ABSTRACT
The main thesis argued in this chapter is that vocational education at the secondary level in Iceland is not a viable option in spite of a consensus among government agencies, many educational establishments, and representatives of various bodies in the labor market that it should be encouraged. Vocational education simply has too many serious organizational enemies that are hard to control. There has been and continues to be a strong emphasis on vocational educational programs in both developed and developing countries (see, e.g., Lauglo and Lillis 1988; Psacharopoulos and Loxley 1985; Ryan 1991). But a strange paradox is emerging. On one hand there seem to be compelling social, economic, educational, and political arguments (e.g., summarized by Grubb 1985, p. 527), for a very strong vocational educational component within an education system, some of which can be classified as common sense and some as theoretical. On the other hand there seems to be a disappointing dearth of evidence in support of these arguments in spite of serious searches. The economic arguments may be the most compelling, but it is difficult to disagree with an energetic analyst of the issue that “nearly every valuation of the performance of vocational education to meet the [needs of a modernizing economy] whether in developing or industrialized countries, has been negative” (Psacharopoulos 1987, p. 201). It is doubtful that this lack of empirical support for vocational programs will deter those who believe in their value and most likely “because of its inherently logical and simplistic appeal, vocationalism will be with us for years to come, and more countries will attempt, in vain, to tune their formal educational system to the world of work” (Psacharopoulos 1987, p. 203). This view is echoed by King (1988, p. 291) who maintains that the “vocational school paradigm may be dead in the view of many academics and researchers, but in the world of politics it still seems to have a good deal of life in it. …” In the present chapter a similar conclusion will be reached but for different reasons, thus attempting to add another dimension to the debate. The principal thesis is that even though various negative evaluations are ignored, vocational education has very little chance of surviving, nearly for various compelling organizational reasons; the forces at play nearly all work against vocational education, at least within the upper secondary school system. The evidence is collected within the Icelandic system, but many of the arguments will presumably transfer to a number of other economies, labor markets, or educational systems.
