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Changes in working life require development in vocational education and training (VET) to retain industrial currency. VET teachers are key actors in VET, and their continuing professional development (CPD) in vocational subjects is central to the currency of VET. This study is situated in Sweden, with a mainly school-based VET system where VET teachers have the main responsibility for students? school-based and workplace learning, and they typically have a background in an initial occupation which they now teach their students. The study applies a situated learning perspective, with a particular focus on boundary processes between VET schools and working life, and how the modes of identification of engagement, imagination, and alignment are enacted and influence the identity formation and CPD of VET teachers. The findings are based on interviews with 30 Swedish VET teachers. The qualitative study shows how different forms of boundary encounter between VET teachers and working life, brokering of occupational knowledge, and reconstruction of occupational practices at schools provide opportunities for teachers? CPD and influencing vocational teaching. It is important for the quality of VET teachers? CPD to include and integrate the different modes of identification, to allow for updating of different aspects of the occupational identity.

Contemporary work-life changes rapidly, and vocational education and training (VET) teachers need to keep up-to-date with changing knowledge demands and technological developments. This article concerns VET teachers' continuing professional development (CPD) related to the specific vocations for which they teach. The aim is to analyse VET teachers' participation in various types of activities designed to make them become more knowledgeable in relation to industry currency. The study draws on a socio-cultural perspective on practice and learning. Theory concerning adults' participation in education is also used in analysing drivers of and barriers to participation in learning activities. The analyses are based on survey data from 886 Swedish VET teachers relating to their participation in different activities, barriers/drivers concerning participation in these activities, perceived effects (outcomes) of participation in terms of professional development, and teachers' background. Reading professional texts was the most common CPD activity among those VET teachers participating in the study. Reading, and work in the VET teacher's former/initial occupation were the two activities where variation in performing them could be explained to the highest degree. The study particularly highlights the importance of boundary crossing between school and work-life for maintaining and developing the industrial currency of VET teachers' competence. Active membership and engagement in the community of practice of the initial occupation is important for participation in CPD activities closely related to this community.

Context: Teachers in vocational education and training (VET teachers) have specific conditions for their continuing professional development (CPD). They have a background in an initial occupation, in which they now teach and train the next generation. Thus, as VET teachers, they are expected to master the knowledge and skills of that occupation, even if they have now crossed the boundary from the community of their initial occupation to the community of the school. This study explores the perceived values among VET teachers of different activities that may contribute to their CPD in teaching subjects/initial occupations. The study examines VET at the upper secondary level in Sweden. Here, the VET teachers have the main responsibility for students' vocational learning in the vocational subjects, including the work-based parts. In the latter parts, the teachers are supplemented by supervisors at the workplace. Approach: We argue for the duality of a VET teacher identity with a professional competence that comprises two intertwined parts -- teaching skills, and knowledge of the teaching subjects based in the teachers' initial occupations. Our study is based on a situated learning perspective, and the empirical findings particularly concern values created from learning through participation and boundary crossing. CPD activities typically include some form of participation in and/or boundary crossing between school and work-life practices. In the analysis we also include the possible influence of institutional, situational, and dispositional drivers and barriers for participation in different activities. The research question was: what factors can explain the variation in perceived values created by participation in different CPD activities among VET teachers? The study was conducted as a survey of 886 Swedish VET teachers. Focus was put on the values created through different types of activity, values for the teachers' vocational knowledge, for networks in working life, and for teaching. The data were primarily analysed using logistic regression modelling. Findings: Dispositional drivers, the teacher's sex, and regular performance of the activity are important for the perceived value. The dispositional factor is the one most commonly retained, and it has a consistently positive effect. Factors such as educational background and vocational training have weaker influence, which suggests that individual driving factors are important when VET teachers assess the value of CPD activities. Conclusions: The study covers a general challenge for VET teachers, but is of particular relevance in systems with a high degree of school-based VET, full-time employed VET teachers, and VET teachers who are responsible for students' vocational learning. Here, the values for vocational knowledge, for networks, and for teaching that are created through different activities are important for the VET teacher identity. They are also interrelated, and together they provide professional development in relation to the initial occupation, and for the occupation as a vocational teacher.

This article reports on VET teachers’ engagements in boundary processes between schools and workplaces in connection with students’ workplace learning, the conditions for such boundary processes, and how these activities may enable VET teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD). Thirty VET teachers have been interviewed and their replies have been analysed in a theoretical framework of situated learning. The VET teachers described two main forms of boundary processes: boundary encounters and brokering by VET students. These processes support the occupational learning of VET teachers to different degrees. Teachers’ access to the workplace and their engagement and involvement in work and social interactions influence the potential for learning. Structural factors in school practices determine the nature of the boundary processes experienced by VET teachers and hence, the conditions for VET teachers’ CPD.

This study investigates continuing professional development (CPD) of vocational teachers, with a focus on recurrent participation. Vocational teachers need to be competent as teachers and in relation to their vocational teaching subject. Reformation of Swedish vocational education in order to strengthen the working-life connection imposes demands on teachers to have up-to-date knowledge about the vocations related to their vocational subjects. To support the reform, vocational teachers have been offered to participate in a new national CPD initiative targeting their vocational competence. The study concerns participation in this initiative. Drawing on a socio-cultural perspective, vocational teachers' CPD implies boundary-crossing between school and working-life. Theory concerning adults' participation in education is considered relevant to understand conditions for such boundary-crossing, and learning, among vocational teachers. The article specifically investigates patterns in vocational teachers' recurrent participation, which is expected to clarify the factors influencing further participation in professional development. The strongest predictor of recurrent participation, when adjusting for the influence of other factors, is the type of municipality that the teacher comes from, with low populated municipalities having the lowest likelihood of participation. Furthermore, recurrent participation is more likely by participating teachers from adult education or from privately owned schools, and by male teachers.

Teachers’ subject knowledge is crucial for the quality of education. Contemporary work life changes rapidly, which challenges vocational education and training (VET) and teachers who need up-to-date vocational competence. This paper concerns VET teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) related to vocational subjects and basic vocations in which they teach. The aim is to analyse teachers’ participation in varying types of CPD activities. The study draws on a socio-cultural perspective on practice, identity, and learning. Furthermore, the analysis is related to theory concerning adults’ participation in education, which shows how different factors influence participation in CPD. A survey was distributed to 2,000 Swedish VET teachers. The analyses are based on data on participation in different activities, barriers/drivers for participation in these activities, and perceived effects in terms of professional development.Results show similar patterns of participation between vocational areas, but with some significant differences between the areas. The variation in vocational areas does not have that much influence on participation. Reading vocational texts is the most common activity among those covered in the study. To read, and to work in the teacher’s basic vocation, are the two activities where variation in doing them could be explained to the highest degree.

Teachers’ subject knowledge is crucial for the quality of education. Contemporary work life changes rapidly, which challenges vocational education and training (VET) and teachers who need up-to-date vocational competence. This paper concerns VET teachers’ continuing professional development (CPD) related to vocational subjects and basic vocations in which they teach. The aim is to analyse teachers’ participation in varying types of CPD activities. The study draws on a socio-cultural perspective on practice, identity, and learning. Furthermore, the analysis is related to theory concerning adults’ participation in education, which shows how different factors influence participation in CPD. A survey was distributed to 2,000 Swedish VET teachers. The analyses are based on data on participation in different activities, barriers/drivers for participation in these activities, and perceived effects in terms of professional development.Results show similar patterns of participation between vocational areas, but with some significant differences between the areas. The variation in vocational areas does not have that much influence on participation. Reading vocational texts is the most common activity among those covered in the study. To read, and to work in the teacher’s basic vocation, are the two activities where variation in doing them could be explained to the highest degree.

Welcome to the Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training (NJVET). With this journal, we want to create a forum for research on vocational and professional education and training, with a particular focus on issues at stake for vocational education and training (VET) in the Nordic countries. The journal is published online and open access, and there are no submission or article processing charges. This is the first issue of NJVET in its new shape. We have put effort into the renewal of our website, submission and publishing system, guidelines for contributions etc. Altogether we hope that this will contribute to strengthening the quality of our journal, and also of Nordic VET research in general. In this first issue we can present contributions from four Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Nevertheless, relevant contributions from outside the Nordic countries are most welcome! We encourage publication of articles in English, which makes the audience of our research results much broader, but we also offer the opportunity to publish in the Nordic languages. In this issue, articles are published in English, Danish, and Norwegian. You should also note that we make a difference between research articles, which have undergone a double-blind peer-review by at least two anonym viewers, and magazine articles that contain other types of materials, discussions, minor studies of VET etc. The magazine articles are not subject to double-blind peer review, but are reviewed by the editors. We also welcome relevant book reviews. However, this issue does not include any book review.

This study concerns the continuing professional development (CPD) of vocational teachers. As a starting point, vocational teaching as a profession is based on a type of dual professionalism. Thus, ...

Supervision intended to support learning is of great interest in professional knowledge development. No single definition governs the implementation and enactment of supervision because of different conditions, intentions, and pedagogical approaches. Uncertainty exists at a time when knowledge and methods are undergoing constant development. This situation affects professions with high demands on precision and safety, and thus supervision and learning. The aim of this article is to explore the practice of supervision for learning professional knowledge of forensic specialists. The context is the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science internal training program, which focuses on learning in daily work when the forensic trainee is assigned a supervisor. Ethnographic studies of supervisors and trainees in different forensic specialties were conducted. Practice theory is used to understand how supervision is planned and implemented to support professional development. Findings show that supervision by seasoned professional forensic specialists is significant for trainee learning. However, supervision is arranged, and performed differently, indicating various conditions for learning. Furthermore, the material set-ups of the professional practice prefigure the practice of supervision. Supervision is an area of expertise that needs to be cultivated and learned to maintain highly specialized professional knowledge in current time of change and uncertainty.

This study concerns the continuing professional development (CPD) of vocational teachers. As a starting point, vocational teaching as a profession is based on a type of dual professionalism. Thus, the conditions of vocational teachers’ competence in their teaching subject differ from those of other groups of teachers. In this article, we analyse vocational teachers’ participation in a Swedish national initiative that targets vocational teachers’ CPD within their vocational subjects. Because of changes in working life and demands to strengthen the quality of Swedish vocational education, vocational teachers are expected to be well qualified and up-to-date in the vocation they teach. Swedish vocational teachers normally spend most of their time teaching in schools, and the means through which vocational teachers meet the demands of contemporary vocational competence differ. The national initiative provides vocational teachers opportunities to participate in the vocational, work-life community of practice of their subject for at least 2 weeks. This study aims to explore vocational teachers’ participation in this CPD programme. The analysis is based on registry data on participation in the initiative. Our theoretical foundation is the socio-cultural theory of identity formation, with a focus on the boundary crossing between different communities of practice, and a theory of adults’ participation in education. The findings show differences in participation according to age, vocational area, and geographic location. The results indicate that participation opportunities may be influenced by, for example, institutional factors and situational factors. This implication is discussed in relation to vocational teachers’ development of a professional identity and their teaching of the vocational subject.

Vocational teachers' prior occupational experiences are construed as those that will guarantee high-quality teaching in vocational education, although individuals are no longer required to have formal teaching qualifications to be employed as teachers in Sweden. This lack of strict requirements raises the issue of the preparedness of vocational teachers to teach their subject matter. Drawing on a socio-cultural understanding of identity, and based on twenty semi-structured interviews with vocational teachers in different subject areas, this article addresses vocational teachers' identity formation through boundary crossing; these individuals cross boundaries between the community of the prior occupation's practice, the teaching occupation and the community of teacher training. The analysis illustrates how teachers who manage to balance their teacher identities with their occupational identities by maintaining their participation in the different communities seem to be the best prepared to teach their vocational subjects. As many of those we interviewed do not manage to keep such a balance, we argue for the need for in-service training for vocational teachers to help them keep up to date with, participate in and continue to belong to the communities of their former occupations.

Given the current demands of Swedish vocational education and the withdrawal of the requirement for formal teacher competence in vocational subject teachers, the aim of this article is to develop knowledge of what it means to be a vocational subject teacher in an upper secondary school, i.e. how vocational subject teachers describe their vocational teacher identity. Drawing on a sociocultural perspective, this study analysed data from 22 interviews. The vocational subject teachers describe their relationship with students and the fostering work of teaching for studies, life and work as distinctive characteristics of vocational teacher identity. The fostering work is focused on students' behaviour, i.e. the relational and normative aspects of a social practice. The study results suggest that the identity of vocational teachers includes guiding students towards memberships in various social practices. The benefit of both high-quality teacher competence and vocational competence in vocational teachers is discussed.

The qualification of adult educators is a central aspect of the quality of adult education. However, within current policy discourses and adult education research on the professional development of prospective adult educators, little attention is paid to teacher qualification when compared to other fields of education and training. In this study, we analyse the qualification paths, or learning trajectories, of prospective adult educators in Sweden and Denmark. The analysis is based on narrative interviews with 29 students in training to become adult educators. The career paths of adult educators are often long and winding roads. Becoming an adult educator could be their primary desire, but it could also be their ‘Plan B’, a second choice. Individual motives and external demands interact in the professionalisation process. A shift in focus from teaching subject and methods to teaching context and the relation to the learners is part of the professional development. Finally, we argue that both academic studies and hands-on work in the adult education community are crucial parts of the adult educator's qualification path.

The study explores the professional development of future forensic experts. Specifically, it investigates how the forensic expert trainees learn through the internal training program at the Swedish National Laboratory of Forensic Science with a focus on the supervision at work. The findings are drawn from an ethnographical study where five trainees and their supervisors have been observed and interviewed. By drawing on a socio cultural perspective on learning, the results show that supervision is crucial for professional development. Two types of activities and relations define how supervision is implemented. There is a "transitional movement" in how supervision is staged depending on the trainees' gradual changes in participation in the work practice and increased experience. Forensic experts need skills and know-how to make wise and impartial judgments, i.e. a kind of tacit professional practical knowledge, as well as the skill to communicate with other professionals. However, the development of a professional language is somewhat unspoken or planned. Becoming a forensic expert is a learning process in practice where supervision plays a decisive role in maintaining the professional knowledge in the judicial system. Therefore, supervision for supervising might be a valuable support for supervisors.