Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) research has become a recognized and well-defined area of interdisciplinary research. This is the first handbook of its kind that specifically concentrates on research and research methods in TVET. The book’s sections focus on particular aspects of the field, starting with a presentation of the genesis of TVET research. They further feature research in relation to policy, planning and practice. Various areas of TVET research are covered, including on the vocational disciplines and on TVET systems. Case studies illustrate different approaches to TVET research, and the final section of the book presents research methods, including interview and observation methods, as well as of experimentation and development. This handbook provides a comprehensive coverage of TVET research in an international context, and, with special focus on research and research methods, it is a cutting-edge resource and reference.

In February 1979, I wrote to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation seeking sup port for the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies to embark on a policy oriented program in vocational education. The reason for the request, which was generously granted by the foundation, was stated as follows: The federal program on vocational education dates from World War I. Impor tant changes were made in later legislation in 1963 and 1976, affecting the pro grams conducted by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The recently enacted Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) of the Department of Labor has brought large federal support to efforts to reduce unemployment, especially for youth, by providing preparatory training. It may be an understatement to report that the programs of these two government departments have lacked adequate coordination in Washington or in the field. Certainly there is a long way to go in improving both policy and program, and an opportunity presents itself in preparing the policies to be proposed to the Con gress when the vocational education program next comes up for reconsideration in 1980 and 1981. Responsibility for preparing the administration's position and recom mendations lies with the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation of HEW, Michael O'Keefe.

More than two million students are enrolled in for-profit colleges, from the small family-run operations to the behemoths brandished on billboards, subway ads, and late-night commercials. These schools have been around just as long as their bucolic not-for-profit counterparts, yet shockingly little is known about why they have expanded so rapidly in recent years—during the so-called Wall Street era of for-profit colleges. In Lower Ed Tressie McMillan Cottom—a bold and rising public scholar, herself once a recruiter at two for-profit colleges—expertly parses the fraught dynamics of this big-money industry to show precisely how it is part and parcel of the growing inequality plaguing the country today. McMillan Cottom discloses the shrewd recruitment and marketing strategies that these schools deploy and explains how, despite the well-documented predatory practices of some and the campus closings of others, ending for-profit colleges won't end the vulnerabilities that made them the fastest growing sector of higher education at the turn of the twenty-first century. And she doesn't stop there. With sharp insight and deliberate acumen, McMillan Cottom delivers a comprehensive view of postsecondary for-profit education by illuminating the experiences of the everyday people behind the shareholder earnings, congressional battles, and student debt disasters. The relatable human stories in Lower Ed—from mothers struggling to pay for beauty school to working class guys seeking "good jobs" to accomplished professionals pursuing doctoral degrees—illustrate that the growth of for-profit colleges is inextricably linked to larger questions of race, gender, work, and the promise of opportunity in America. Drawing on more than one hundred interviews with students, employees, executives, and activists, Lower Ed tells the story of the benefits, pitfalls, and real costs of a for-profit education. It is a story about broken social contracts; about education transforming from a public interest to a private gain; and about all Americans and the challenges we face in our divided, unequal society.