This paper proposes some new ways of understanding the relationship between policy and practice in vocational education and training (VET) in Australia. It argues that contemporary policy making in VET follows a rationalistic logic where things are divided up according to the separate spheres of policy formulation and policy implementation. The argument is exemplified through considering aspects of the design and implementation of competency-based education and training. It is claimed that education and training policy making contains a paradox insofar as it enacts separation of policy and practice worlds while relying upon their inseparability for its success. Practitioners who are alert to this paradox work the gap between these worlds and create new worlds in the process. Here, the policy-practice relation is an intricately entangled one where practitioners act as practical policy makers. The conclusion is drawn that contemporary policy making in VET establishes a partial picture of practice and, that dealing with this partiality involves (i) understanding policy and its instruments in terms of the multiple options it embeds, and (ii) reconfiguring the relationship between policy and practice. © 1998 Journal of Vocational Education and Training. All right reserved.
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