Questions of the knowledge that students acquire through vocational studies is fundamental to understanding educational settings oriented to preparation for work. What forms of knowledge are valid is central to policy debates in several countries, as requirements to centre learning further on the workplace jostle with renewed emphasis on disciplinary knowledge essential to advanced skills and academic progression.
Research has variously addressed the knowledge accessible through workplace practice (Billett 2006; Fuller et al. 2007) and associated issues of identity, ‘becoming’ and community participation (Gherardi and Perotta 2014; Hodkinson et al. 2008); as well as forms of knowledge and knowing increasingly valued in the contemporary workplace (Eraut 2004; Guile 2010), extending to notions of a creativity-focused ‘epistemology of the hand’ (Brinkmann and Tanggaard 2010). Such approaches raise epistemological questions about the nature of expertise and relationship between forms of know-that and know-how (Winch 2010). Others have emphasised that expertise in many occupations relies on ‘specialised’ knowledge indispensable for the making of sound judgements in practice (Young and Muller 2014; Shalem 2014) whilst it has been argued that such generalisable knowledge may have considerable transformative value to individuals and society (Wheelahan 2010; Johnson 1988).
This event, supported by the Journal of Vocational Education and Training (JVET), draws together leading international researchers whose recent publications have explored the place of knowledge and expertise in vocational curricula (Young & Hordern 2020), in professional judgment (Winch 2020), in the accounts of teachers (Tarabini and Jacovkis 2021) and as it becomes systematised from practice (Moodie 2020).