The silent teacher: spoken and unspoken rhetorics and the politics of training reform

One of the precepts of Game Theory states that whoever starts the game is more likely to win. This paper explores the game of training reform and particularly its impact on teachers who certainly do not make the rules. It traces the impact of the Training Reform Agenda from 1990 to its echoes of Victorian Minister Kosky's 2002 statement Knowledge and Skills for the Innovation Economy. The study considers the effects of these reform rhetorics on curriculum and teachers' work. It considers who speaks and who must remain silent when curriculum decisions are made. The author focuses particularly on education and training in jewellery design and other arts education as she explores what is spoken and what is unspoken in the politics of training reform. Reference to learning that is, or should be, rich in thinking and creativity leads to a critique of many of the assumptions underpinning Training Packages and to Ross's concept of artistic 'mental slavery'. The author goes on to consider the application of some novel theories and novel solutions to the analysis of Training Reform, Game Theory in particular. She refers to Akerlof, Spence and Stiglitz' work on 'information economics' where the 'players have different information and are privileged with different, unequal knowledge about the object of a game'. This analysis throws new light on the question of who can speak and who must remain silent during Training Reform events such as the development of a Training Package.

Published abstract.

Available papers from the 8th Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association (AVETRA) Conference, 'Emerging futures: recent, responsive and relevant research', are indexed from TD/TNC 81.564 to TD/TNC 81.610. Show less