VET Teachers’ Perceptions of Their Professional Roles and Responsibilities in International Education

This chapter presents VET teachers’ perceptions of their professional roles and responsibilities under the changed circumstances of the internationalized VET. The analysis of the data gained from semi-structured interviews and fieldwork show that the teachers position themselves mostly as cross-cultural facilitator and mediator. The findings reveal that the teachers’ self-positioning of their professional roles is mainly shaped by their personal experience in teaching international students onshore and offshore, and being international students in the past. The chapter argues for VET institutes’ better recognition of the contextual influences on the nature of VET teachers’ professional tasks as well as for more support for VET teachers to meet the new demands of their work roles.

[1]  Erica Smith.  A Review of Twenty Years of Competency-Based Training in the Australian Vocational Education and Training System , 2010 .

[2]  L. Tran.  Teaching international students in vocational education: new pedagogical approaches , 2013 .

[3]  David James,et al.  The paradox of professionalism in English Further Education: a TLC project perspective , 2007 .

[4]  Shem Macdonald,et al.  Scenarios for collaboration: Idiosyncratic and ad hoc , 2013 .

[5]  C. Lloyd,et al.  Raising the quality of vocational teachers: continuing professional development in England, Wales and Norway , 2012 .

[6]  C. Nyland,et al.  International Vocational Education and Training - the Migration and Learning Mix , 2011 .

[7]  Martyn Stewart,et al.  UNDERSTANDING LEARNING: THEORIES AND CRITIQUE , 2012 .

[8]  L. Tran.  Internationalisation of Vocational Education and Training , 2013 .

[9]  Allison A. Vaughn,et al.  Are International Undergraduates Struggling Academically , 2014 .

[10]  P. Andersson,et al.  Continuing professional development of vocational teachers: participation in a Swedish national initiative , 2015, Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training.

[11]  C. Nyland,et al.  Competency-based training, global skills mobility and the teaching of international students in vocational education and training , 2013 .

[12]  Elspeth Jones,et al.  Graduate Attributes and the Internationalized Curriculum , 2013 .

[13]  Rinos Pasura.  Realities of private VET practice through VET teachers’ lenses: Learning contexts for international students in private VET in Australia , 2014 .

[14]  Roger Harris,et al.  A quarter of a century of CBT: The vicissitudes of an idea , 2009 .

[15]  B. Clayton.  Practitioner Experiences and Expectations with the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (TAA40104): A Discussion of the Issues , 2009 .

[16]  S. Marginson,et al.  International Student Security: References , 2010 .

[17]  C. Chappell,et al.  Changing Work: Changing Roles for Vocational Education and Training Teachers and Trainers. , 2003 .

[18]  Rinos Pasura.  Neoliberal economic markets in vocational education and training: shifts in perceptions and practices in private vocational education and training in Melbourne, Australia , 2014 .

[19]  Deborah M. Netolicky.  Down the rabbit hole: Professional identities, professional learning, and change in one Australian school , 2016 .

[20]  Hugh Guthrie,et al.  Competence and Competency-based Training: What the Literature Says. , 2009 .

[21]  L. Tran,et al.  Re-imagining teachers’ identity and professionalism under the condition of international education , 2015 .

[22]  Katerina Stratilas.  The evolving nature of support: A new horizon , 2011 .

[23]  Stephen Richard Billett,et al.  Vocational Education: A Field and Sector of Education , 2011 .

[24]  David Watkins,et al.  Teaching the Chinese Learner: Psychological and Pedagogical Perspectives , 2001 .

[26]  C. Chappell.  Changing pedagogy: issues for contemporary pedagogy , 2003 .

[27]  Erica Smith,et al.  From training reform to training packages , 2003 .

[28]  L. Tran,et al.  Internationalization in VET: An Overview , 2017 .

[29]  Leesa Wheelahan,et al.  Integration and fragmentation of post compulsory teacher education , 2012 .

[30]  Pradeep Kumar Misra.  VET teachers in Europe: policies, practices and challenges , 2011 .

[31]  James H. Liu.  Globalizing Indigenous Psychology: An East Asian Form of Hierarchical Relationalism with Worldwide Implications , 2015 .

[32]  M. Milana,et al.  Qualification paths of adult educators in Sweden and Denmark , 2013 .

[33]  Erlenawati Sawir,et al.  Language Difficulties of International Students in Australia: The Effects of Prior Learning Experience. , 2005 .

[34]  Lisa Maurice-Takerei,et al.  Constructing an identity. The work and world of polytechnic trade tutors in New Zealand , 2015 .

[35]  Collaborative efforts work! Reflections on a two- year relationship between Faculty of Health and International Student Services - Language and Learning Unit , 2012 .

[36]  Hugh Guthrie,et al.  Professional development in the vocational education and training workforce , 2010 .

[37]  L. Tran,et al.  Teacher professional development under the impact of internationalization in VET , 2017 .