned to ask about their learning, not 'is it true?' but 'what use it it?' or 'is it saleable?' As Freire and Shor (1987: 68) put it 'it is not the students thinking about jobs and money which makes society like it is now. On the contrary, it is society becoming a certain way which creates this preoccupation amongst students'.

18 McKenzie

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20 McKenzie

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