糖心原创

School of Education

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Volker Wedekind

Head of School (Professor of Education), Faculty of Social Sciences

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Biography

Professor Volker Wedekind is currently Head of the School of Education. He has spent most of his professional life working in South African universities and joined the 糖心原创 in 2017. He started working in the early 1990s doing teacher development work at a time when South Africa and the education system were undergoing major transitions. His teaching and research has focused on the intersection between societal and policy changes and how these affect the people working in the system. He has also been directly involved in policy processes at national level, serving on a number of ministerial committees, government task teams, statutory committees and consultancies. Within the universities he has served in various capacities including as Head of School and Deputy Dean. His previous position was the Research Chair in Vocational Education and Pedagogy at the University of Witwatersrand.

He is Convenor of the UNESCO-UNEVOC Centre in Nottingham and is actively involved in the UNEVOC Network. The Centre currently leads the Migration strand of the BILT: Bridging Innovation and Learning in TVET project.

He is currently an Honorary Professor at the University of Witwatersrand in the Centre for Researching Education and Labour.

Teaching Summary

My teaching currently focuses on postgraduate research and supervision in fields related to education policy, vocational education and education and development. I also coordinate the doctoral… read more

Research Summary

My current research focuses on the role of vocational education within development discourses, the relationship between education, social policy and economic development. Current projects include the… read more

Recent Publications

  • ELIZABETH WALTON, JOANNA MCINTYRE, SALOME JOY AWIDI, NICOLE DE WET-BILLINGS, KERRYN DIXON, RODA MADZIVA, DAVID MONK, CHAMUNOGWA NYONI, JULIET THONDHLANA and VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2020. Frontiers in Education.
  • JOYCELINE ALLA-MENSAH, HAYA FAKOUSH, SIMON MCGRATH and VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2019. . In: SIMON MCGRATH, MARTIN MULDER, JOY PAPIER and REBECCA SUART, eds., Handbook of Vocational Education and Training: Developments in the Changing World of Work 1. Springer. 159-176
  • CHENJERAI MUWANIKI and VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2019. . In: SIMON MCGRATH, MARTIN MULDER, JOY PAPIER and REBECCA SUART, eds., Handbook of Vocational Education and Training: Developments in the Changing World of Work 2. Springer. 1649-1666
  • VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2019. . In: GLENDA KRUSS, ANGELIQUE WILDSCHUT and IL-HAAM PETERSEN, eds., Skills for the Future: New research perspectives HSRC Press. 79-93

My teaching currently focuses on postgraduate research and supervision in fields related to education policy, vocational education and education and development. I also coordinate the doctoral training programme and teach research methodology. My undergraduate teaching includes a focus on comparative, international and history of education, as well as the sociology of education.

Current Research

My current research focuses on the role of vocational education within development discourses, the relationship between education, social policy and economic development. Current projects include the history of skills development in South Africa, innovations in vocational education in Africa (VET Africa 4.0), vocational teachers, and migration, migrants and vocational education.

Past Research

My past research has focused in various ways on education policy and how this impacts on the people in education systems, particularly the teachers. I have explored this intersection through life histories, policy analysis and sociological analysis of classroom and school/college practices.

Future Research

The first line of future research focuses on the issue of migration and the role of vocational education. Migration is a major concern across the globe. There are a wide variety of reasons why people choose to or are forced to migrate - economic, safety and security, environmental or combinations of these. Whether the migrants are refugees, internally displaced people or voluntary migrants, there are many risks and challenges they face. One critical area relates to their ability to secure their livelihoods through productive work. Education, and vocational education in particular can potentially play an important role in helping migrants to access the labour market and integrate into their new home or return to the place they migrated from. My future research will focus on a range of issues related to migration, education and work.

The second strand of work relates to the major changes that are taking place in the economy that impact on skills and employment. Artificial intelligence, automation and robotics, longevity, climate collapse, increasing inequality and a host of other developments pose major challenges to the nature of work, and many of the current approaches to vocational education take little cognizance of this. What is the purpose of vocational education in this context? My research attempts to contribute to this debate.

The third strand of work focuses on agricultural education and agricultural extension in developing countries. This is a crucial part of sustainable development and ensuring food security.

  • ELIZABETH WALTON, JOANNA MCINTYRE, SALOME JOY AWIDI, NICOLE DE WET-BILLINGS, KERRYN DIXON, RODA MADZIVA, DAVID MONK, CHAMUNOGWA NYONI, JULIET THONDHLANA and VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2020. Frontiers in Education.
  • JOYCELINE ALLA-MENSAH, HAYA FAKOUSH, SIMON MCGRATH and VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2019. . In: SIMON MCGRATH, MARTIN MULDER, JOY PAPIER and REBECCA SUART, eds., Handbook of Vocational Education and Training: Developments in the Changing World of Work 1. Springer. 159-176
  • CHENJERAI MUWANIKI and VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2019. . In: SIMON MCGRATH, MARTIN MULDER, JOY PAPIER and REBECCA SUART, eds., Handbook of Vocational Education and Training: Developments in the Changing World of Work 2. Springer. 1649-1666
  • VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2019. . In: GLENDA KRUSS, ANGELIQUE WILDSCHUT and IL-HAAM PETERSEN, eds., Skills for the Future: New research perspectives HSRC Press. 79-93
  • VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2018. At: SAQA Website
  • VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2018. . In: STEPHANIE ALLAIS and YAEL SHALEM, eds., Knowledge, Curriculum and Preparation for Work Brill Sense. 104-126
  • ASSAF CONSENSUS PANEL, 2017. Academy of Science of South Africa. (978-0-9947117-1-7)
  • VOLKER WEDEKIND and SYBERT MUTEREKO, 2016. Development Southern Africa. 33(3), 376-389
  • SYBERT MUTEREKO and VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2016. Journal of Education and Work. 29(8), 902-921
  • VOLKER WEDEKIND and ZANELE BUTHELEZI, 2016. . In: ANDRE KRAAK, ANDREW PATERSON and KEDIBONE BOKA, eds., Change Management in TVET Colleges: Lessons learnt from the field of practice African Minds. 64-82
  • VOLKER WEDEKIND and SYBERT MUTEREKO, 2016. Labour Market Intelligence Partnership.
  • URSEL HAUSCHILDT, HELEN BROWN, LARS HEINEMANN and VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2015. . In: MARTIN FISCHER, FELIX RAUNER and ZHIQUN ZHAO, eds., Kompetenzdiagnostik in der beruflichen Bildung: Methoden zum Erfassen und Entwickeln beruflicher Kompetenz LIT Verlag. 353-374
  • VOLKER WEDEKIND, 2014. . In: SALIM VALLY and ENVER MOTALA, eds., Education, Economy and Society First. UNISA Press.
  • 2014. . In: AHMED BAWA, NARNIA BOHLER-MILLER, SOMADODA FIKENI, SIPHAMANDLA ZONDI and SANUSHA NAIDU, eds., BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialisation: Papers of the fifth BRICS Academic Forum DIRCO. 108-116

School of Education

糖心原创
Jubilee Campus
Wollaton Road
Nottingham, NG8 1BB

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