Making Participation Possible : Vocational teachers' and students' perspectives on support in work-based learning
Year: 2026
Type: book
Abstract: The aim of this thesis is to contribute to a deeper understanding of the conditions that shape the participation of students in need of support in work-based learning within Swedish upper secondary vocational education and training. In particular, this thesis examines how support in relation to work-based learning is organised, enacted, and experienced across the boundary between school and workplace, and how such support arrangements influence these students’ opportunities to participate in work-based learning. Although work-based learning is intended to support vocational knowledge, vocational identity, and participation in vocational communities, access to work-based learning does not in itself ensure meaningful participation. The data consist of semi-structured interviews with 15 vocational teachers and 26 vocational students, and the findings show that participation is shaped by relational, pedagogical, and organisational conditions. Vocational teachers play an important mediating role, while students emphasise preparation, supervisory support, task design and broader workplace conditions. These conditions are conceptualised as a support chain. Last but not least, this thesis shows that participation in WBL is more than just physical access. Meaningful participation requires recognition as a legitimate participant, access to learning and progression, and conditions that enable students to participate as subjects in their own right.
Author: My Olofsson
Institution: Linköping University
Language: English
Topic: Education Systems and Policy
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7223407533