During the period since the early 1980s when the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia has undergone reform, there has been profound change in the priorities and discursive frame of government policy. While the goals of social equity and economic efficiency were held in delicate balance up to 1987, thereafter the balance shifted markedly towards the latter goal as economic rationalism rose to prominence. This paper traces and analyses the discursive shifts in VET policy during this significant period of educational reform. The paper suggests that, as a consequence...  [+] Show more

During the period since the early 1980s when the vocational education and training (VET) sector in Australia has undergone reform, there has been profound change in the priorities and discursive frame of government policy. While the goals of social equity and economic efficiency were held in delicate balance up to 1987, thereafter the balance shifted markedly towards the latter goal as economic rationalism rose to prominence. This paper traces and analyses the discursive shifts in VET policy during this significant period of educational reform. The paper suggests that, as a consequence of the reorientation of national VET policy, strategies to redress structural inequalities have been supplanted by policy initiatives that at most offer the prospect of social reform at the margins and improved access only on an ad hoc and individual basis. The paper concludes by arguing that, in the search for new strategies to promote socially progressive reform in VET, the prevailing discourses of choice and diversity need to be problematised and reframed within critical understandings of market participation and social difference.

Published abstract.

The two volumes of collected papers are indexed at TD/TNC 64.287 and TD/TNC 64.355. Selected papers from volume one are indexed from TD/TNC 64.288 to TD/TNC 64.320; selected papers from volume two are indexed from TD/TNC 64.321 to TD/TNC 64.354.