The intersection of policy and practice in one stand-alone vocational school: The ABC story

This qualitative case study focuses on one "special school", the ABC School1, over its forty-year history to examine the purpose(s) of vocational schooling as these are articulated in policy text (Ball, 1990) and as they are interpreted and implemented or not, by practitioners working "on the ground" (Ozga, 2000). Told through the voices of ABC guidance counsellors, teachers and principals, The ABC Story is a series of case studies drawn at three points in the school's history: when the school opened in the early 1960s, at its historic mid-point in the early 1980s, and in the current context of Ontario Secondary School Reform. Although the ABC School is, and has been since its inception, a "special school", the purpose is not to evaluate the practice and impact of streaming but to explore the complexities that have historically contributed to streaming and to question what role the ABC School has played as both an agent of equality and a perpetrator of social reproduction. Beyond an historical narrative, The ABC Story, affords an examination of tensions and contradictions inherent in a segregated, "special school" as they transcend time: Who are these kids, this specialized population of students (West Boyer-Stephens, 1999) that ABC is meant to serve? What is the intent of the ABC program as it is outlined in provincial policy documents and as ABC practitioners understand and describe it? Who are the ABC practitioners? What tensions and contradictions emerge when the ABC School is viewed through the lens of time? Using tenets from Carnoy and Levin's (1985) Schooling and Work in the Democratic State, The ABC Story explores the relationship between education and the economy, or school and work, and expands this framework to include Popkewitz's (1998) insights on how particular populations of students and teachers are generated and sustained. This study describes the processes of schooling that, through both policy and practice, create The ABC School, its students and its teachers in an effort to "understand what constitutes vocational education ... [and] the social processes that form vocational classrooms" (Gaskell, 1993, p. 52).1ABC is the pseudonym for the school. Throughout its history, ABC's name changes first from the ABC Vocational School to the ABC Secondary School, and, later, to the ABC Technical School. The discussion of name changes constitutes a part of the research question.

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