Article 2025

Learning through practice: the experience of secondary school TVET teachers in Chile

International Journal of Training Research
Journal · Vol. 23 · Issue 1 · pp. 47-63
Abstract

This article summarizes the main results of a research on teachers working in secondary school VET in Chile by reviewing the principal features of teacher professional identity, including their beliefs and perceptions about teaching for job and their experiences in the context of the school settings in which they work. Empirical findings were collected from a survey of 490 teachers and 31 in-depth interviews. Analysis of these findings shows the emergence of a distinctive teacher professional identity. The identity emphasizes a practical teaching model that is associated with the application of a pedagogy of accompaniment, but which also demonstrates tensions and difficulties of interaction regarding the traditional academic school model. Teachers pointed out as common the weakness of institutional support, the weak link with employers and productive agents and the recurrent need to show their own individual initiative in order to face the challenges of training students. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Author Keywords

vocational education and training beliefs about teaching teacher identities VET teachers

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations
Departamento de Política Educativa, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Santiago, RM, Chile
Funding & Acknowledgements
Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, MOE
Funding text 1: The research that supports this article was conducted under the supervision of the ethics committee of the Universidad Alberto Hurtado de Santiago de Chile, complying with all the requirements for the protection and consent of the study participants. This work has been carried out with the support of the Fondo de Investigaci\u00F3n y Desarrollo en Educaci\u00F3n (FONIDE) of the Ministry of Education of Chile, Project El desaf\u00EDo pedag\u00F3gico de la formaci\u00F3n para el trabajo: Un estudio sobre los docentes de formaci\u00F3n diferenciada de la Educaci\u00F3n Media T\u00E9cnico Profesional (EMTP) 2020-2021 (The pedagogical challenge of training for work: A study of teachers of differentiated training in secondary technical and vocational education, 2020-2021).; Funding text 2: This work has been carried out with the support of the Fondo de Investigaci\u00F3n y Desarrollo en Educaci\u00F3n (FONIDE) of the Ministry of Education of Chile, Project El desaf\u00EDo pedag\u00F3gico de la formaci\u00F3n para el trabajo: Un estudio sobre los docentes de formaci\u00F3n diferenciada de la Educaci\u00F3n Media T\u00E9cnico Profesional (EMTP) 2020-2021 (The pedagogical challenge of training for work: A study of teachers of differentiated training in secondary technical and vocational education, 2020-2021).
Grant: 2020-2021
Funding text 1: The research that supports this article was conducted under the supervision of the ethics committee of the Universidad Alberto Hurtado de Santiago de Chile, complying with all the requirements for the protection and consent of the study participants. This work has been carried out with the support of the Fondo de Investigaci\u00F3n y Desarrollo en Educaci\u00F3n (FONIDE) of the Ministry of Education of Chile, Project El desaf\u00EDo pedag\u00F3gico de la formaci\u00F3n para el trabajo: Un estudio sobre los docentes de formaci\u00F3n diferenciada de la Educaci\u00F3n Media T\u00E9cnico Profesional (EMTP) 2020-2021 (The pedagogical challenge of training for work: A study of teachers of differentiated training in secondary technical and vocational education, 2020-2021).; Funding text 2: This work has been carried out with the support of the Fondo de Investigaci\u00F3n y Desarrollo en Educaci\u00F3n (FONIDE) of the Ministry of Education of Chile, Project El desaf\u00EDo pedag\u00F3gico de la formaci\u00F3n para el trabajo: Un estudio sobre los docentes de formaci\u00F3n diferenciada de la Educaci\u00F3n Media T\u00E9cnico Profesional (EMTP) 2020-2021 (The pedagogical challenge of training for work: A study of teachers of differentiated training in secondary technical and vocational education, 2020-2021).
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