Issues of Human Caring and Cultural Awareness in Vocational Teacher Education. Reports from the Vocational Teacher Education College of Jyvaskyla 8.

Overview & Synopsis

The nine articles in this monograph discuss current issues related to increasing awareness of caring work and cross-cultural communication. The two main themes are: the basis of caring work in the first five articles, and fostering cultural awareness in the last four. "Foundations of Prevocational and Vocational Education in Finland" (Johanna Lasonen, Hannele Rousi) provides an overview of the progress of Finnish vocational education for social work. "Development Challenges to Vocational Social Service Education in Finland" (Ulla Mutka, Hannele Rousi) outlines a broad sociopolitical perspective as a basis for vocational social work education. "Qualifications of Caregivers" (Johanna Lasonen, Susan Shome, Penny Burge) discusses the nature of female-dominated service and caring work and presents a critical view on general education goals. "Finnish Comprehensive Vocational Institute Teachers' Gender-Role Attitudes" (Johanna Lasonen, Penny Burge, Curtis Finch) provides survey results. "Interaction Between Work and Family Roles" (Penny Burge) describes the current focus of home economics curriculum efforts in the United States. "Developing Cultural Awareness through International Collaboration in Vocational Teacher Education" (Curtis Finch, Johanna Lasonen) examines the basis of international education and presents a model that integrates individual and social variables of cross-cultural communication. "Developing Cultural Awareness" (Steven Culver) deals with pedagogical functions of writing in broadening students' knowledge of subject matter and in developing cultural awareness. "Crosscultural Awareness" (Ulla Mutka, Anneli Niikko, Hannele Rousi) introduces the development project implemented in the Vocational Teacher Education College of Jyvaskyla (VTECJ). "Internationalization" (Hannele Rousi) summarizes the goals and the theoretical and practical principles of the internationalization process of vocational teacher education in the VTECJ. Each article contains references. (YLB)