Erhvervsskolelæreres håndtering af sameksisterende krav om øget fastholdelse og et højt fagligt niveau i erhvervsuddannelserne

Abstract

Recently, a political goal in the OECD coun- tries, including Denmark, has been to raise the completion rate within the youth educational system, specifically within vocational educa- tion and training. These political intentions are complicated by a further coexisting goal of sustaining high quality within the vocational educational system. The article’s aim is to investigate how teachers at a Danish voca- tional school handle such coexisting political demands. Findings from a one-year field study show that the political demands of retention and high quality aimed at vocational training are responded to in ways, where the teachers develop diverse pedagogical strategies defined as: an active ‘caring’, a passive ‘wait until the course is over’, an active ‘selection’ and a pas- sive ‘wait until they drop out’ approach. These diverse pedagogical strategies are developed through negotiations between leaders, teachers and students in ways that may cause further pedagogical dilemmas to develop.