Preparing Agents of Change in Vocational, Technical, and Occupational Education.

Overview & Synopsis

The ultimate goal of graduate education is to design programs of preparation to promote improvement in the quality of education and training services that are provided in a variety of different contexts. In the 1960s, Nova University developed field-based doctoral programs as a strategy to prepare individuals to become agents of change in the contexts in which they work. Nova's Center for Higher Education developed field-based doctoral programs in: (1) higher education; (2) leadership in adult education; and (3) vocational, technical, and occupational (VTO) education. During the 1980s, the Center for Higher Education critically analyzed its format for the delivery of the specialization seminars for the three programs. This paper describes the redesign and implementation of the new format for developing change agents in VTO education, detailing the content of two specialization seminars, namely, "Personnel--Human Resources Development" and "The Emergence of Vocational, Technical, and Occupational Education in America," and analyzing outcomes of the new seminar format. (Author/EJV)