Contextualizing vocational knowledge: theory and empirical illustrations
Wenja Heusdens1ab, Liesbeth Baartmana, Arthur Bakkerb & Elly de Bruijnab
a HU: University of Applied Sciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands; b Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
Abstract
The challenge for students in vocational education is to develop the capability to
constantly contextualize vocational knowledge in different settings. Students are not only
required to develop knowledge in both educational and workplace settings, they also need to
apply that knowledge in practice. This process of contextualizing knowledge involves both
conceptualizing and concretizing. Conceptualizing is to put an idea in its conceptual context,
and concretizing is applying or situating general ideas. Contextualizing is a way to create
coherence within and between what analytically can be distinguished as practical or
theoretical, specific or general, etc. Vocational knowledge is a configuration of all types of
knowledge, values and beliefs, which make up professional expertise. In the context of
vocational education, contextualizing vocational knowledge is key and yet has received rather
little attention. Therefore, this paper has set out to theorize and empirically illustrate the
process of contextualizing vocational knowledge. This term is used as a unitary concept to
overcome the unfortunate dichotomy between opposite processes. The empirical examples
illustrate that contextualizing vocational knowledge manifests in different ways, as a
continuous, iterative and multifaceted process.
Keywords: contextualizing vocational knowledge, conceptualizing, concretizing, coherence,
vocational education, knowledge development
1
Corresponding author. HU University of Applied Sciences, Research Group Vocational Education, Padualaan
97, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands. Email: [email protected]
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1. Introduction
Common dichotomies between theory versus practice, general versus specific, concept
and context, etc., have limited power as soon as we try to understand learning processes in
vocational education. Many scholars have already argued that such dichotomies are too
simplistic because difficulties students experience with learning cannot solely be attributed to
the differences in the modes of learning at different sites. It leaves unexplained how students
develop vocational knowledge in particular settings, and how students combine and relate
what they experience to the disciplinary systems of meaning.Vocational knowledge is a
configuration of all types of knowledge, values and beliefs, that make up professional
expertise.
A well-rehearsed way out of dichotomies is to study the learning processes involved in
dealing with them. Van Oers (2004; 1998) for example, suggest studying the activity of
contextualizing instead of context as situation. A context is never given; instead a process of
context making takes place—a process he calls contextualizing. Basically, what counts as a
context depends on how a situation is interpreted in terms of activity to be carried out. Thus,
the construction of context is seen as a typical condition for the construction of meaning.
Similar to Van Oers’ activity theory of contextualizing, we intend to consider
contextualization as an activity rather than taking concepts or knowledge as reified. Instead of
using the term contextualizing purely for concretizing (applying or situating general ideas),
we propose to use the term also for conceptualizing an idea in its conceptual context. In this
way, we use the term contextualizing as a unitary concept in order to overcome the
unfortunate dichotomy between ‘opposite’ processes. Moreover, we stress that
contextualizing is a way to create coherence within and between what can be analytically
distinguished as practical of theoretical, between specific of general, conceptual and
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contextual, etc. Coherence in these vocational settings typically involves all such aspects
together.
The following example illustrates how students in vocational education are constantly
asked to contextualize knowledge in different learning environments. In the hospitality
branch, students learn how to make puff pastry (a thin, flaky, rich pastry for tarts, napoleons
etc.) in different settings. In theoretical classes, students learn about more general concepts
like different types of pastries, dough, kneading techniques, gluten, methods of making
dough, etc. During skills lab, a practical lab, students have to concretize and apply the
acquired knowledge by actually making puff pastry. In the on-campus restaurant, students are
provided with a real-world restaurant experience where they prepare tonight’s menu with two
deserts on it: homemade apple-turnovers and tarte-tatin. And finally, during work placement,
students experience how knowledge of puff pastry is applied in fine dining or casual dining
environments. This example demonstrates how students conceptualize and concretize
knowledge, so that contextualized particulars become part of a coherent whole of
practical/theoretical aspects.
In the context of vocational education, contextualizing vocational knowledge is key,
and yet has received rather little attention. Therefore, this paper has set out to characterize and
empirically illustrate contextualizing vocational knowledge, a fundamental part of students’
knowledge development. So far, students’ learning processes have been mostly described in
theoretical accounts with general illustrations (Guile, 2010; Van Oers, 1998) rather than
described at a micro-level with empirical illustrations. A more detailed study from a learners’
point of view on the activity of contextualization of vocational knowledge is necessary to
know more about how students recognize and use vocational knowledge and how they
combine different types of knowledge, and how educators can best support these modes of
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learning. Therefore, the aim of the present paper is to describe contextualizing vocational
knowledge, and to illustrate this process with empirical examples.
In this paper, we use the concept of contextualizing vocational knowledge to address
students’ knowledge development, and highlight the implications of this perspective on
students’ knowledge development. To provide empirical illustrations, we use examples from a
study in the hospitality branch. This branch is chosen because of the richness of both
knowledge and practical experiences, and the provision of hybrid learning environments,
environments where formal, school-based learning, and workplace experiences are closely
connected (Zitter & Hoeve, 2012). The design of this educational program is exemplary for
several vocational education programs in the Netherlands.
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2. Theorizing contextualizing vocational knowledge
This paper seeks to transcend the strictly cognitive and situated positions on defining
vocational knowledge and knowledge development. These positions do not shed light on how
individual understandings are generalized beyond the specificity of their originated contexts,
nor on how previous experiences and understandings are brought into play in new situations
(Smegby & Vagan, 2008). True learning requires knowledge to be contextualized and recontextualized; this means that the limitations of a strictly cognitive and situated position need
to be overcome.
Knowledge in the vocational domain
To find a way in the explosion of terms and constructs of knowledge in vocational
education, attempts have been made to give a systematic description of types of knowledge of
the vocational domain. Descriptions of knowledge in isolated ‘chunks’ is not sufficient for
understanding what characterizes knowledge in vocational domain. One of the purposes of
vocational education is to induce students into a field of practice, and to the knowledge that
underpins this practice (Wheelahan, 2009). Therefore, we adopt a more knowledge-in-use
perspective of vocational knowledge, or learning vocational knowledge through an applied
approach. We characterize vocational knowledge as a configuration of all types of knowledge
necessary that make up professional expertise, and values and beliefs (Schaap, de Bruijn, van
der Schaaf, & Kirschner, 2009; Guile & Young, 2003; Eraut, 2004). In our view, vocational
knowledge is not static but flexible, embedded in occupational practices. Vocational
knowledge is always linked to a profession and acquires meaning in a given professional field
and person, in the identity of the professional.
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Learning processes
In vocational education and workplace settings, multiple learning contexts and
authentic working life experiences are presented in practical classes, in separate, theoretical
instruction, and in integrated classes (Guile & Young, 2003). Where the educational
environment tends to focus more on individuals, in a workplace environment the focus is
more on activities often carried out in a team or within an organisational structure (Baartman
& De Bruijn, 2011). Therefore, the conditions to learn in the educational program are never
the same as in practice, which asks of students to constantly contextualize vocational
knowledge.
Billett (2014) argues that to emphasize modes of learning at different sites, or, in other
words, to emphasize what is enacted for students to learn, leaves unexplained how students
develop vocational knowledge. Billett proposes a focus on a learner’s perspective, on the
experienced curriculum that reveals how learners make sense of what they learn. In this
perspective, the emphasis is on understanding and applying concept use; it centralizes what is
experienced in educational and workplace settings in order to build and extend students’
coherent knowledge base. Therefore, knowledge development in this account goes way
beyond linking theory and practice; learners need not only use and combine knowledge, they
need to learn how to make concepts and purposes explicit and accessible in order to reach
understanding.
Analytically, theoretical and practical forms of knowledge can be distinguished as
separate to bring knowledge in view as object of study. Nevertheless, we support Guile’s (2010)
notion that forms of knowledge have a mediated relationship with one another. Therefore, we
adopt a unitary focus on learning in which students have access to both contextually specific
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applications of knowledge in the workplace, and to the system of meaning in which
knowledge is embedded.
Inferentialism
A practical challenge in vocational education associated to the process of contextualizing
vocational knowledge is how to support students to reason how to use knowledge in different
ways, in different contexts. Students often understand the world only in terms of immediate
contexts (Gamble 2006). Therefore, vocational education need to emphasize how complex
bodies of knowledge fit together and how students can decide what knowledge is relevant for
a particular purpose or in a specific situation. Guile (2014) refers to an inferential approach to
learning, which emphasizes to identify the relationships between concepts, or between
concepts and occupational practice. This approach presupposes to aspire students to think
about the relationship between theory and practice, rather than to treat theory and practice as
separate domains.
A promising theoretical framework in grasping the process of contextualizing can be
found in inferentialism. One reason is that inferentialism treats judgments and action as the
minimal units of responsibility without any presumed relative importance, that is, to
understand judgment and action as the application of concepts. For giving a reason is always
expressing a judgment.
To grasp or understand (…) a concept is to have practical mastery over the inferences
it is involved in- to know, in the practical sense of being able to distinguish, what
follows from the applicability of a concept, and what it follows from. (Brandom, 2000, p.
48)
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Inferentialism is the conviction that to be meaningful in the distinctively human way, or to be
a ‘concept user’, is determined by a certain kind of inferential rules. Brandom (1994; 2000)
has made the link between meaning and inference explicit, he states that language is
principally a means of playing the game of giving and asking for reasons, hence, it must be
inferentially articulated. Reasoning is the set of processes that enables us to go beyond the
information given. This involves articulating reasons and making things explicit within a
social practice. Thus, it is about grasping a concept and mastering the use of the concept in a
process of reasoning (Bakker & Derry, 2011).
Another reason for using an inferential perspective on learning is that of ‘web of
reasons’. A concept is not first learnt formally and then applied, but develops according to
the domain of activity in which it functions. In order to do this, students need experience in,
what Brandom defines as, the ‘web of reasons’ in which the concept is used (Bakker & Derry,
2011). This web consists of reasons that are relevant due to their inferential connections. A
web of reasons focuses on any reason relevant in a situation, whether an action, feeling,
knowledge etc. Although people are not always consciously aware of a particular web of
reasons in a particular context, those reasons still impact their work. Thus, in vocational
education, a student is inducted into correct applications of concepts, and thus, meaning,
through activities with others within a particular practice.
Concretizing, conceptualizing and providing coherence
In addition to Van Oers’ definition of contextualizing (a process of context making
implying particularizing and providing for coherence), we emphasize that contextualizing
vocational knowledge is the process of concretizing and conceptualizing knowledge, while, at
the same time, providing coherence. Concretizing is to move from abstract or generalized
ideas towards concrete and practical applications. Conceptualizing is to move from the
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concrete particulars of a specific situation towards generalizations and abstractions. Providing
for coherence is providing a logical consistent relationship of parts.
The main reason for concretizing is to make a general idea better understood and to do
justice to local circumstances, which does not involve only conceptual knowledge or the
application of knowledge. To conceptualize knowledge is to bring knowledge into conceptual
form out of observations, experience, or data. This allows students not only to express
understanding, ideas, and arguments in accordance to systems of meaning and generative
principles, but also to recontextualize knowledge; to apply something learned outside the
original learning context. Like Van Oers (2009), we deliberately avoid the term
decontextualizing because this is a non-informative result term about what is not going on.
Moreover, pre-empting our examples, we will argue that the activities of conceptualizing and
concretizing may well go together, as forms of providing coherence.
In culinary education, students have every day-experiences with ingredients that are
linked to the more general mathematical concepts, such as proportion. In fact, all phases in
cooking require some math; including meal planning, food and beverage budgeting, baking,
measuring, storing and freezing food, etc. An understanding of mathematical concepts like
addition, subtraction, division, fractions, ratios, measurements, and knowing how to make
conversions, is essentials for routine cooking and meal planning. When faced with the
problem of having to bake 9 dozen cookies with a recipe yield for 3 dozen cookies, students
may conceptualize the situation in terms of ratios. Students may then concretize their answer
in terms of increasing the amount 3 times of each ingredient listed in the recipe. Thus,
contextualizing knowledge is a continuous process of conceptualizing (ratio) and concretizing
knowledge (increasing the amount of ingredients), implying inferential relations and
coherence (flour, butter, water, salt; addition, subtraction, division, fractions, ratios etc.), and
especially, a focus on the purpose (web of reason): to produce good tasting cookies.
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3
Origin of the empirical illustrations
This study is part of a research project that aims to describe students’ knowledge
development in vocational education. In this paper, we intend to theorize what we consider an
important activity in learning: contextualizing vocational knowledge. We empirical illustrate
this activity in the context of senior secondary vocational education (SSVE), in the domain of
hospitality management and culinary school, in hybrid learning environments, in the
Netherlands. The empirical illustrations in this paper come from a methodological study on
contextualizing vocational knowledge. We selected two specific schools with hybrid learning
environments because we wanted to select cases with a high learning potential (Stake, 1994),
i.e. cases that were likely to show students contextualizing vocational knowledge.
Two examples of teachers are first introduced to provide a compact illustration of
contextualizing vocational knowledge.These illustrations come from a previous study on the
design of hybrid learning environments (see Zitter & Hoeve, 2012). Two teachers in a skills
lab-course and in a theoretical class were video-taped during a lesson on pastry cooking and a
lesson on preservation of food. We introduce these examples first, because the examples of
the teachers demonstrate our final aim: to illustrate the process of contextualizing vocational
knowledge; moving back and forth from abstractions towards concrete, and practical
applications, and from concrete particulars towards generalizations and abstractions, while, at
the same time, providing forms of coherence. In the examples of the students only parts of the
process were revealed. In further research, we aim at capturing the full process of students
contextualizing vocational knowledge to be able to provide a more detailed description of
what characterizes these learning processes.
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Participants
The examples of the students come from stimulated recall interviews with videorecordings, with a limited number of cases of 10 hospitality management students. The
students, aged between 19-21 years old, were in their third year of the four-year program at
the highest qualification level in two different SSVE-schools (level 4/5 of the European
Qualification Framework, European Commission, 2008). Students for this study were selected
by willingness to participate.
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4. Empirical illustrations of contextualizing vocational knowledge
In this paragraph, two examples of teachers and two examples of students are presented to
empirical illustrate contextualizing vocational knowledge. In the first example, the teacher
demonstrates how to make puff pastry. The students observe the teacher and then have to
make puff pastry themselves. The second example is a part of a theoretical class on the
preservation of food. In this fragment, the teacher is reflecting on last week’s theory. In the
examples of the students, the first student, Steven in the role of manager in the on-campus
restaurant, reflects on an incident with cocktails and a wrong amount of alcohol. In the second
example, the student Karin reflects on an event where the salmon is getting burnt, while she is
in the role of manager in the kitchen of the on-campus restaurant.
Example 1: Puff pastry
(T=teacher)
T
In principle, puff pastry actually has only three, eh, four ingredients. I forget there is
salt…, also part of it. So, 4 ingredients. We have butter, flour, water, and a little salt.
(concretizing)
Salt is important for dough, (conceptualizing) not because it necessarily must have a
salty taste, that dough, (conceptualizing) because, if you have pretzels, (concretizing)
then it is just fine to add extra coarse sea salt. (concretizing)
Adding a little bit of salt in dough for puff pastry is always necessary to prevent
blandness. (conceptualizing)
Think of sweet puffs, (concretizing) if you bake sweet puffs there is always a pinch of
salt (conceptualizing).
Pay attention to that, because salt is very important. (conceptualizing)
(…)
This example comprises a series of shifts from practical applications, such as pretzels, sweet
puffs, adding extra coarse sea salt, to abstractions or generalizations, such as salty taste,
blandness, the importance of salt. Coherence is created within and between concepts: dough,
salt, water, butter, flour, sweet puffs versus pretzels etc.
Example 2: Preservation of food
(T= teacher; S= student)
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T
T
S1
T
T
S2
T
S3
T
S3
T
T
T
T
T
T
T
S4
T
T
T
T
T
T
If I am correct, everyone should be able to answer to the following question: What is
preservation? Jan? Did you bring the notes from last week?
Who can help Jan, Rob? What is preservation? (conceptualizing)
That it lasts a long time?
Yes, making a product last longer. (conceptualizing)
And why do we do that, Jim? Why did we do this, in earlier days for example,
preserving a lot of food? We know that it is to make something last longer. And why do
we do it, William?
... mumbling
You can save food a little longer, and why do we want to preserve food a little longer?
Why do we…, preserve? (conceptualizing)
... (mumbling)
But why do we preserve food?
... (mumbling)
Ok, so in sum, why do we preserve? For increasing the shelf life, and to ...? Later in
the year, to continue eating. (conceptualizing)
Think of salmon, salmon swim .. in a given season. Then you have a lot of salmon, a
salmon abundance, than salmon is caught, they will be preserved. (concretizing)
And then we are able to …?, at times when there is no salmon? To eat it.
(conceptualizing)
Another simple example is our pickle. (concretizing)
Because a pickle is a preserved something, huh? What was a pickle before?
… Silence…
A little cucumber. (concretizing)
And the French name of this little cucumber?
… chorni..
Cornichon. (concretizing)
And cornichons, those little pickles, in which season do they grow again? In Spring?
What month? August / September. Then there are lots of small pickles and we pickle
the little cucumbers. (conceptualizing)
Pickling is a preservation technique. (conceptualizing)
And then we will make a marinade, an acidic marinade, and we pour that on the
cucumbers so we have preserved pickles. (concretizing). And we can eat them all year
round. (conceptualizing)
And we are doing the same here in school, right? Exactly the same.
So preservation is increasing the shelf life, and why we do it? So we can eat it more
and more often. (conceptualizing)
In this example, the teacher provides coherence in preservation techniques, concrete
examples of preserved food, salmon and pickles, purpose of preservation, etc. The teacher
constantly illustrates the concept of preservation, and the reasons why to preserve food, with
concrete examples. The teacher shifts back and forth between concrete examples (e.g. make a
marinade), and the purpose of preservation techniques, (e.g. eating them all year round).
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Example 3: Cocktails.
(S=student; R=researcher)
S
S
R
S
R
S
R
S
R
S
R
S
R
S
One time, when it went a little bit wrong was, eh, …
(…)
The recipe was wrong. Instead of 3 grams, it had to be 30 grams of alcohol
(concretizing), so the combination alcohol with pineapple was not quite so eh...
(conceptualizing)
And how did that happen?
Yes, because I had given the wrong information. I printed out the wrong recipe. Or a
typing error. I do not know. Probably, it is correct on the internet, with 30 grams.
(concretizing) So, when we found out, after the speech, it was all better.
Who discovered the mistake? That the proportion was incorrect?
Yes, Mr. Black. He tasted it and said: ' Steven, I think something is wrong here '.
And I thought: ‘shit…’
And then?
We both looked at the recipe and he said that he thought the recipe was wrong, the
alcohol percentage. Then I said: ‘I think I forgot a zero…’. (concretizing). So yes,
then the cocktails were fine. Because yes, all the guests were coming, and then you
suddenly realize: the recipe is incorrect.
And what did you do next?
We just told them: 30 gram of alcohol, rum. And then we tasted, and it tasted fine.
(concretizing) So then we could serve the drinks fast enough.
So, you tasted it yourself?
Yes, that’s right. (concretizing)
Did you then tell someone it had to be 30 instead of 3 grams?
Yes, there were two responsible, so I told them. There were two students responsible
for the cocktails and they were standing with us, when Mr. Black and I look at the
recipe, so … (concretizing)
(…)
In this example, in the beginning, the student Steven is reasoning what went wrong; he tries to
specify the possible cause of his mistake. He conceptualizes, what he calls ‘the combination
of alcohol and pineapple’ was not quite so … (an abstraction towards proportion). He further
makes a lot of shifts toward practical applications of knowledge: 30 gram instead of 3 gram of
alcohol, telling students what to do, tasting the cocktail. Coherence is provided in ingredients
and quantity.
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Example 4: A red-hot grill.
(S=student; R=researcher)
S
R
S
R
S
(...)
Yes, I think at one point, when a lot of smoke came from the grill, then Mr. Jones
shouted: ‘Karin, pay attention!’. I turned around and saw that my whole salmon
probably was ruined. I told him (the student) he had to remove it all and I asked if he
had cleaned the grill properly. (concretizing)
And how did you know ..... you saw that grill ....... so, you immediately wondered if he
had cleaned it well enough? Where did that knowledge come from, how did you
know?
(the fragment is shown on video)
I do not know, I just went there and told him to get the salmon off the grill. I thought,
well, before all my salmon gets ruined… I thought, before I do not have enough
anymore… that was the first thing that came to mind. And then, I asked if he cleaned
the grill properly. (concretizing) I don’t know if I really thought about it or whether I
thought ...... Yeah, well, I don’t know.
(…)
And finally, do you have any idea what went wrong?
Yes, the grill was not hot enough. It needs to be red-hot before you put your salmon
on it. (conceptualizing)
(…)
This fragment comprises a shift from practical applications, removing the salmon and
cleaning the grill properly, towards generalizations, a clean and a red-hot grill is needed for
salmon not to get burnt.
The empirical illustrations show that vocational knowledge calls on all human senses;
Steven had to taste his cocktail in order to know it was good to go, Karin saw, and could have
smelt, the salmon getting burnt, the teacher had his hands in the dough while explaining how
to make puff-pastry. In the illustrations of both teachers, a richness of series in shifts in
conceptualizing and concretizing were shown. During their actions, the teachers modelled
how to contextualize vocational knowledge, and how to create inferential relations and
coherence within and between generalizations and abstractions, and concrete, practical
applications. In the examples of the students, less series of shifts in conceptualizing,
concretizing, and coherence were distinguished. The students in the study showed more
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examples of concretizing vocational knowledge than conceptualizing vocational knowledge or
series of shifts between concretizing and conceptualizing.
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5. Discussion
This paper has set out to provide both empirical illustrations and a detailed
theorization of what characterizes contextualizing vocational knowledge. The development of
vocational knowledge presupposes students to be able to contextualizing vocational
knowledge. Teachers’ support in this learning process is crucial. We argued to use
contextualizing as a unitary concept that comprises both concretizing, applying or situating
general ideas, and conceptualizing an idea in its conceptual context. Contextualizing is a way
to create coherence within and between what analytically can be distinguished as practical or
theoretical, between specific or general, etc. The empirical examples have illustrated that
contextualizing vocational knowledge manifests in different ways, as a continuous, iterative
and multifaceted process.
To understand the practical and theoretical challenges related to contextualizing
vocational knowledge, we have articulated an inferentialist view on learning. As illustrated in
this paper, an inferential approach to learning presupposes students to grasp the mediated
relationship between the forms of knowledge contained in their educational programs and the
forms of knowledge in their occupational practice (Guile, 2014). Wheelahan (2009) suggests
that students need access to the conditions of knowledge needed to understand the contextual.
Therefore, students must be able to learn to recognize contexts and to appropriately apply
theories. This cannot be solely learnt in the classroom, because students need to learn to relate
the general to particular situations and to different kinds of situations. Since not all knowledge
that students need to use emerges from practice, they need the means to move beyond
contextually specific applications of knowledge in order to access systems of knowledge and
their generative principles (Young 2007).
In this paper, an attempt has been made to transcend the strictly cognitive and situated
positions on learning. To overcome the limitations of these perspectives is to understand
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learning as the requirement that knowledge need to be (re)contextualized. Van Oers (1998)
suggests studying the activity of contextualizing rather than context as situation. Similarly,
this paper has considered contextualization of vocational knowledge as an activity rather than
taking concepts or knowledge as reified. This process involves adding meaning—predication,
which also requires identification. A context is never given; a process of context making
takes place.
The challenges students face to develop vocational knowledge, and educators’ support in
this process, illustrates the importance of contextualization of vocational knowledge.
Increasingly, students need to draw on complex knowledge as a consequence of changes to
society, work and technology (Wheelahan, 2009). Students need to be able to use knowledge
in different ways and in different contexts. The empirical illustrations show that knowledge in
the vocational domain is knowledge that appeals to all senses. Therefore, educators need to
support students in the process of contextualizing knowledge, and to provide them with
situations in which they can experiences how to call on their senses, to teach them how they
can reason and decide what knowledge is relevant for a particular purpose or in a specific
situation.
Contextualizing vocational knowledge manifests in different ways, as a continuous,
iterative and multifaceted process. Some situations ask for a shift from abstract or generalized
ideas towards concrete and practical applications or vice versa, while others trigger series of
shifts between the concrete particulars of a specific situation towards generalizations and
abstractions. The empirical illustrations demonstrated that the students in the study more often
expressed practical applications of knowledge than abstractions or generalizations. An
explanation for this result could be that the students were not used to talk about and express
their thinking and reasoning in this manner, and might not have had the vocabulary to express
their thinking. They often responded with: ‘I just know…’ or ‘I don’t know…it is just a
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feeling…’ Furthermore, to ask students to reflect on their own concrete actions, they might
respond in the same way, talking about concrete applications of their vocational knowledge.
A central aim of vocation educational programs is to provide students learning
experiences in both practice and educational settings (Billett, 2014). The illustrations in this
paper derive from the hospitality branch, a domain that is exemplary for many domains in the
context of vocational education in the Netherlands, because of the richness of both knowledge
and practical experiences. Although, additional research on contextualizing vocational
knowledge with more variety in occupational practices and in educational programs is
necessary to improve our understanding of the characteristics of such complex processes.
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