Understanding work experience: a discourse analysis

Abstract

The objective of this research is to examine the discursive construction of Work Experience Education. Work Experience Education is an increasingly popular approach to vocational education in Alberta, Canada. It provides high school students opportunities to develop vocational skills, explore careers and in some cases gain hours towards trades certification, by working off-campus for employers in the business community while still gaining high school course credits for their efforts. Often viewed as a common sense approach, helping students develop employability skills through working with employers, Work Experience Education has largely evaded critical research. Through the use of Critical Discourse Analysis, both as a theoretical framework and as a method of inquiry, this study traces the growth of Work Experience Education and then examines the talk and policy involved its promotion and administration. Particular attention is given to the discourses or patterns of meaning that have come to dominate communication about Work Experience Education. This thesis highlights discursive tensions between managerial and marketing discourses in Work Experience Education and educational discourses about its plausibility as a form of learning, the accountability of participating schools and employers and the rights of student workers. In this thesis I examine the discourses of work and learning at play in Work Experience Education. I also raise questions regarding the impact of Work Experience Education on how educators understand the purpose of education more broadly.