Working & Learning – What for?
I started my blogging with the heading “I-Europe”. I wanted to cover discussions on European innovations in Vocational Education and Training (VET). However, I soon realised that I was trying to make an analysis on a creative period in European VET research (1995-2000) and confronting it with a less creative period after 2000.
My questions in my early blogs were of the type:
“What has happened to the European dimension/ interdisciplinarity/ innovations?” or
“What has happened to trans-national cooperation/ networks/ knowledge sharing?”
Now, looking back, I see that those were questions that are put forward by an observer or a historian. They do not bring you forward with the questions:
“How can we influence the European cooperation climate in the field of VET and of VET research?” or
“How can we make better use of knowledge sharing and knowledge development in European networks?”
These are questions that do not necessarily lead to a big picture or to an overarching change agenda. Yet, they are questions that give a role for the working and learning processes that we are going through in European cooperation. With the new heading of my blog I want to discuss this type of questions.
The new heading has also another meaning: This kind of questions have to reach the ground – the reality of vocational teaching/learning processes and the reality of working and learning contexts.
In this spirit I will try to discuss the projects with which I have been working and what challenges they raise for the new year 2010. I will also try to make some remarks on issues that are hot in the educational debate (such as the implementation of the Bologna process in German universities and Higher Education policies. And – alongside these contributions I will try to make some remarks on the European cooperation climate and how we (different actors in the field can respond to the ongoing climate change (I do believe that something like this is going on).
OK, This was my opening statement. I will come back soon with one of the above mentioned issues.
