LLAKES Research Seminar, 14 May 2012, 3.00 pm, Committee Room 3

Professor Ida Juul, Aarhus University, Denmark

Parity of Esteem – possibility or utopia? Negotiating equilibrium in Danish upper secondary education

As is the case with other Nordic countries, the Danish school system is comprehensive in nature up to the 9th and 10th grades (the 10th grade being voluntary). However, unlike the rest of the Scandinavian states, the upper secondary system in Denmark consists of two separate streams: one directed towards the labour market (and categorised as “Vocational Education and Training” [VET]), and the other leading into further and higher education (a path labelled as “general upper secondary education”). The question of how to secure “parity of esteem” between these two channels has played a central role in discussions related to successive reforms of Danish VET.

 Professor Ida Juul will discuss the topic of “parity of esteem” in this context, taking the historical development of the Danish VET system as her starting point. Her frame of reference will be the categorisation used in the report launched by the European Union in 1998, titled: “Strategies for achieving parity of esteem in European upper secondary education” (Lasonen & Young, 1998).

Her presentation will be based on a comparative research study. But, unlike the report from the European Union, she will not compare nations; instead, she will focus on the different periods in the development of the Danish VET system, in order to analyse the extent to which current strategy reflects past experience, and/or contemporary consensus in Danish politics. Given the inherent tendencies to assign “potential drop-outs” to the VET sector, and the consequent risks of deterring able young people from pursuing vocational studies, she will discuss the strategies adopted by the Danish government to cope with these challenges.

Ida Juul is an Associate Professor at the Department of Education, Aarhus University, Denmark. Her research is focused on the Danish VET system and Danish working Life. She is a member of the editorial boad of Tidsskrift for Arbejdsliv (Journal of Working Life) and The Nordic Journal of Working Life Studies. She has worked in the Danish Trades Union movement, and as a consultant on gender equality. She is working on a book covering the history of the Danish VET system from 1750 to 2012.  

Attendance at the seminar is free, but places should be booked in advance via llakesevents@ioe.ac.uk.