The development of vocational learner identities by 16-19 year-old learners in Further Education

This case study explored how two groups of 16-19 year-old learners, each on a two-year course, develop a vocational learner identity through negotiated processes that interconnected with the social environment. The two vocational courses were CACHE Childcare and Education, and BTEC Animal Care and Management, in one Further Education College in England. It asked two major questions: how does vocational identity develop by 16-19 year-olds on two further education full time vocational courses and how does identification with the vocation interrelate with dispositions to learn, using interviews and observations with students, their tutors and placement mentors, over eighteen months.
Learning has been conceptualised as negotiating meaning through participation in practice in the process of becoming; and the construct of identity is a tool to analyse learning of young people. The social learning theory of Etienne Wenger is the main framework, however other concepts from bio-ecological systems theory and transformative learning theory were included during the analysis.
Learners generally showed that when they felt a sense of belonging they were motivated to practice alongside experts. They develop independence in practice and recognise that dispositions to learning and towards the vocation, changes. There were a few exceptions, where learners did not identify with the vocation; their dispositions towards learning and the vocation did not show identifiable changes throughout the year. It is therefore possible to complete a course without developing a vocational learner identity.
To ensure learners develop strong vocational learner identities a recommendation would be the use of a systems lens approach to analyse the environment to identify how changes to policies affect the learner. Changing the focus of assessments from grades to learners’ identification with a vocation is more likely to foster lifelong learning dispositions.