Shifting Tensions between Vocational and General Education: France and Germany Compared

European declarations aim to establish an enhanced European skill formation area that will strengthen the EU’s global competitiveness. Yet the efforts of decisionmakers to achieve the diverse goals codified in the Bologna (higher education) and Copenhagen (vocational training) declarations imply the reform or even restructuring of national educational systems, which resist transformative change. These ambitious goals stand in contrast to limited knowledge about recent institutional and organizational changes within individual countries at the education/economy nexus. This project focuses on shifting tensions between general and vocational skill formation systems as it charts national dynamics of institutional change in vocational and higher education systems. How are national systems responding to the exogenous pressures of international diffusion and Europe-wide Bologna and Copenhagen processes? Changes in the competition between the differentially institutionalized organizational fields of general and vocational education imply the adjustment of educational pathways, participation rates, and life chances. We propose an in-depth analysis of different national responses to internationalization and Europeanization pressures in the cases of France and Germany.

EDUC projects are listed on the left hand side. For more information on specific projects click on the project titles in the blue boxes. The research results are presented in the State of the Art report (above) and the EDUC Research Papers: