Abstract

The chapter traces recent philosophical interest in vocational education from the beginnings of modern analytic philosophy of education in the 1960s through some of the major philosophical debates about vocational education that have emerged over the past half century. The shift in a good many countries towards so-called competence-based approaches along with the advent of the European Qualification Framework can be seen to have raised profound questions about vocational knowledge and the problems associated with the use of assessment and the international harmonization of occupational standards. There has been a revitalized interest in longstanding philosophical disputes relating to the knowing-how/knowing that distinction and the relationship between theory and practice. The chapter maps recent philosophical thinking on these issues and proposes some possible resolutions. The discussion concludes by indicating some apparent limitations of analytic philosophy, suggesting that there are other traditions which have the potential to provide a richer and more coherent account of the vocational enterprise.