“I Want to Do More and Change Things”: Reframing CTE Toward Possibilities in Urban Education

Abstract

This article addresses the discourse on career and technical education (CTE) from a multiperspectival approach to challenge the persisting academic-vocational divide. The author illustrates the paradoxical rhetoric in CTE, then shares a personal experience, and draws on ethnographic research to reveal a different understanding of enabling human capacity to support racially and culturally minoritized youth. In the end, the author suggests that a push beyond the language of investment and skills embedded in educational reform becomes all the more important in preparing youth for the future. Implications for practice, research, and policy toward possibilities in urban education are also discussed.

Keywords

career and technical education multimedia communications ethnography urban education

To educate our way to a better economy, educators, public officials, and policymakers must ensure that every student in our country graduates from high school prepared for college and a successful career . . . A world-class education system that provides high-quality job-training opportunities will reduce skills shortages, spur business growth, encourage new investment and hiring, spark innovation, and promote continued economic growth.

—U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, Investing in America’s Future

School is going okay but senior year is not how I expected it to be . . . It’s kind of boring. I try to stay excited. Classes are boring but we need to take (them) in order to graduate. This class [multimedia communications] really got my attention out of all my classes. This class is my favorite. I don’t know if I want to do this as a career but I enjoy this kind of stuff, the researching, doing different projects and production . . . My GPA is 2.5 but I hope to graduate with a 3.5 and go to college. That’s part of my plan.

—Ally, 12th-grade student

In 2012, President Barack Obama reauthorized the Carl Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006, a US$1.4 billion investment with the purpose of preparing youth and adults to be more “skilled, adaptable, creative, and equipped for success in the global marketplace” (U.S. Department of Education, 2012, 2013). According to the Perkins Act blueprint, transforming career and technical education (CTE) involves four core principles: alignment between CTE programs and the labor market; collaboration among secondary and postsecondary institutions, employers, and industry partners; accountability for academic outcomes and employability skills for all students; and innovation to support CTE implementation with effective practices. Congruent with President Obama’s Race to the Top initiatives (U.S. Department of Education, 2009), reform plans for CTE utilize incentives and increased autonomy for states that yield high-quality programming and high performance from local recipients. While this is so, what remains implicit are the ways in which the education reform blueprint frames education. As the epigram demonstrates, juxtaposing forecasts about what it means to be educated points to the paradoxical rhetoric in CTE. The statement from U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, on one hand, is indicative of President Obama’s plans for economic growth with education goals of rebuilding a nation through CTE. The statement from 12th-grade African American student Ally, on the other hand, marks CTE as an important ground for stimulating intellectual curiosity toward academic and career pathways.¹ Ally’s excitement about inquiry also suggests the value of multimedia communications as a learning context for advancing her interests in broadcasting and the arts; it is a place to grow even though pathways are not entirely clear-cut. Ally’s 2-year experience in multimedia communications at an urban school in a Midwestern city implies a kind of education that does not preclude academic and career pathways beyond CTE, which in her case involves postsecondary plans in public health or the medical sciences with an ultimate goal of returning to serve her community.

The juxtaposition of two differing views pertaining to education is purposeful. Through my own teaching and research, I have encountered many students like Ally whose interests and desires in a changing world reflect the centrality of learning in human development. To accept that CTE only produces “high-quality job training opportunities” is to assume students’ pathways as straightforward without much room for learning in space-time (Leander, Phillips, & Taylor, 2010). It reflects the persisting academic-vocational divide, an old debate that manifests under the guise of “investing in America’s future,” predetermining what some students are capable of doing within particular pathways based on the work of the hand or the brain in school (Rose, 2004). There remains, as well as (re)emerges in current policy, a belittling of the work and intellectual potential in performing types of learning. That is, the idea that applied learning is mostly useful for those young people who cannot compete academically. This very idea is “destructive and represents a distorted understanding of human ability” (Halpern, 2013, p. 213). In the midst of global economic competition, market-driven forces that insist principally on business growth and employability skills have limited at best the meaning of education as a human enterprise to enable human capacity and benefit the public good. From this perspective, education is a civic and democratic endeavor, one that is purposeful in life and not determined by or limited to occupational niches. Such thinking should be leading the discourse in CTE to prepare young people for possible futures. Because it is not, herein lies the paradox.

CTE can be a place where what it means to be human and educated is not simply tied to shifting labor markets. It has been reported that CTE courses and programs increase engagement in school and improve educational chances of historically marginalized youth (U.S. Department of Education, 2008). However, questions remain when taking into account the experiences of students in urban school environments. In what ways does CTE increase engagement and improve educational chances? What can we learn from CTE courses and programs to continue supporting students in their academic, career, and life trajectories? The answers to these questions can help us as researchers and educators better understand CTE as a domain of learning consistent with shifts in designs and opportunities across schools and communities. According to Rose (2004), we must maintain the “belief in the capacity of the common person and in the necessity of connecting education to an egalitarian vision of human and cultural development” (p. 193). Such an understanding is essential to efforts in bridging the academic-vocational divide to serve all students. Hence, in this article, I join the conversation about the persisting academic-vocational divide and stress the importance of humanizing approaches in CTE and the implications for research and practice within urban education.

In the past several years, I have come to understand efforts in CTE implementation through my work in youth literacies situated in the career cluster of Arts, A/V Technology, and Communications. There, Ally and other students engage in hands-on learning while participating in literate practices such as writing and media making through inquiry-based projects. The positioning of students as apprentices-experts and as knowledge producers through media making is key to the building of a community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). Students’ participation in multimedia communications involves work in the classroom, the classroom recording booths and broadcast studio, the school auditorium, and the school district’s television station. Students respond in a variety of ways; some make the most of it, while others find alternative ways to engage with available media technologies. In light of such encounters with CTE students, the notion of purposeful education demands a critical questioning of what is at stake in a knowledge economy that perpetuates social hierarchies. This questioning requires challenging the persisting academic-vocational divide that guides the CTE discourse. Giving attention to the possible lives and futures of young people, it is necessary to rethink the language in educational reform that undermines human potential solely in the spirit of economic revitalization. In what follows, I begin with a personal story about early experiences in vocational education as a young woman of color attending a city school. Then, I revisit CTE’s historical development to point out results-driven trends in CTE research and practice. Drawing on an ethnographic study conducted at an urban high school, I share observational and interview data to reveal a different understanding of enabling human capacity to support racially and culturally minoritized youth.² Finally, I offer a reframing of CTE focused on alterable conditions to push beyond the language of investment and skills as embedded in the educational reform. A humanizing approach becomes all the more important in preparing youth for the future. In all, the premise of the discussion is to articulate CTE’s potential in shaping views about what and who is valued in education in more nuanced ways. First, a look at my own schooling is illustrative.

Urban Schooling and Hands-On Learning

It is not news that CTE echoes the academic-vocational divide in 21st-century education. Not long ago, the academic-vocational divide had predetermined my ability as a student in a large urban school district in Southern California; neither my family nor I had the knowledge to navigate the education system. The experience was relevant as it was educational. As a teenager, I was pretty good with my hands and had a fairly creative imagination. I remember designing objects and spaces in my head only to discover decades later that inklings toward architecture would become useful for a do-it-yourself renovation of my first home. Composing visually also shaped interests in photography that later became a basis for interests in visual arts. Needless to say, budding designs for small projects such as landscapes and bahay kubo (nipa hut) structures materialized on paper. As part of my growing curiosity, my interests shifted to hands-on learning when I reached junior high school. It was at that time when I was placed in basic courses and vocational education that included industrial shop (electrical, metal, wood) and home economics. Low-ability tracking was oddly common for students like me, yet it was never questioned. The courses seemed appropriate, given my range of interests in working with my hands.

To me, schooling during that period in my life was about putting one’s mind at work (Rose, 2004). I had grown up seeing family members do away with service work (domestic, home care, restaurant, hotel) and spending the majority of their week in places where their hands—and feet—went the distance. For me, this kind of work was as much about mental dexterity as much as it was about physical ability. I learned how to be skillful in service work from the various real-life examples and resilience I witnessed over time. So, in school, I tried to emulate such dexterity with mind and hands at work. My most vivid memory of vocational education remains to be “shop” where I was able to make a lamp with an intricately carved wood base, a battery-operated clock set on a glass tile, and a jewelry box topped with sculpted scrap metal. I also remember fixing broken transistor radios before they became a thing of the past. There, in that classroom with a teacher who treated students as creative apprentices, I learned how to solder and splice, how to test amps, and how to cut along (not against) the grain. There, I learned how to problem solve using particular tools that required creative practice. Whatever I assembled or produced in “shop” ended up as gifts for family members. Clever, I thought. My parents seemed proud that I was learning and applying new knowledge in school. Two years would pass before other interests and activities would lead me to a different path than vocational education. Building on advice from a coach-mentor, I found myself following the footsteps of college-going students on competitive sports teams and, with the help of a guidance counselor, was placed in college-preparatory courses to be with several of my teammates. Such social and cultural capital in the 10th grade allowed me to fulfill a set of requirements by the 12th grade in time to be granted an opportunity to attend a 4-year public university.

It has been many years since that time in my life. The academic-vocational divide may not be as rigid now with a name change to CTE and the implementation of academic integration. Still, it is important to recall the divide as a reminder of ability tracking and schooling inequality that have narrowed options for many students (Oakes, 1985). I was a student from a first-generation immigrant family whose primary language outside of English at home had given way to more assumptions about intellectual ability. It was not easy to navigate school, and it was certainly not easy to transcend ascribed limitations for someone from a low socioeconomic background. Retrospectively, the experience in vocational education provided me with insight into and an appreciation for hands-on learning, for working with a passionate teacher and for developing interests in occupational areas that were typically not associated with women. The apprenticeship to be good in “shop” was about engagement, thinking, and learning that reflect cognitive development and guided participation (Rogoff, 1990). At that time, I had also become interested in multicultural literature and the science of living in a multiracial world but it was an area no one ever bothered to ask me about or encouraged me to pursue (until college when I majored in ethnic studies). I was questioning the world from the standpoint of an immigrant student and a low-income multilingual household whose funds of knowledge had neither value nor representation in school. The city school (Noguera, 2003) I attended in Los Angeles represented zip codes comprising mixed-level family income, a school where class size averaged 35 or more students with physical education often exceeding 50 in cramped gym spaces. The classes available at the school ranged from vocational education to academic preparation based on students served. Together, the size of the city (and the school), the student population in the school, and the resources available were characteristic of urban education (Milner & Lomotey, 2014). I recall being in classes that had predominantly students of color even though the school had a sizable White student population. I would realize years later that such a distinct arrangement was perhaps part of a hidden curriculum (unofficial lessons about how to think or how to be) that separated students by de facto tracking and discounted student potential through lower expectations (see Lucas, 1999; Oakes & Guiton, 1995). With more exposure to theories of education and the politics of schooling, I would learn over time how school was a microcosm of society shaped by uneven power relations and exacerbated by educational opportunity gaps (Ladson-Billings, 2006; Milner, 2013).

My story is but one story. Perhaps had it not been for detractors, I would not have actively sought social and institutional support to pursue higher education to become above all else an educator. To understand the complexity of schooling is to offer an instantiation such as this as a departure point for examining current educational reform. The main idea in sharing this untold and often stigmatized story is to emphasize what happens when learning, especially paired with good teaching, is aligned with student interests. Schooling becomes less mundane and education surfaces as purposeful. While the academic-vocational divide may take more subtle forms than in previous decades, the danger is in the underestimation of one’s potential, one’s human potential, by those who view vocational education as mindless and deterministic of academic and career pathways. There is differentiated curriculum in a movement toward “new vocationalism” that potentially narrows options for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds (Lewis & Chen, 2006). Thus, when approached from a critical, justice-centered perspective, CTE can be a place for discovery and learning much like other areas of study. For this reason, I build on the conceptualization of the mind at work (Rose, 2004) and engaged learning (Rogoff, 1990) to suggest in this article that CTE needs to be extricated from ability tracking in ways that open up avenues for possible futures. In my case, the “shop” courses laid some ground for applied learning in support of my becoming and eventually a college-going path. I was fortunate to have had key figures like a coach-mentor who understood the politics of caring (Valenzuela, 1999) to help disrupt the hidden curriculum and for me to navigate school with more informed actions. CTE is an area worthy of attention in light of changing notions of learning, school, and work in today’s society. Changing demographics and increasing needs, particularly in low-resourced schools and communities, are important to consider as I describe in a later section. Next is an overview of CTE’s roots to situate contemporary perspectives.

Historical Origins and Present-Day CTE

CTE has its origin in the early part of the 20th century. According to Gordon (2008), the history of CTE stemmed from European influences rooted in vocation and manual training. The evolution of vocational education in the United States coincided with society’s needs. What began as an apprenticeship system for children to learn a trade through family (arguably an existing age-old community practice that builds on indigenous ways of being) or instruction under the tutelage of a “master” craftsperson was reduced to labor on the industrial floor with the rise of the factory. Formal preparation for the workplace emerged as a result of industrialization’s division of labor calling for more specialized training. The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 first established vocational education in public schools to provide students with job-specific skills in the areas of agriculture, home economics, trade, and industry. Over time, vocational education developed as separate from academic instruction. Different perspectives existed to shape practice and debates continued among educators. For example, Charles Prosser advocated for vocational education as a way to drive the economy and social efficiency (assuming one’s place in the social order). John Dewey championed hands-on activities, yet envisioned education to be purposeful and tied to the creation of a democratic citizenry. In a similar academic-vocational debate specific to African Americans, Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute, believed in occupational skills as a way for former slaves to move up the social and economic ladder. W. E. B. Du Bois aimed for education that would extend beyond manual labor. Such perspectives resonate today as labor market forces influence CTE’s framework and approach to school–community connections, work-based learning, and serving diverse student populations, including English-language learners (Hernández-Gantes & Blank, 2008). As some early education reformers predicted, it had been a struggle to meld “education through occupation” (Grubb, 1995). Growing workplace demands have led to subsequent federal legislation with amendments to include different populations, academic integration, and accountability for student performance (Scott & Sarkees-Wircenski, 2004). Table 1 provides an overview.

Table 1.

Overview of Vocational Education to Career and Technical Education.

Name	Description
Morrill Act of 1862	Land grant institutions; colleges that combine academic and liberal studies with applied vocational studies to prepare graduates for agriculture and industry
Morrill Act of 1880	Similar institutions for African Americans
Smith-Hughes Act of 1917	Vocational education established areas of agriculture, home economics, trade
Vocational Act of 1963 (amended 1968, 1972, 1976)	Vocational schools and programs at the secondary level
	Amended to expand vocational programs to increase capacity for enrollment and access for special populations
Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984 (Perkins I)	Ensure quality vocational education programs to meet the needs of the workforce, inclusive of special populations and disadvantaged individuals; preparation for careers “other than careers requiring a baccalaureate, master’s, or doctoral degree”; state and local accountability
Carl Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology of 1994 (Perkins II)	Teaching skills and competencies necessary to work in a technologically advanced society to all students; integration of academic and vocational education and Tech Prep programs
Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 1998 (Perkins III)	States and local agencies with greater flexibility to develop CTE programs; expanded “vocational” to “career and technical”; preparing for careers that “require a bachelor’s or advanced degree; accountability for student performance”
Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006 (Perkins IV)	Focus on academic achievement of CTE students; strengthen connections between secondary and postsecondary education; improve state and local accountability

Note. CTE = career and technical education.

The Perkins Act and CTE Programs

In current times, states receive funding to implement CTE as defined by the Perkins Act. Under the Perkins Act (PL 109-270), CTE is described as follows:

Organized educational activities that a) offer a sequence of courses that provides individuals with coherent and rigorous content aligned with challenging academic standards and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging professions; provides technical skills proficiency, an industry-recognized credential, a certificate, or an associate degree; and, b) include prerequisite courses that meet the requirements of this subparagraph; and include competency-based applied learning that contributes to the academic knowledge, higher-order reasoning and problem-solving skills, work attitudes, general employability skills, technical skills, and occupation-specific skills, and knowledge of all aspects of an industry, including entrepreneurship, of an individual. (U.S. Congress, 2006, p. 4)

As outlined in the Perkins Act, CTE combines academic standards with career and technical curriculum. There are 16 career clusters and programs of study recognized by the Office of Vocational and Adult Education and the National Association for State Directors of Career and Technical Education Consortium (see Table 2; www.careertech.org/career-clusters).³ Each career cluster comprises career pathways with sequences of academic, career, and technical courses and training to prepare students for transitions from secondary to postsecondary education and the workplace. In Missouri, the CTE program in a school district where I conducted research offers seven paths (see Figure 1). Other states hold similar programs.

Table 2.

CTE Career Clusters.

Agriculture, food, and natural resources

Production, processing, marketing, distribution, financing, and development of agricultural commodities and resources, including food, fiber, wood products, natural resources, horticulture, and other plant and animal products/resources

Architecture and construction

Designing, planning, managing, building, and maintaining the built environment

Arts, A/V Technology, and Communications

Designing, producing, exhibiting, performing, writing, and publishing multimedia content, including visual and performing arts and design, journalism, and entertainment services

Business, management, and administration

Planning, organizing, directing, and evaluating business functions essential for efficient and productive business operations

Education and training

Planning, managing, and providing education and training services, and related learning support services

Finance

Planning, services for financial and investment planning, banking, insurance, and business financial management

Government and public administration

Planning and performing government functions at the local, state, and federal levels, including governance, national security, foreign service, planning, revenue and taxation, and regulations

Health science

Planning, managing, and providing therapeutic services, diagnostic services, health informatics, support services, and biotechnology research and development

Hospitality and tourism

Management, marketing, and operations of restaurants and other food services, lodging, attractions, recreation events and travel-related services

Human services

Preparing individuals for employment in career pathways that relate to families and human needs such as counseling and mental health services, family and community services, personal care, and consumer services

Information technology

Building linkages in IT occupations for entry level, technical and professional careers related to the design, development, support, and management of hardware, software, multimedia, and systems integration services

Law, public safety, corrections, and security

Planning, managing, and providing legal, public safety, protective services and homeland security, including professional and technical support services

Manufacturing

Planning, managing, and performing the processing of materials into intermediate or final products and related professional and technical support activities such as production planning and control, maintenance and manufacturing/process engineering

Marketing, sales, and service

Planning, managing, and performing marketing activities to reach organizational objectives

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics

Planning, managing, and providing scientific research and professional and technical services (e.g., physical science, social science, engineering), including laboratory and testing services, and research and development services

Transportation, distribution, and logistics

Planning, management, and movement of people, materials, and goods by road, pipeline, air, rail, and water and related professional support services such as transportation infrastructure planning and management, logistics services, mobile equipment and facility maintenance

Note. CTE = career and technical education.

Figure 1.

Overview of Missouri CTE.

With the reauthorization of the Perkins Act, the Office of Vocational and Adult Education administers and coordinates grants programs and holds states accountable for reporting performance levels (U.S. Department of Education, 2012, 2013). Each state is required to report annually on core indicators of performance at both the secondary and postsecondary levels (Perkins Collaborative Research Network, 2013). The state of Missouri, for example, receives more than US$20 million for its CTE programs (U.S. Department of Education, 2013) and serves approximately 259,048 secondary students, 84,654 postsecondary students, and 42,470 adults enrolled in courses (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2012). While CTE spans secondary, postsecondary, and adult education levels, CTE institutional providers at the secondary level are in three main settings: comprehensive high schools offering occupational programs on- and off-site, full-time CTE high schools, and area CTE schools serving multiple high schools (U.S. Department of Education, 2008). The example below represents CTE at a comprehensive high school in the urban Midwest with a focus on the career cluster of Arts, A/V Technology, and Communications.

CTE at Randall High School: Arts, A/V Technology, and Communications

Within the CTE framework (see Figure 1), the natural overlap between clusters and pathways suggests possible collaboration and innovation among institutional providers as well as teachers and students. In my case, this overlap led to an invitation to visit a classroom and over time collaborate with Mr. Miles, an African American teacher with over 15 years of teaching experience at Randall High School and with an extensive background in media production, computing, and network systems. His work in multimedia communications echoed the core principles of CTE (alignment, collaboration, accountability, and innovation). The high school comprised 76.8% Black, 10.5% White, 7.4% Asian, and 5.4% Hispanic students; approximately 78% of the student population (total 1,003 students in Grades 9-12) received free or reduced-price lunch (Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2011). There, I took on a dual role of researcher and teacher-collaborator to conduct an ethnographic study of youth literacies and media production (Jocson, 2016). The ethnographic approach to research was key to understand how to support students as they moved across formal and informal learning settings (Gutiérrez & Arzubiaga, 2012; Varenne, Gordon, & Lin, 2009). At Randall High School, it was important to begin with students’ interests in multimedia communications as part of a community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998). As such, I utilized various methods to gather data, including participant observation, interview, and collection of student work (print and digital) and teacher curricular materials. Six focal students participated in the first year and five focal students in the second year of the study. Of the six students in the first year (four young men, two young women), four identified as Black or African American, one Latino or Central American (Honduran), one Southeast Asian American (Vietnamese). All of the five students in the second year (three young men, two young women) identified as Black or African American. To understand media production within a CTE context, I performed content analysis of observational and interview data and consulted with both teacher and student participants to interpret emerging patterns in the analysis. Member checks were key during and after the production phase of inquiry-based projects. Below, I highlight voices and experiences of three African American students in the second year of the study to point out how CTE can be a place for learning and for enabling human capacity. Mr. Miles identified the students because of their level of interest in media production and the topics they chose for their projects.

The study of youth literacies was specific to a multimedia communications classroom as part of the Arts, A/V Technology, and Communications career cluster where students engaged in student-centered inquiry and media production. Students had access to information and communication technologies in the classroom such as iMac computers (with writing, editing, and broadcast software), Internet, digital cameras, a sound engineering booth, and a television broadcast studio with standard industry equipment. In a project exploring community issues, 12th-grade African American student Ally (quoted in the epigram) partnered with a biracial African American and White student Michelle to focus on sexual health. Ally with postsecondary plans in public health or medical sciences conveyed the following about their topic, its significance, and what was involved in the production:

I liked it. The information was good. My project was with [Michelle] on sexual education and STDs. Well, for me, I felt it was necessary to do that topic because I live in [zip code] and that’s the one with the highest rates for STDs among young adults so I felt it was important. And a lot of times, well, I can say they really don’t teach sex education anymore and why not? I feel like, if they did, then children around my age and older would make wiser decisions and the rate of STDs wouldn’t be so high as it is . . . When [the teacher] introduced us to this project and started speaking about different things we could do, that was exciting . . . [Michelle] and I used Google Earth and Social Explorer maps . . . we did research on websites to get information, statistics, and then put everything together, recording it . . . It was scary and fun at the same time. It felt good. (Interview, October 26, 2011)

The outcome of the process was a short video. During my time as a researcher-collaborator in this multimedia communications class, I came to understand that Ally and her partner’s concerns regarding sexual health expressed in the video were also shared by other students in a mentoring program called Conscious Choice. For Ally (and Michelle), it was important to utilize the multimedia communications class project as another platform for promoting awareness about sexual health that affected young people’s lives. The production of the video suggests a kind of learning that is meaningful and purposeful; as well, the production reflects analytical thinking and synthesis with a public audience in mind for its presentation.

The topics selected by students in the multimedia communications class ranged from sexual health to racial diversity and public parks to place emphasis on community issues that students deemed vital to their everyday lives. Hagi, a 12th-grade African immigrant student from Kenya, chose the topic of racial and cultural diversity to raise awareness about the experiences of many students like her at the school. In a previous assignment, Hagi wrote about learning the English language and the experience of feeling isolated without many friends due to language barriers. She spoke Somali and Swahili and, according to her, it was difficult in the beginning to communicate with many of her teachers. At the time of the study, Hagi maintained a 3.2 grade point average and had submitted applications to three 4-year state universities with hopes of pursuing health sciences. Hagi was involved in various after-school activities, including the Fashion Club and an American College Testing (ACT) preparation class; she also participated in a local dance studio, attended health sciences informational sessions at a nearby university hospital, and joined college-going workshops in school. She shared the following about her project in the multimedia communications class:

People at the school see us wearing different clothes but they don’t know where we come from or who we are . . . there are a lot of foreign students, international students, and I see it every single day . . . I come to school I see people around me, how they treat each other and in the cafeteria how they have different groups and stuff. So I thought I should write about that to help, you know. When I decided I was going to do it, I used Social Explorer and census data sites to look up information on people living in the area. I also interviewed students and then after that put the whole thing together. Some stuff I didn’t know how to do but I learned and enjoyed doing the project. (Interview, November 4, 2011)

Similarly, 12th-grade African American student Marlon noted the importance of selecting parks and recreation as a topic. Marlon partnered with a fellow 12th-grade African American student Wendell to produce a video that demonstrated connective threads between parks and recreation, safety, and health; both were curious about the viability of public spaces where teens could go and hang out. They used Google Maps and Social Explorer to visualize the metropolitan area’s public parks, but in this process of inquiry they also became specifically interested in recreational centers and landed on websites of organizations focused on child and adolescent health. Upon researching information online, their initial idea of parks and recreation led them to think about health and the well-being of young people. Marlon noted insights gained from the production:

[The project] was about health issues and safety basically . . . not a lot of us go to the park because it’s not safe, kind of like how sometimes we have to take a different way to school to avoid stuff, you know, or just be picked up and dropped off. This project was new to me . . . I did the script and did a little research myself, and [Wendell] looked up information too. I learned some new things, yeah, like the obesity rate stood out for me. I didn’t know it was that high for people our age. It made me think about how kids are participating or not participating in activities outside of school. The other projects connected with ours like [Ally and Michelle’s]. The connections were interesting. Kind of mind blowing, I thought. (Interview, October 26, 2011)

Marlon completed the video with Wendell in a timely fashion despite demands of his part-time job. At the time of the study, Marlon was unsure about his immediate postsecondary plans. He maintained a 3.1 grade point average but was undecided about going to college. Marlon expressed his desire to take a break from school to focus on life priorities before, as he said, “maybe going the following year.” Such examples of students’ participation in multimedia communications as linked to their various interests and pathways to postsecondary education or the workplace reveal a different understanding of how CTE as a learning domain can open up avenues for possible futures. As a window into engaged learning and recognition of human potential in the career cluster of Arts, A/V Technology, and Communications, the study featuring student voices above contributes to recent studies on CTE that provide an alternative framing to results-driven approaches, which I note in the next section.

Trends in CTE Research and Practice

The research literature on secondary CTE and comprehensive school reform signals the need for integration of rigorous academic and career preparation (Castellano, Stringfield, & Stone, 2003). For historically marginalized and isolated youth in particular, Castellano, Stone, Stringfield, Farley-Ripple, and Overman (2007) have found that participating in career-based comprehensive school reform improves educational chances for low-income students of color. The odds of dropping out declined as the proportion of the high school experience invested in CTE courses increased. Many students also had postsecondary interests that aligned with their CTE course of study. Similarly, the National Center for Education Statistics and Institute of Education Sciences report that with more experience in CTE courses and programs, the students are less likely to drop out of high school (U.S. Department of Education, 2008; also see Plank, DeLuca, & Estacion, 2008). Longitudinal data on course-taking patterns between 1990 and 2005 indicate that public high school graduates took an average of 3 year-long occupational courses, with business services and computer technology being the most common occupational programs. The same data also show an increase in core academic course taking of public high school graduates who participated in the occupational curriculum, along with increased percentages of students meeting core academic standards and completing 4-year college-preparatory coursework. From reviewing the literature, I gathered that as CTE implementation grows the needs of the profession raise questions for teacher education and professional development. In high schools with occupational programs, for example, it has been important for teachers and counseling staff to share the role and responsibility of guidance and student development (Threeton, 2007).

Today’s results-driven CTE programs have generated research focused on educational outcomes and effectiveness. Many studies use quantitative methods, while others draw on mixed methods to examine specific dimensions of CTE. The National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (NRCCTE) leads the way in conducting studies with support from the Office of Vocational and Adult Education. Its research mission is part response to the field of CTE and the “nation’s higher education system, recovering economy, and evolving labor market” (NRCCTE, 2012, p. 6). Similarly, recommendations for high-quality CTE models have been linked to college-preparatory programs, involvement of business, and college and career readiness (Holzer, Linn, & Monthey, 2013). At the NRCCTE, the core issues being addressed are programs of study (career pathways), academic integration, dual enrollment, retention and completion, career guidance and counseling, and industry-recognized credentials. Salient to addressing the core issues is curriculum integration with particular strands in math, science, and literacy. The NRCCTE (2012) Impact Report highlights studies along with types of interventions and professional development for improving CTE programs. One key study is a randomized trial for enhancing math skills in CTE (Stone, Alfeld, & Pearson, 2008). It indicates the potential of an experimental intervention based on a pedagogy and process of contextual learning, including math-enhanced lessons and professional development with teachers. In this study, Stone and colleagues found that the experimental intervention positively affected students’ performance in college-level tests without detracting from the content knowledge of occupational areas within which the experiment was conducted. The findings suggest a math-in-CTE model with the following principles: (a) building communities of practice, (b) beginning with CTE curriculum, (c) understanding math as a workplace skill, (d) maximizing the math, and (e) seeing teachers as teachers of math-in-CTE. Building on this math-in-CTE model are ongoing research projects that focus on science-in-CTE and literacy-in-CTE with the goal of helping students to gain skills critical to postsecondary education and workplace success (NRCCTE, 2013). While experimental in nature, these current directions in research offer ways of thinking about CTE as a domain of learning.

As mentioned earlier in my study of youth literacies, the career cluster of Arts, A/V Technology, and Communications at Randall High School offers a lens into academic integration, literacy, and media production. Language and literacy, history, as well as scientific and mathematical thinking are at the core of practice. Multimedia communications provides learning opportunities that draw on the academic and career interests of students in broadcasting, media production, sound engineering, and visual design. Students produce media and also problem solve issues pertaining to A/V systems as they work closely with their teacher. For Mr. Miles and I as collaborators, multimedia communications presented an ideal educational context for engineering learning that builds on students’ interests both inside and outside of the classroom. Attentive to school–community connections, Mr. Miles and I drew on advances in information and communication technologies to enable cultural competencies such as collaboration and distributed expertise through student-centered inquiry and media production projects. In an interview, Mr. Miles pointed out what the learning process involved:

It was deliberate to introduce students to Social Explorer, a derivative of GIS [geospatial information system] . . . to focus directly on data and information and less on the functionality of the GIS software. The data’s already there and you just jump into using the data. So the students basically gained experience doing that and broadened their geospatial awareness, meaning they had a chance to think and envision themselves in relation to the entire planet, in relation to continents, in relation to countries, states, cities, and neighborhoods . . . they also learned how to create maps and show demographic data on a map and begin to actually interpret it . . . from there, we did exercises in Google Maps and Google Earth to basically relate the topics students chose for their project to where they live, where they go to school, and what types of resources are around . . . it’s a way to collaborate and use certain tools to help get a better understanding of where things happen, who they happen to, and even look for historical patterns and so forth . . . this work became the basis for the writing, production, and presentation that followed. (Interview, November 16, 2011)

Enabling collaboration and distributed expertise created learning opportunities for students to work together and share knowledge in completing tasks while also developing new literacies integral to today’s digitally mediated world (Jenkins, 2006). For Mr. Miles and I, collaboration and distributed expertise meant positioning students as change agents in their communities by connecting student-generated questions in the inquiry process and to think through concerns about larger social issues. Thus, in treating education and learning as purposeful, what transpired in the multimedia communications class demonstrates how CTE career clusters can be areas of study that prepare students for postsecondary education and the workplace as a way to maintain an egalitarian vision for human and cultural development. The latter is critical to the current discourse on CTE and points to the need for humanizing approaches in education generally and urban education specifically. We have seen academic integration paired with hands-on learning central to CTE implementation across many states. It is important not to lose sight of education as a democratic endeavor in continuing to develop CTE programs and curriculum design. While pedagogy may differ in different contexts, there is a growing attention to CTE programs serving racially and culturally minoritized youth, including Native and Indigenous student populations and English-language learners. The reframing of CTE beyond economic revitalization is key to advancing research and practice.

Expanding Perspectives

As noted in the introduction, CTE’s links to economic revitalization render a paradox in preparing youth for the future. Changing notions of learning, school, and work are tied to changing cultural competencies necessary to participate in a digitally mediated world. The viability of CTE rests on challenging what it means to be human in relation to shifting labor market patterns in a changing global economy (Halpern, 2013). Historically, CTE as a long-standing educational reform with roots in vocational education has been challenged by competing discourses. Taking account of today’s rhetoric of investment toward workplace readiness (Dougherty, 2013; Perna, 2012), it is important to rethink how the current discourse on CTE may be casting students from low socioeconomic and historically marginalized backgrounds to reproduce schooling inequalities and social hierarchies. Possible futures determined by labor market forces may reflect new manifestations of low-ability tracking (McLeod, 1987; Oakes, 1985; Oakes & Saunders, 2008).

In keeping with the literature on CTE, two frames emerge: (a) CTE as investment toward economic growth and (b) CTE as skills in the global marketplace. What becomes apparent from policy to research and practice are the ways that CTE is seen as a material enterprise for streaming bodies of workers into occupational niches. More than that, the navigation into occupational niches is often left to the individual whose fate falls squarely within a market-driven agenda for education. Privatization of schools, high-stakes accountability, and standardization of curriculum have been common and continue to ignore the crisis in public education, particularly in schools that serve poor and low-income students (Giroux, 2009; Lipman, 2011; Noguera, 2012). This is important to point out because human capital through education and skills training is rendered as a tool for increasing productivity (Becker, 1964/1993; Schultz, 1971). In this argument, human capital is seen as productivity. On one hand, productivity sets the standard for the distribution of resources in a capitalist society; this means that what one can do or produce is one’s “capital” for material exchange. On the other hand, productivity predisposes the varied social and cultural experiences of individuals for whom the distribution of resources may mean more than monetary or capital gain. That is, what one does or produces can shape how one experiences the world. The misrecognition of this possibility is what Lipman (2011) discusses as part of a new political economy through the interconnectedness of urban policies on housing, economic development, race, and education. In other words, there is something greater than the material that shapes everyday life. The struggle for the political or the social and the cultural can also serve as one’s productivity. What one can do or produce as “capital” should be tied to one’s contribution to society toward transformative change. When viewed in this light, CTE becomes more than human capital because it does not preclude possible futures toward civic engagement as in Ally’s case whose career interests in public health and the medical sciences (or Hagi’s in health sciences and Marlon’s in information sciences) were still evolving at the conclusion of high school. Or even in my case becoming a college-level educator concerned with equity and social justice despite a predetermined vocational path. The reductionism of CTE to human capital as solely material production misrepresents the capacity of individuals to be active participants with the social knowledge, symbolic power, and other forms of capital that can enhance their valued participation within particular social spaces (Bourdieu, 1986, 1989). Limited aspects of human capital as productivity call into question the framing of CTE.

While the material suggests the potential for economic redistribution, a more humanizing approach to CTE seems useful than current approaches to account for cultural recognition and political representation of individuals as agents in their struggle against institutionalized hierarchies (Fraser, 1997, 2005). It is important to consider the social locations of individuals through which CTE becomes central in shaping emancipatory possibilities in education. CTE has the capacity to be more than the material or the comparative in a global labor market. If education from a critical perspective is centered as a democratic endeavor, then CTE should be about a human enterprise centered on cultivating engaged citizens and enabling human capacity toward possible futures. The next generation of leaders, thinkers, and innovators depends on it. As Ally best put it, “The work we did [for the inquiry and media production projects] really broadened my horizon like ‘wow, I didn’t know all this stuff’ . . . now I want to do more and change things.”

CTE presents opportunities for pushing the conversation on how to better support all students. The focus on investment and skills as suggested in President Obama’s Perkins Act blueprint seems to narrow, rather than expand, approaches in education (despite stated aims of innovation). The challenge stands for educators, public officials, and policymakers to further strengthen school reform efforts that can affect the lives of racially and culturally minoritized youth, particularly in high-poverty neighborhoods. It remains essential to pay attention to the social locations and social contexts in which students are expected to carry out the burden of “investment” without adequate institutional resources, including education, health, and social services (Akom, 2011; Tate & Striley, 2010). In tackling the academic-vocational divide, it is not enough to implement CTE programs in high-poverty neighborhoods without attending to pressing social problems and educational disparities present in students’ lives. The built environment’s alterable conditions can be transformed through “investment” in people, place, and systems.⁴ Doing so offers new directions in research and practice in urban education.

Implications and Possibilities in CTE

A study on postsecondary pathways focusing on low-income students shows the need for “a better understanding of their lived realities, as well as knowledge of the critical transitions they face preparing for and completing college” (Solórzano, Datnow, Park, & Watford, 2013, p. 5). This multimethod collaborative study based on national and state data indicates promising ways of addressing the needs and goals of low-income students. One way is to consider a set of conditions that students require as they transition from K-12 through college. Conditions such as safe and adequate school facilities, a college-going school culture, rigorous academic curriculum, qualified teachers, intensive academic and social supports, opportunities to develop a multicultural college-going identity, and family–neighborhood–school connections have been described by Oakes (2003) and continue to shape studies on pathways.⁵ Treating these conditions as alterable conditions is important for understanding the barriers to equity in achievement, as well as for shaping policy and practice as key targets for intervention. Such view of alterable conditions relates to the reframing of CTE in ways that also recognize the capacity of individuals to be active participants and their valued participation in society. A commitment to improving alterable conditions involves a consideration for the lived realities and the social knowledge of what matters to students, their families, and their communities. It is in part an investment in people, place, and systems.

In light of such perspectives, there is a need for qualitative design studies in CTE where collaboration between various stakeholders is at the center of dialogue. CTE as a human enterprise requires a humanizing approach to research and practice attentive to students’ needs and social contexts, a kind of approach that is driven by an ethos of care (Jackson, Sealey-Ruiz, & Watson, 2014; Paris & Winn, 2013). One way to shape such humanizing approaches is to pay attention to what students do in domain-specific learning ecologies with associated identities (see Emdin, 2012; Gutiérrez, Bien, Selland, & Pierce, 2011; Nasir, 2011). We know that integral to engineering situated forms of learning is recognizing the existing and emerging identities of students. In my own work (Jocson, 2013, 2015, 2016), I have come to understand the importance of tapping into students’ varied identities and repertoires of cultural practice as fluid in and beyond schools. It is not my intent here to oversimplify the many dimensions and manifestations of CTE; I am, however, suggesting the importance of ethnographic approaches and design-based studies to understand CTE across secondary and postsecondary institutions and the workplace. Educational researchers are beset with the challenge of creating learning opportunities and improving educational outcomes that reflect urgent social problems in the lives of students.

With this in mind, expanding perspectives on CTE should draw on further examinations of family–neighborhood–school connections as well as multiple pathways and critical transitions from K-12 through college and the workplace (Oakes, 2003; Oakes & Saunders, 2008; Solórzano et al., 2013). This is significant in confronting issues of equity and forms of low-ability tracking in urban schools. Reframing CTE is not far removed from rethinking the intelligence involved in everyday apprenticeships or school-to-work activities attentive to student characteristics (Halpern, 2013; Hoffman, 2011; Rose, 2004; Stone & Aliaga, 2005). Changing how we view the link between cognition and the mechanical knowledge involved in work is central to transforming practice and advancing research (Rogoff, 1990; Rose, 2012, 2014). An awareness of students’ home, school, and work lives reflects an investment in human development to support the combined needs and interests of students across contexts (Barron, 2006; Lee, 2010). An investment in human development lends a particular approach to studying as well as creating opportunities for learning within contexts uniquely configured with activities, material resources, relationships, and interactions that emerge from them. This might mean paying more attention to learning in space-time beyond classroom-as-container and dynamic forms of learning through digital technologies (Leander et al., 2010). This might also mean returning to age-old community practices and technologies centered on the dynamics of nature (Bang, Marin, Faber, & Suzokovich, 2013). The area of youth literacies through multimedia communications at Randall High School has been my entrée into understanding CTE programs and the career cluster of Arts, A/V Technology, and Communication. There are many more areas through which to explore possibilities in urban education.

The reframing of CTE to enable human capacity has the potential for extending current ideas to support all students. What would refashioning perspectives on CTE yield? What would be the role of students, educators, researchers, policymakers, parents, and other community members? While the allotment of funds per state has been one way to support CTE implementation, it is my hope that refocusing on the human opens up more conversation about CTE and urban education. Shifting the discourse on education is essential for channeling practice, research, and policy in the spirit of economic and human development. CTE programs have alterable conditions that ought to be examined to help design studies that consider sociological perspectives, curriculum and instruction, and policy and reform in urban education (Milner & Lomotey, 2014). Statistical data and analysis reports have provided a purview of patterns in CTE implementation. Multimethod studies have been conducted to examine pedagogical strategies and student outcomes. Now more than ever, it is important to draw on qualitative design studies in education to advance our understanding of CTE and its various manifestations across school contexts.

In taking into account current policy, I return to President Obama’s education reform blueprint to suggest a renewed sense of what is at stake for various stakeholders. The Perkins Act sees alignment, collaboration, accountability, and innovation as key to the future of CTE. There is room in these four core principles to incorporate a more explicit recognition of human potential in transforming CTE. The following statement with language drawn directly from the education reform blueprint is worth considering:

Alignment between CTE programs and the labor market as a basis for human development; collaboration among secondary and postsecondary institutions, employers, and industry partners toward stronger school-community connections; accountability for academic outcomes and employability skills for all students without discounting possibilities for civic engagement; and, innovation to support CTE implementation with effective practices that are attentive to the interests and needs of historically marginalized low-income students.

Reframing CTE strikes a discursive balance between economic and human development. Students are not mere subjects to fill occupational niches, disposable at best when educational and social structures fail to support them. The added language above (underlined for emphasis) marks education as purposeful in everyday life and not simply tied to landing a job. With this broader goal, the education reform blueprint shifts to include a bidirectional mutually constitutive dimension to help prepare students become active members of a changing global economy whose possible futures should not be limited by the academic-vocational divide. There is much to be gained in expanding the conversation.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The author would like to acknowledge two anonymous reviewers and David O. Stovall for their constructive feedback on the manuscript, and Mike Rose for early conversations about the topic. A very special thanks to the student and teacher participants for shaping the narrative presented here. Any errors are mine alone.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

Author Biography

Korina M. Jocson is on the faculty in the College of Education at the Univeristy of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research interests include youth literacies, digital media, and culturally responsive pedagogies in urban education. She is the author of Youth Poets: Empowering Literacies In and Out of Schools (2008) and editor of Cultural Transformations: Youth and Pedagogies of Possibility ().

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