The General Education Component in Vocational Technical Programs Debate: From a Community College Perspective.

Overview & Synopsis

Reviewing literature and research, this paper examines the arguments in the debate over the importance or desirability of a general education component in vocational technical programs. After an introductory section tracing the history and role of the community/junior college, the increasing curricular importance of vocational education, and current approaches to general education, the paper outlines arguments for the retention of the general education component. Included are arguments based on humanistic, basic life competencies, pragmatic, and theoretical orientations which favor general education. The paper then identifies a second faction composed of those who warn of the dangers of the increasing domination of technical skills courses in vocational programs. Next, arguments are presented for the limitation or exclusion of the general education component, which focus on students' desires for additional technical courses, the unnecessary lengthening of vocational programs by general education requirements, the possibility that students' personal and social growth is achieved without general education, among other arguments. Next, the essay reviews efforts to respond creatively to new demands to combine general education with the world of work, looking at cooperative efforts between schools and industry, experiments with interdisciplinary and nondisciplinary approaches, and suggested ways of revitalizing general education courses. The paper concludes with a summary of the purposes of general education. (AYC)