The background to the work reported in this chapter is an educational reform which seemed to contain unpromising elements of managerial control and prescription, namely the 'competence-based' format for vocational education initiated in the UK by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ)l. The approach to vocational education promoted by NCVQ consists of detailed specifications of the competences 'required in employment', to be demonstrated in portfolios of evidence derived from workplace practice. This can be presented as a (positive, progressive) reform in that it represents an attempt to: 1 derive curriculum aims from practitioners' experiences (rather than merely from academics' theories) through a process of 'functional analysis' of work roles2; 2 expand educational opportunity by ensuring that access to qualifications is not limited by practitioners' inability to afford or attend expensive or distant 'courses' - because educational requirements are entirely embodied in 'outcome' statements describing professional practice; 3 give learners greater control over their education by making explicit in advance the criteria by which their work will be assessed; 4 ensure that vocational curricula and qualifications are directly 'relevant' to the work roles to which they refer. (Jessup, 1991) However, these claims are frequently met by counterclaims, criticizing competencebased curricula as fragmented and reductionist, as a denial of the creativity and autonomy of professional work and the subjection of professional education to crude managerial control (Ashworth and Saxton, 1990; Field, 1991). In particular, such criticisms have been advanced by writers with a commitment to an action research oriented version of professional development (Elliott, 1991; Norris, 1991) and we have much sympathy with their point of view (see Winter, 1992). © S. Hollingsworth, 1997. All rights reserved.
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