Emancipation and Vocational Education: Skills, Bildung and the Subject

1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-041-00094-5
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 184 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 453 g

Reihe: Routledge Research in Vocational Education

This book challenges the economistic neoliberal rationale for vocational education by drawing critically on emancipatory theoretical approaches, especially a body of German theory neglected almost entirely by contemporary accounts.

Capitalising on the current under-theorisation of vocational education, this book reworks established perceptions of the role of vocational education under contemporary social, economic and political conditions. The book centres on pre-war and post-1960s emancipatory approaches to VET, examining the context of their emergence and their application to present-day contexts. Chapters discuss the role of neoliberalism in undermining the educational integrity of VET and other educational spaces, and examine the complex relations between education and skill formation in different societies. Applying its learning to contemporary VET in both the global North and South, the book ultimately provides foundations for critical thinking in vocational spaces.

This book will be of interest to scholars, postgraduate students, and researchers involved in vocational, technical, professional and adult education, the theory of education, and more broadly the economisation of education under neoliberalism. With potential to reframe debates concerning specific approaches to VET that can be applied in the global South, the book has undoubted international appeal.

Zielgruppe

Academic and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Esmond, Bill

Schmees, Johannes K.

Wedekind, Volker

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Berufliche Bildung Wirtschaftspädagogik, Berufspädagogik
• Sozialwissenschaften Pädagogik Teildisziplinen der Pädagogik Erwachsenenbildung, lebenslanges Lernen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Introduction

Chapter 2. Foundations of skill and subjectivity

Chapter 3. From the Enlightenment to vocational Bildung: Theories in context

Chapter 4. An emancipatory theory of vocational Bildung

Chapter 5. Emancipatory or economistic? Vocational education in the West after Blankertz

Chapter 6. Settler VET and postcolonial possibilities

Chapter 7. Conclusion: An emancipatory logic for VET in the crisis of neoliberalism

Über Autor(innen)

Bill Esmond is Professor of Education and Training at the University of Derby, UK.

Johannes K. Schmees is Postdoctoral Fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.

Volker Wedekind is Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK, and Visiting Professor at the Centre for Researching Education and Labour, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa