Against All Odds: An Empirical Study about the Situative Pedagogical Ethos of Vocational Trainers

Every researcher owes a great debt to other persons who have influenced his or her thinking and supported him or her in many various ways. Well, that is certainly true for me, and I gratefully thank all those people for their important contribution to my work and writing process. I would especially like to thank Fritz Oser from the University of Fribourg. He is not only my source of inspiration for choosing pedagogical ethos as a topic of interest, but he also stimulated my interest in vocational educational research. I am very grateful for his support over the years of collaboration and the time he took to discuss my theoretical concept, concerns, and questions. I owe another great debt to Richard Shavelson from Stanford University. He accompanied my working process with many valuable insights, and he commented on my methodology and result sections, for which I am extremely thankful. Many thank to the Swiss National Science Foundation. It has granted me the opportunity to spend a year at Stanford University, which proved to be of undeniable value. I wish to acknowledge especially the critical suggestions received from the research groups led by Bill Damon and Ann Colby as well as by Jonathan Osborne and Brian Brown. Furthermore, I would like to thank Ann Porteus, Eamon Callan, and John Heron who agreed to talk to me and contributed their time and ideas. Thanks to Katy Nandagopal, Enrique Lopez, Anna McPherson, Evan Szu, and Christian Wandeler for their input on the trainer's questionnaire, Patrizia Salzmann and Corinne Joho for critically studying my theoretical section and their feedback and suggestions on the content. And I thank them all for their friendship. Moreover, I want to thank Lyn Shepard for his careful proofreading and the many comments and suggestions he added to improve my writing in English. Many other friends who matter a great deal taught me patience, endurance, and confidence. I am grateful to all of them. In addition, I have a wonderful family upon whom I rely regularly. I thank my parents, sister and brother for their love, respect and support in various ways. I want to especially acknowledge my husband Sebastian Forster, whose support in technical matters, formatting but also in motivational realms proved to be priceless. He never stopped believing that I would manage all the responsibilities I have. Finally, I thank my sons Liam Dominic and No\u00E9 Julian for giving me the drive to finish this book by showing me how nice it would be to have more time for playing.

Every researcher owes a great debt to other persons who have influenced his or her thinking and supported him or her in many various ways. Well, that is certainly true for me, and I gratefully thank all those people for their important contribution to my work and writing process. I would especially like to thank Fritz Oser from the University of Fribourg. He is not only my source of inspiration for choosing pedagogical ethos as a topic of interest, but he also stimulated my interest in vocational educational research. I am very grateful for his support over the years of collaboration and the time he took to discuss my theoretical concept, concerns, and questions. I owe another great debt to Richard Shavelson from Stanford University. He accompanied my working process with many valuable insights, and he commented on my methodology and result sections, for which I am extremely thankful. Many thank to the Swiss National Science Foundation. It has granted me the opportunity to spend a year at Stanford University, which proved to be of undeniable value. I wish to acknowledge especially the critical suggestions received from the research groups led by Bill Damon and Ann Colby as well as by Jonathan Osborne and Brian Brown. Furthermore, I would like to thank Ann Porteus, Eamon Callan, and John Heron who agreed to talk to me and contributed their time and ideas. Thanks to Katy Nandagopal, Enrique Lopez, Anna McPherson, Evan Szu, and Christian Wandeler for their input on the trainer's questionnaire, Patrizia Salzmann and Corinne Joho for critically studying my theoretical section and their feedback and suggestions on the content. And I thank them all for their friendship. Moreover, I want to thank Lyn Shepard for his careful proofreading and the many comments and suggestions he added to improve my writing in English. Many other friends who matter a great deal taught me patience, endurance, and confidence. I am grateful to all of them. In addition, I have a wonderful family upon whom I rely regularly. I thank my parents, sister and brother for their love, respect and support in various ways. I want to especially acknowledge my husband Sebastian Forster, whose support in technical matters, formatting but also in motivational realms proved to be priceless. He never stopped believing that I would manage all the responsibilities I have. Finally, I thank my sons Liam Dominic and No\u00E9 Julian for giving me the drive to finish this book by showing me how nice it would be to have more time for playing.

Every researcher owes a great debt to other persons who have influenced his or her thinking and supported him or her in many various ways. Well, that is certainly true for me, and I gratefully thank all those people for their important contribution to my work and writing process. I would especially like to thank Fritz Oser from the University of Fribourg. He is not only my source of inspiration for choosing pedagogical ethos as a topic of interest, but he also stimulated my interest in vocational educational research. I am very grateful for his support over the years of collaboration and the time he took to discuss my theoretical concept, concerns, and questions. I owe another great debt to Richard Shavelson from Stanford University. He accompanied my working process with many valuable insights, and he commented on my methodology and result sections, for which I am extremely thankful. Many thank to the Swiss National Science Foundation. It has granted me the opportunity to spend a year at Stanford University, which proved to be of undeniable value. I wish to acknowledge especially the critical suggestions received from the research groups led by Bill Damon and Ann Colby as well as by Jonathan Osborne and Brian Brown. Furthermore, I would like to thank Ann Porteus, Eamon Callan, and John Heron who agreed to talk to me and contributed their time and ideas. Thanks to Katy Nandagopal, Enrique Lopez, Anna McPherson, Evan Szu, and Christian Wandeler for their input on the trainer's questionnaire, Patrizia Salzmann and Corinne Joho for critically studying my theoretical section and their feedback and suggestions on the content. And I thank them all for their friendship. Moreover, I want to thank Lyn Shepard for his careful proofreading and the many comments and suggestions he added to improve my writing in English. Many other friends who matter a great deal taught me patience, endurance, and confidence. I am grateful to all of them. In addition, I have a wonderful family upon whom I rely regularly. I thank my parents, sister and brother for their love, respect and support in various ways. I want to especially acknowledge my husband Sebastian Forster, whose support in technical matters, formatting but also in motivational realms proved to be priceless. He never stopped believing that I would manage all the responsibilities I have. Finally, I thank my sons Liam Dominic and No\u00E9 Julian for giving me the drive to finish this book by showing me how nice it would be to have more time for playing.