Foucault’s toolkit: resources for ‘thinking’ work in times of continual change

Author/s: Molly Rowan and Sue Shore

Edition: Volume 49, Number 1, April 2009

Summary: This paper was prompted by our interest in two issues associated with Australia’s vocational education and training system: recurring declarations for universal access to vocational education and training (albeit in different forms across different epochs) as the right of all Australians and the continual processes of change associated with the sector over the last two decades. As we approach a time of yet more change in vocational education and training, we call for a rethinking of these two characteristics of a training system, as ‘problems of the present’, situations which in their present form are ‘intolerable’. Reflecting a notion of ‘thinking’ work as personal,  political, historical and practical, the paper offers a glimpse of Foucault (1926–1984) as a person. We explain his use of the term discourse as an overarching frame for understanding ‘problems of the present’. We review two major aspects of his analytic toolkit: archaeology and genealogy. We close with reflections on  the usefulness of these analytic practices as tactics of engagement for researchers interested in historical approaches to vocational education.

Keywords: vocational education, access, Foucault, engagement

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This article is part of AJAL, Volume 49_1. The entire volume is available in .pdf for purchase here.