Int J Technol Des Educ (2012) 22:399–416

DOI 10.1007/s10798-010-9143-3

Technical and vocational teaching and training

in Gabon: how future teachers build their vocational
identity?

Jean Sylvain Bekale Nze • Jacques Ginestié

Published online: 11 January 2011

 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011

Abstract The professionalism of teachers is based on three levels of expertise: mastering

academic knowledge, mastering the teaching of this knowledge and mastering the role
played by teachers in schools. For each of these levels, each student during the teacher
training courses has his own understanding. This understanding influences their perception
of the job of teacher and thus their attitude towards their training. Efficiency of this training
could be evaluated through the evolution of this understanding. The experimental part of
this study will involve looking at this evolution with students from the ENSET in Libre-
ville at the beginning of the training course, the end of the first cycle and the end of the
second cycle. Data collected shows that training does not really produce the desired results
for a university vocational teacher training course for technology education.

Keywords Vocational and technology teaching
Teacher training
Understanding

Job
Knowledge

Introduction

The development of technical and vocational education and training in Africa is vital to the
development of societies and countries. In these societies, the inadequate structuring of
such training goes hand in hand with disorganised socio-vocational setups, an exaggerated
excrescence of informal sectors and an unstable parallel economy. The structuring of
vocational sectors (Atchoarena and Caillods 1999) and concomitantly of technical and
vocational education and training constitutes a foolish gamble and excessive ambition for
countries like Gabon. However, it is the only way of accessing social stability through the
social recognition and value of skills and qualifications. Not all development problems can

J. S. B. Nze (&)
LARETP, ENSET, Libreville, Gabon
e-mail: [email protected]

J. Ginestié
Gestepro – UMR ADEF, Université de Provence, Marseille, France
e-mail: [email protected]

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be scaled down to that of socio-vocational development. There is a specific factor here,

because technical and vocational education and training is a way of structuring the
movement from adolescence to adulthood by acquiring a job and adjusting to the world of
work. This is the last phase in the process of educating younger generations. This devel-
opment is directly linked to the teachers or trainers implications and professionalism and,
by the way, by the technological education of them. The aim of this paper is to present how
the professional identity of students in teacher training evolves during their studies, since
the first year to the fifth and last year.
Moving away from the informal sector and promoting effective and recognised socio-
vocational setups cannot therefore be achieved without giving considerable thought to how
technical and vocational education and training is structured, teaching which has to
combine vocational business training, vocational training in a school, and a general
training course. For pupils, it is a matter of acquiring lots of knowledge and also the
necessary skills to be able to get a job as soon as training is complete. The evolutionary
dynamic, whether for the individual, the company or the prospective job, requires gaining
the necessary skills and knowledge to be instantly employable and able to adapt to changes
in the job for the duration of one’s working life (Ginestié et al. 2006).
Coupling this development with training requires piloting tools, criteria that Gabon in
its current structure has difficulty meeting (Ginestié 2006a). We can point to limited
knowledge of the socio-vocational environment—absence of viable and precise quantita-
tive and qualitative indicators—as much with regard to jobs as to knowledge of the job
market. The positioning of the Gabonese educational system only allows very vague
answers to be given with regard to the span/range of available training—insufficient
covering of training levels and job groups—or in terms of meeting business demands—
insufficient legalization of needs and lack of knowledge of some kinds of jobs—or clar-
ification of the social purpose of these training schemes—the school dropout rate being too
high, technological and vocational courses reputed as being poorly adapted (Ginestié
2006b). So we can see a lack of information on job and work evolution, and therefore on
vocational training courses; thus, many vocational training schemes are out of date and
have no institutional or academic merit (Ginestié 2004).
Similar situations can be found from one country to the next, and the training of teachers
and/or training staff for technical and vocational education and training, is out of touch
with a country’s socio-vocational and socio-economic reality. Apart from the reasons
stated above, this discrepancy is amplified by the fact that in Gabon, training courses for
teachers or trainers are limited to a very small number of people in highly specialised fields
of expertise (Ginestié 2006c). Low numbers, and the lack of establishments involved as
well as the range of training courses have led the country to adopt several elements from
the educational systems of northern countries (notably France, Canada and Belgium) when
defining training course know-how and content. So if we can understand the reasons for
this, such choices limit the effectiveness of training; here more than anywhere else, cur-
ricula being anchored in a socio-cultural and socio-economic context constitutes a key
point in defining and organising them. In addition, the organising of a succession of
university studies sets up a training hierarchy between vocational teachers, with a first
training cycle lasting 3 years, then teacher training for technical education, with a second
cycle lasting 2 years. Such a structure clearly shows that a vocational teacher needs less
training than a technical teacher.
This training for Gabonese teachers simultaneously brings together a training course in
the subject to be taught, and for the teaching of this discipline (Altet 1997), establishing

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Technical and vocational teaching and training in Gabon 401

links between theory and practice, and also a hierarchy for the social relationship between
levels for blue collar workers and technicians (Perrenoud 1994, 1999).
This training model is closer to systems in Anglo-Saxon countries than to those seen in
France, where teacher training is consecutive (initial training in a subject area, followed by
vocational training in the teaching of the subject). Beyond these specific elements, in
technical and vocational teaching establishments we find three kinds of teaching and
consequently three kinds of teacher: teachers of general school subjects (mathematics,
French languages, science, foreign languages, art…) those who teach technical and the-
oretical disciplines and workshop teachers in charge of vocational subjects (Pelpel and
Troger 2001, p. 206).

A teacher’s performance and their job

The term ‘‘perspective’’ is understood as being a form of general and personal view of an
object by a person. This perspective restructures reality in order to integrate the object’s
objective characteristics, the subject’s (person’s) previous experiences, and also their
attitudes and norms. ‘‘A social perspective is an organised grouping together of informa-
tion, opinions, attitudes and beliefs with regard to a given object. Socially produced, it is
heavily marked by values corresponding to the socio-ideological system and history of the
group that is using it. This is an essential element of the user’s vision, of the said object’’
(Abric 2005, p. 59). If social perspectives or representations play a fundamental role in the
social relations dynamic and in practice (Jodelet 1993), it is because they respond to four
essential functions:
• a knowledge function which allows one to understand and explain reality;
• an identity function through which identity is defined and which allows group
specificity to be saved;
• an orientation function which guides behaviour and practices;
• a justificatory function which makes it possible to justify after positions taken and
behaviours.
In the process for constructing a teacher’s vocational identity (Ayraud and Guilbert
2000), the emphasis on social representation is a major factor to be considered (Dubar
2000). The job is certainly about a whole range of vocational skills in a defined structure
and a specific context (Henze et al. 2007), but the current changes in the educational sector
are generating a social identity crisis (Watson and Manning 2008). These changes give
teacher training institutions two challenges to overcome: on the one hand, updating
teaching practices by offering different teaching models adapted to new contexts, and on
the other hand, establishing processes to help the teacher become vocationally autonomous
from a continuous learning perspective (Arpin and Capra 2008). In order to teach, the
teacher has to be able to measure the three dimensions of a shared activity, that of teaching,
that of doing a learning job (in terms of the pupil’s own actions, and the « job » of being a
pupil) and an interactive space (a vocational space, but also one for culture/knowledge and
life) which structures their relationship and makes it more dynamic: teaching is this
crossroad (Jones and Compton 1998).
This is how teaching can be considered as being vocational (Baillat 2000). Three things
are required, ‘‘three factors for analysing facts and practices both for pupils and for
teachers who ensure that they are properly shared out’’ (Morandi 2005, p. 12). This is how
vocational teaching is structured, the identity of which presides over curriculum planning

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and the training of teachers in initial training establishments (Hackling 2009). Within
training setups, it is extremely difficult to accommodate this transition from a theorised
model of vocational teaching to the construction of a working vocational identity for an
expert teacher charged with doing the job for which he is trained (Paquay et al. 1996). This
expertise is shown in the ability to plan, carry out, control and regulate teaching systems,
the aim of which being (should be?) to benefit pupils’ learning (Haney and McArthur
2002). Early or initial training allows students to build their own vocational identity in their
job as a teacher. This construction will obviously be incomplete at the end of the training
programme, but it still remains conditioned to the wide range of personal experiences and
social contexts which necessitate the forming of these identities at the heart of the pro-
fession (Chevrier et al. 2003). Clearly, a teacher’s vocational identity will not be reduced to
the dimensions of socialisation in a profession, or the internalisation of norms and regu-
lations decreed by them.
This construction is a continuous process, a dynamic and interactive one which hinges
upon the singling out and identification of prescribed norms and rules. It calls upon both
psychological and social aspects of the person (Perrenoud 2006). It involves acquiring the
working knowledge that highlights all the ways of thinking, feeling and acting which are
specific to this group, which are learnt and shared by its members and which serve to
objectively and symbolically represent them in a particular and distinct group (Hanley
et al. 2008). Thus, this identity is not created spontaneously at the end of initial training
when the student starts work in the classroom, but it instead results from a long training
process, completed over many years, little by little (Riopel 2006).
The vocational aspect of a teacher’s job is based on three levels of expertise: the
mastery of subject knowledge, knowing how to teach this knowledge, and knowing the
teacher’s role in the educational system (Bekale Nze 2008; Ginestié 2006d, 2008). (1)
Mastery of subject knowledge is about having knowledge relating to the reference area(s)
for the discipline in question. Of course, it is all to do with the academic knowledge which
is the foundation for the scientific models/structures used. It is also a matter of knowledge
relating to scholarly knowledge such as it is taught. Knowledge of the profession and how
it is carried out is also important. Handling knowledge which is to be taught can be likened
to mastering the process for didactic transposition which links each area of taught
knowledge to its epistemological reference. (2) Handling the teaching of this subject
knowledge relies upon several different kinds of skills, such as the kind of teaching
strategy used (choosing how to adapt the most suitable method for pupils according to the
available resources), the type of teaching scenario (choosing how to organise tasks given to
pupils and how to put them into practice with regard to the knowledge that is to be taught)
and the type of interaction in the classroom (organising teaching scenarios so that learning
is as effective as possible). A professionally trained teacher masters these three things in
order to give pupils the opportunity to learn in the most appropriately organised way with
regard to the teaching–learning process. (3) Knowing about a teacher’s role in the edu-
cational system states the teacher’s social role is not limited to the act of teaching pupils in
a classroom. Supervising the pupils, creation of group strategies and projects, active
participation in the educational community and that of the school are important parts of the
job and call upon logic used in training to integrate these skills. In all vocational teachers
training, a student’s understanding of their future profession is strengthened by grasping
what each of these different areas of expertise covers. It is founded on their knowledge and
personal experience. Notably, their own experiences when they were pupils them-
selves, whether linked to taught knowledge, the teaching thereof, or the role of the teacher.

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Technical and vocational teaching and training in Gabon 403

In a macroscopic way, it is possible to identify some of the factors which will influence
these ideas and the actions of prospective teachers (Harrison et al. 2008).
The vast majority of ENSET students preparing to teach in technological or vocational
sectors only have very limited, or even non-existent personal experience of companies.
Knowledge they have built up with regard to working practices, technologies or tech-
niques, has been done so during training, which remains highly theoretical. Their
knowledge of companies, jobs and work, what their pupils will have to do, the milieu they
will be working in, is therefore fragmented or even incorrect. As a result—and problems
with regard to equipment in high schools, which is either non-existent or faulty, will only
exacerbate this tendency—it is likely that the importance of theoretical teaching is exag-
gerated, to the detriment of practical scenarios linked to vocational practices.
This misunderstanding of the world of work and businesses for Gabonese students also
has an impact on their having the necessary skills, knowledge and know-how to do a job.
Consequently, this may lead to an underestimation of systems linked to vocational prac-
tices and a pejoration of knowledge of scientific domains and of their technical scholarly
structuring. The structure of ENSET training, heavily anchored in scientific knowledge,
should not lead to this idea evolving.
Technological teaching in Gabon is heavily centred around a skills approach which is
based on excessive value being placed upon the objectives of teaching, and tools being
made available to help and guide pupils. This deep-seated « scholarly tradition » which
also applies to ENSET, must influence students’ performance in terms of how they
organise teaching with technological and vocational domains, a performance which the
organisation of studies should not have a major bearing on.
Gabonese technology teaching is an important component of the national education
system. It encounters some of the same problems, such as lack of equipment (teaching
materials, resources, help, material to work with…), management of pupil « comings and
goings » (general school dropout rates, large numbers of pupils repeating the year, dis-
organisation of courses) or a problem of positioning within Gabonese society (notably, the
structuring of technological and vocational courses which are out of touch with the socio-
professional environment). Tension exists between this system and the country’s social,
cultural, economic and political reality, and myths about what it ought to be like according
to mythical standards adopted from European or North American models. This situation
must lead students to believe that they are limited in what they can do as teachers, thus
increasing the likelihood that they will think in terms of what is best for themselves, and
not for others. Without sufficient organisation, ENSET training probably does not allow
these ways of thinking to change in order to anchor teaching practices in the building of a
model where actions are linked to reality, and not to a school which does not exist.

Methodology

We defined five indicators for each of the three areas to be mastered. For mastering
knowledge, the chosen indicators concern (1) prevalence of the acquisition of scientific
knowledge over technological knowledge, (2) characterising a job in terms of know-how,
(3) the need for a good scientific grounding in order to master technological knowledge and
(4) little trust placed in vocational experience gained in companies as a suitable foundation
for a teacher to gain knowledge. Being able to teach this knowledge is looked at in terms of
(1) the link between objectives set by the school and the means is has available to achieve
them, (2) appreciation of the effectiveness of different teaching methods, (3) palliative

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Table 1 Student groups and year of study for each year that the investigation was conducted
Year 2004–2005 2005–2006 2006–2007 2007–2008 Total

1st year 49 26 30 29 134

3rd year 38 34 71 38 181
5th year 22 19 35 22 98
Total 109 79 136 89 413

strategies in the absence of materials, (4) replacing practical activities on real systems, with
IT simulations and (5) how staff members influence how teaching is organised. The role of
the teacher is examined with indicators such as (1) relationships between technological,
vocational and general disciplines, (2) the need for onsite teaching versus distance
teaching, (3) the teacher’s influence in processes for pupils choosing studies, (4) the link
with activities other than handling a class (advice, orientation, involvement, education…)
and (5) involvement in projects with teachers of other subjects.
For the first look at this question for the Gabonese system, we opted to do a quantitative
study on all ENSET students. The results from this initial investigation will allow us to
make a more qualitative analysis. From this series of indicators, we produced a two-part
questionnaire. The first part allowed us to gather information about the students: age, sex,
area of study, year of study, type of baccalaureate obtained, and details of their school and
university studies…. The second part had three sets of five questions each which were
mixed up in order to limit influence from other categories.
The questionnaire was given to ENSET students at the beginning of their first year (the
start of training) at the end of third year (moving into vocational teaching or continuing to
study in the second cycle of teachers training for the CAPLT) and at the end of the fifth
year for those intending to teach LT. The investigation was conducted over four years, in
identical conditions. The table below shows student groups and year of study (Table 1).
The data is handled quantitatively in a traditional way that involves recording all
answers and comparing results for first, third and fifth year students. Firstly, for each
question, we made a general analysis for the four years of the investigation. We will then
compare the results for each year. These are the results that we are now looking at.

Results

The results obtained for the three items allow us to consider the effect of the training
course on changes in student performance.

Mastering subject knowledge

Five questions aim to get students’ opinions on mastering disciplinary (subject) knowl-
edge, notably the type of knowledge (academic or vocational) the best place and way to
acquire it, and how it is related to knowledge that is to be taught (Table 2).
These results do not highlight significant differences; they show that students share the
same opinion on this matter. Third year students seem more in agreement about the prev-
alence of scientific knowledge; but apart from this slight trend, we can conclude that
students arrive with an opinion on this prevalence and that training does not change their
point of view either way (Table 3).

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Technical and vocational teaching and training in Gabon 405

Table 2 To be able to teach in technological and vocational domains, a teacher must have a very high level
of theoretical knowledge in related scientific areas
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In total agreement Total

1st year 23 44 42 25 134

3rd year 33 45 47 56 181
5th year 15 37 23 23 98
Total 71 126 112 104 413

Table 3 Practical know-how allows one to define a job; this is not the case for scientific theories, laws and
principles
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In total agreement Total

1st year 5 18 90 21 134

3rd year 2 38 37 104 181
5th year 5 17 50 26 98
Total 12 73 177 151 413

The vast majority of students (328 out of 413) agree on the characterising of jobs by
know-how. However, this strong agreement gradually disintegrates as the training course
goes on, moving from 83% agreement in 1st year to 78% in 3rd and 5th year. This
distinction (which is statistically very significant) shows that training tends to reduce the
role of practical know-how in defining a job; we can think that this effect is linked to the
importance of scientific knowledge and the establishment of a model, which for these
students is beginning to seem like a suitable substitute for savoir-faire (Table 4).
These results show a small statistically significant difference, (p = .02). Almost 7 out of
every 10 students speak of the principle, of the need to complete advanced level university
studies in a foreign university in order to gain the necessary scientific knowledge to
become a teacher in technological and vocational domains. The results for first years are
slightly more mixed (89 of 134 students) and for third years (120 out of 181) than for fifth
years (75 of 98). This distinction in foreign studies being attractive to students can be
viewed in many ways, of which we will look at two. Firstly, we need to remember that
opportunities to study in Gabon are lesser, and that the Gabonese government offers many
bursaries for students wishing to leave and study elsewhere. The vast majority of students
in the three year groups probably made such demands, which for these particular students
were not met. It is also interesting to see that students on this training course remain
tempted by studying abroad; this trend is just as noticeable amongst fifth-year students,

Table 4 To acquire the necessary scientific knowledge to be a teacher in technological and vocational
fields, one has to go to university, and given the structure of our university system, to a foreign university in
Europe or North America
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 16 29 55 34 134

3rd year 28 33 73 47 181
5th year 9 14 31 44 98
Total 53 76 159 125 413

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406 J. S. B. Nze, J. Ginestié

Table 5 A professional with decent experience of working in companies cannot be a good teacher, because
(s)he does not sufficiently grasp the fundamental knowledge which is the foundation for academic subjects
they will have to teach
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 21 40 31 42 134

3rd year 28 78 35 40 181
5th year 7 37 22 32 98
Total 56 155 88 114 413

Table 6 To train workers at a given level, it is always preferable to have teachers available who have vastly
superior knowledge
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 11 16 40 67 134

3rd year 35 18 45 83 181
5th year 6 16 28 48 98
Total 52 50 113 198 413

Hence, it would be better to ask an engineer to train technicians, rather than a technician

who remain very interested in going elsewhere, despite having finished their ENSET
studies. Thus, the previously evoked dichotomy between acquiring the necessary scientific
knowledge to teach in technological and vocational domains, and the need to define a job
in terms of know-how is confirmed here by students’ high demand to study at foreign
universities. We will now examine the results for each of the years in question (Table 5).
This spread of answers does not bring up a statistically significant difference between
the different year groups. The responses do not highlight a majority in one way or the
other; 202 of 413 students believe that an experienced company worker cannot be a good
teacher, whereas 212 of 413 think the opposite. We note that a slight majority is clearer
among third-years, since 106 think that a good worker could make a good teacher, whereas
only 75 think the opposite. For first-year students (61 think a good professional could be a
good teacher, whereas 73 hold the opposite view) and (44 compared to 54 for fifth-years),
so the opposite trend holds a slight majority here. As a result, this question leads students
back to the contradiction between scientific and vocational knowledge. The previous
questions lead to answers without much divide, because they did not broach the link
between the quality of the worker in a given job and transferring this quality to thinking
about that of a teacher. Shared opinions on this question highlight the difficulty students
have in taking up a position between their aspirations to do high level scientific studies at
university, and the fundamentals of being a technological or vocational teacher. This
choice was not made in first year, and does not seem to be in third or fifth year. The
training does not appear to help much in this regard (Table 6).
Three quarters of students (311 of 413) agree that teachers need to have studied to a
higher level than their pupils. This opinion is widespread regardless of the class concerned.
The answers to this question are interesting in terms of the opinions that arise from them.
Indeed, on the one hand, the quarter of the students not sharing this opinion deem voca-
tional training to be something between peers, training of an expert-novice type, which is
normal for many accompanied vocational training programmes. In this model, the expert’s

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Technical and vocational teaching and training in Gabon 407

Table 7 To establish a skills-based technical and vocational teaching approach, each pupil must have their
own computer
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 3 52 14 65 134

3rd year 4 44 7 126 181
5th year 2 28 28 40 98
Total 9 124 49 231 413

Not adhering to this rule presents an obstacle that prevents the acquisition of practical knowledge and
therefore of the targeted skills

quality is directly linked to their level of qualification and skills acquired through pro-
fessional experience. On the other hand, the vast majority are involved in a more academic
university side of training, a relationship where the teacher’s academic prowess is backed
up by diplomas of a far more advanced level than those of the pupils. In these answers, we
can clearly see the development of two radically different ideas of vocational training and
technical teaching.

Being able to teach this knowledge

Following on from this, being able to teach disciplinary knowledge is dealt with in five
questions which aimed to canvas student opinions on groups of pupils in terms of one pupil
per computer, teaching, lessons and application, links between the practical and theoretical,
simulations in place of TP practical classes, and the relationship between large groups and
the ineffectiveness of the teaching system (Table 7).
The majority of students (280 of 413, or two thirds) answer this question in the affir-
mative (so 149 agreeing and 231 in absolute agreement); only a third (133 students) do not
agree with this kind of teaching. These results show a statistically significant difference
(p \ .000001). It seems that there is a distinction between answers given by first year
students on the one hand, and those of third and fifth years. Less than six out of ten first-
year students (79 of 134 students say they agree with this) think that this kind of setup is
more suitable for establishing high quality technical teaching, whereas around 7 out of 10
third and fifth years share this view. It is interesting to note that the effect that training has
here, is that it applies to the conditions for the acquisition of vocational know-how through
what the school can offer pupils. In this way, training seems to emphasise the importance
of a close relationship between a skills-based approach and the use of materials; it also
establishes that the key to the success of these setups is dependent on access to particularly
favourable teaching conditions (Table 8).

Table 8 A good lesson requires a clear explanation of the scientific principle, pupils memorises it and
makes a series of exercises to use the knowledge to be sure they understand the information; practical
activities help to illustrate and explain the lesson
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 5 22 38 69 134

3rd year 8 19 61 93 181
5th year 7 5 32 54 98
Total 20 46 131 216 413

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408 J. S. B. Nze, J. Ginestié

Table 9 The absence of equipment leads teachers in technical and vocational secondary schools to replace
practical classes with theoretical lessons
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 4 13 26 91 134

3rd year 11 17 18 135 181
5th year 3 10 20 65 98
Total 18 40 64 291 413

Without any practical activity, a pupil cannot be actively involved, and therefore is unable to acquire the
practical know-how and therefore cannot hone their skills

For this question, students generally adopt the idea of a traditional dogmatic lesson. 347
out of 413 agree with this (131 agreeing and 216 in absolute agreement). This point of view
is the one they adopted upon arriving at ENSET in their first year, and training will not
really cause that to change. Hence, students seem to have a very traditional view of the job,
which is quite surprising if we consider the nature of technical and vocational teaching.
Indeed, we could expect prospective teachers to favour more dynamic approaches; pro-
jects, use of materials, discovering things (Table 9).
A huge majority of students answer yes to the question about whether the absence of
equipment incites technical and vocational secondary teachers to replace practical classes
with ones of a theoretical nature (355 out of 413, with 164 agreeing and 291 in absolute
agreement). No statistically significant differences arise from these results. Indeed, we can
see the same high level of unanimity for first year students (117 of 134 ‘‘for’’), third years
(153 of 181) and fifth years (85 of 98). Training has absolutely no effect, the idea that
technical or vocational teaching requires lots of equipment is clear to all, even if one in
seven students do not share this view. Equipment and its usage is an attribute for technical
and vocational teaching (Table 10).
The vast majority of students (295 out of 413) agree that using IT simulations is often a
way of making up for the lack of practical tools. More than seven out of every ten students
think this, with a maximum of nearly eight students in ten in fifth year and a minimum of
just under seven out of ten in third year. This item is interesting in this movement, which
seems to show a real interest in simulation at the end of the training programme, and less
interest at the end of the third year. Hence, it seems that in third year, the emphasis on
training to teach in vocational schools heightens students’ interest in using real materials,
but that this interest wanes from the point when teaching in technical schools is targeted.
Moving from CAPCET to CAPLT level could be seen to be placed, on the one hand,
between a « concrete » kind of teaching, closely linked to vocational practices, anchored

Table 10 Using computer simulations is often presented as a means of making up for the lack of equipment
for practical activities
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 9 28 65 32 134

3rd year 16 44 89 32 181
5th year 4 17 52 25 98
Total 29 89 206 89 413

At the same time, such simulations provide a more reliable idea of reality than practical models do, and are
therefore more suitable for learning the required knowledge

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Technical and vocational teaching and training in Gabon 409

Table 11 Large groups of pupils in technical and vocational teaching establishments directly contribute to
the ineffectiveness of the system
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 8 4 47 75 134

3rd year 3 25 44 109 181
5th year 5 20 45 28 98
Total 16 49 136 212 413

in identifiable practical know-how destined for future blue collar workers and employees,
and on the other hand, a more theoretical kind of teaching, based on more established
theoretical knowledge, using the creation of models or structures and simulations from the
point when such teaching is intended for high school pupils planning to move on to further
education. The anachronism of the answers given by third year students is most probably
due to the training course also having students in it who wish to stop studying after the
course ends, in order to become teachers in vocational secondary schools, and students who
will continue until the fifth year in order to become teachers in technical schools
(Table 11).
Part of the reason for technical and vocational teaching being ineffective is down to
pupil groups. The majority of students agree that large amounts of pupils in technical and
vocational schools contribute to the teaching system being ineffective (348 out of 413).
These results highlight a statistically significant difference (p \ .000001) which shows that
training has an influence on students’ points of view. Indeed, the number of students
agreeing on this point is reduced at each of the levels considered. It moves from more than
nine out of ten in first year to just over eight in the third year and just over seven in the fifth
year. These results remain mainly positive, but it seems that as students get nearer to
becoming professional teachers, some of them change their point of view, as though they
are becoming increasingly aware of the academic reality with which they will be faced.

Taking on the role of a technical teacher and vocational training

Finally, five questions aimed to get students’ opinions about taking on the role of a teacher
in technical and vocational training fields, and notably the difference between technical
and general kinds of teaching, distance or off-site teaching and the teacher’s position,
teachers helping in pupils’ choice of studies, other tasks assigned to teachers, disciplinary
and inter-disciplinary matters (Table 12).
On this question of distinguishing between technical and general teaching, to avoid
pupils being confused with regard to theory and practice, concept and know-how,

Table 12 It is natural for a clear distinction between technical and general teaching to be made, so that
pupils are not confused between theory and practice, concept and know-how, knowledge and skills
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 32 38 39 25 134

3rd year 40 72 54 15 181
5th year 30 36 27 5 98
Total 102 146 120 45 413

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410 J. S. B. Nze, J. Ginestié

Table 13 The development of distance learning systems and internet networks will lead to the disap-
pearance of teachers being in a classroom with pupils
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 20 25 38 51 134

3rd year 24 30 60 67 181
5th year 7 11 47 33 98
Total 51 66 145 151 413

Table 14 Teachers are responsible for pupils turning to technical and vocational studies as a result of their
having failed in other disciplines
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 5 9 22 97 133

3rd year 28 3 18 133 182
5th year 2 3 45 48 98
Total 35 15 85 278 413

knowledge and skills or competence, the majority of students (248 out of 413) disagree
with the distinction. These results show a statistically significant difference (p = .01),
highlighting the influence of the training course upon the students’ points of view. These
viewpoints are indeed very split in first year (of the 134 answers obtained, 70 students are
against and 64 for) whereas the number of students « against » increases in third year (112
of 181, or more than 6 out of 10) and also in fifth year (66 out of 98, which is practically
seven out of 10). Hence, the usual distinction made between general and technical teaching
splits into two camps of equal importance for first-year students; this split bears witness to
mixed points of view on this question. However, the training course also seems to allow
students to opt for a closer link between academic disciplines; hence the majority refuse, as
teachers of technically-based disciplines, to be prevented from providing pupils with
theoretical knowledge and ideas, and hence being limited to passing on know-how in
practical activities (Table 13).
The vast majority of students questioned (296 of 413) think that the development of
distance learning or teaching systems and of internet network teaching will lead to teachers
no longer teaching pupils in the classroom. The Khi2 test highlights a statistically sig-
nificant difference (p = .07). Feelings about the possibility of discarding on-site teachers
and substituting them with distance learning systems are voiced by more than six out of ten
students in first year (89 of 134 students agree with this), seven out of ten in third year (127
out of 181) and more than eight out of every ten in fifth year (80 out of 98). Here there is an
effect of training which is quite interesting to analyse. It is as though as students advance in
their university courses, they become less and less convinced of the importance of their
role and of the need to develop teaching where the teacher is present. We should probably
bear these answers in mind in relation to those we have already examined, notably those
regarding material conditions; the question about a practically—based learning which
requires practical activities remains to be asked (Table 14).
On the question of whether or not teachers are responsible for pupils opting for technical
and vocational studies as a result of having failed elsewhere, a large number of students

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Technical and vocational teaching and training in Gabon 411

Table 15 Being a teacher involves doing other things apart from teaching. For example; individual pupil
support and assistance, helping them with personal projects, participation in school matters, civic education
and citizenship
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 55 44 26 9 134

3rd year 85 41 31 24 181
5th year 41 32 16 9 98
Total 181 117 73 42 413

Table 16 The absence of crossover projects between disciplines in technical and vocational secondary
schools does not allow pupils to build coherence between academic subjects, and is therefore an obstacle for
them in building their vocational identity
Strongly disagree Disagree Agree In absolute agreement Total

1st year 33 29 47 25 134

3rd year 15 27 29 110 181
5th year 3 16 23 56 98
Total 51 72 99 191 413

agree (363 out of 413 answers in the affirmative, with 85 agreeing and 278 being in total
agreement). This evolves as a result of the training system, with a statistically significant
difference (p \ .000001). Just under 9 out of every 10 in first year (119 out of 133 students
agree with this statement), just over eight out of ten in third year (151 out of 182 students)
and practically all students in fifth year (93 out of 98). This acceptance of the responsibility
of teachers for what is a major problem in the Gabonese educational system that of
academic failure, is interesting to note. In this respect, students show that they are aware of
their being implicated in this problem. However, with the question shifting back to pupils
choosing technological or vocational studies, the students who were questioned probably
do not feel directly concerned, because they will welcome pupils who have been
prompted by failure in this way. Each student’s personal experience will doubtless have an
influence on their answer to this question, and this probably helps one to understand the
moderate answers they give with regard to the dichotomy between general teaching and
that which is technically or vocationally based. Hence, we are probably seeing the
emergence of a notion of technical and vocational teaching as being something which
allows one to « rescue » pupils who are failing in other areas, i.e. in their general studies
(Table 15).
A large majority, 298 of 413 answers, which equates to practically three quarters of
students, think a teacher’s only job is to teach their discipline. Such unanimity is found at
every level, 99 of 134 students in first year, 126 out of 181 in third year, and 73 out of 98 in
fifth year. This surprising result seems to be a general trend that defines a teacher’s
vocational identity based solely on the transmission of scientific knowledge in suitable
conditions and teaching setups (Table 16).
It is interesting to note that the vast majority of students (290 out of 413) agree that the
absence of projects involving subject crossover in technical and vocational schools does
not allow pupils to build coherence between academic subjects, therefore becoming an
obstacle to their forming of a vocational identity. This majority of seven in every ten

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students is remarkable; given that in the previous question, just as large a number thought
that a teacher’s only duty was to teach their subject. What is more, we can see the effect
that training has upon this question, with a statistically significant difference of
p \ .000001 according to the Khi2 test. Indeed, only just over half of first year students (72
out of 134 students) are of this opinion, compared to less than eight out of ten in third year
(139 out of 181 students) and more than eight out of ten in fifth year (79 of 98). Hence, the
training programme really seems to change students’ opinions so that they become
interested in inter-disciplinary approaches, in order to give meaning to pupils’ different
academic activities.

Conclusion

Our research concerns the building of a vocational identity for prospective teachers in
technological and vocational domains in Gabon. To analyse this process, we looked at a
model based on three levels of expertise—mastering subject knowledge, mastering how to
teach this knowledge, understanding a teacher’s role in the Gabonese education system—
and a description of the criteria for each of them. In this respect, a teacher’s vocational
activity, like any other vocational task, is defined in terms of vocational knowledge, putting
it into action and putting it into real working scenarios or situations allowing the teacher to
act in and upon their academic environment. For a teacher, the vocational knowledge
involved has as much to do with sophisticated epistemologies as it does with actual
decision-making theories. Something which is familiar to almost everyone in society—
everybody went to school, everybody has a child or relative in school—takes nothing away
from the complexity of the interaction involved in this particular job. This familiarity
conditions the ideas that people have about the job of a teacher. ENSET students are even
closer to this, given that they have chosen to become teachers. They probably approach the
teaching job, initially at least, based on their own personal experience, which was most
likely formed as a consequence of their experiences from when they themselves were
pupils. Vocational training given at ENSET should change students’ ideas, with a spon-
taneous idea of a teacher’s job, until the point when they have built their identity as a
competent professional working in a specific milieu. This study, looking at the charac-
terisation of a three-layered level of expertise, allows us to specify some of the terms for
the building of a vocational identity for pupils involved in teacher training; it also tells us
about the training itself, notably in terms of the effects produced, and how they fit into the
expectations of the academic institution and the aspirations of future teachers.
The results on the mastery of subject knowledge highlight the fact that scientific
knowledge is over-valued, with its importance as a reference for technological and
vocational teaching being exaggerated. For these students- and the training course does not
really alter this point of view—technological knowledge springs from scientific knowl-
edge. Therefore, due to the lack of a specific structuring of this point, the training pro-
gramme leaves them to determine what knowledge is necessary to be able to teach, and the
hierarchy upon which it based; their relationships with institutional demands will probably
fluctuate, depending upon the importance attributed to any particular knowledge. The
importance attached to skills and practical know-how, even if it decreases as the training
course continues, highlights a dichotomy in their definition of the knowledge studied in
order to ‘‘learn a job’’ and the necessary savoir faire to ‘‘do this job’’; time spent at school
and in training is not the same as the time spent doing the job. Training could be said to
legitimate a distinction between the way knowledge based on scientific epistemology is

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passed on in academic circles, and how knowledge of jobs using practical activities and
know-how is passed on in vocational setups. This tendency is confirmed by the fact that
studying abroad is deemed extremely attractive. Of course, the lack of opportunities in the
Gabonese university system is a key reason for this, and should not be ignored. However,
even though ENSET students are taking one of the most prestigious courses in the country,
they are still attracted by the possibility of foreign study throughout their schooling. Hence,
the aforementioned dichotomy is confirmed here by students being tempted to study
elsewhere. However, this dichotomy is still strong enough to trouble these students. They
consider these two areas of knowledge in a contradictory way and they are organised into a
hierarchy, rather than being two things that go together. Putting knowledge into a hierarchy
hinders the acquisition of knowledge at university, as prime importance is attributed to
diplomas awarded for studies involving professional work experience. Hence, a good
teacher in technological and vocational domains is one who has good academic qualifi-
cations. In other words, students come to ENSET to train to become teachers in techno-
logical and vocational disciplines, but their expectations come from scientific university
training with this distinct aim in mind. This shows us that coherently linking different
kinds of knowledge in vocational training is not easy, whether it be in terms of hierarchies
to be established, the time they are allocated or how they function in society. This is one of
the key elements to consider in ENSET teacher training, and any changes, notably offering
courses in the LMD structure, has to take all of this into account. It is important for ENSET
to alter the way it is organised in order to give better structure to the acquisition of different
types of knowledge that all prospective teachers will have to master.
Analysis of the responses with regard to being able to teach this knowledge reveals quite
a significant hiatus between what one expects of a teacher in terms of their skills being
effectively passed on in the best possible conditions, and on the other hand, the ideas that
ENSET students have about this. Quite surprisingly, the training programme appears to
strengthen the glorified idea of a technological and vocational teacher as he should perhaps
exist, but which is out of sync with reality. In Gabon, the skills-based approach has
developed greatly in technical and vocational schools, notably for workshop teaching. In
these terms, the vast majority of students agree that this approach requires particular tools,
and that access to them has to be given in the best possible conditions, with one pupil per
computer. This vision does not really correspond to the situation they had as pupils in
Gabon. We also see that the weight of an established academic tradition in the form of
dogmatic group lectures accompanied by practical exercises and workshop tasks is very
apparent to students and that this traditionalist point of view continues, and is even
strengthened, throughout the training course. This second item reinforces the idea of a
teacher training programme that is based on an idealised model for the transmission of
scientific knowledge, but one which is far-removed from reality. Furthermore, ENSET
training being structured over five years does nothing to change students’ ideas about what
technological teaching involves. Our first analysis of the skills approach is backed up by
the majority of students answering that decent equipment is vital for technological and
vocational teaching when we want to allow pupils to acquire skills linked to the job they
are learning to do. The answers highlight the largely shared idea of teaching combining
both theoretical classes and practical classes to go along with them, without the vocational
teacher training course really changing this view. The link to equipment preoccupies
students greatly; they use it as an alibi, means of, objective for, organisational structure….
All students think that the quality of teaching is reduced when there are too many pupils in
classes. Distinguishing between technical and general teaching by opposing theory and
practice, concept and practical know-how, knowledge and skills, adds nuances to answers

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given by students; generally, a slight majority are against this distinction, bit the mixed
views the students have are altered as the training course progresses, towards closer links
between academic disciplines; the majority of students refuse to be deprived of using
theoretical knowledge and concepts, and instead being limited to merely passing on their
know-how in practical activities, when they become teachers. More generally, ideas stu-
dents have about how to teach subject knowledge are vastly restricted by the link to
material conditions in this teaching, whether in terms of the availability of functional and
adapted teaching systems, groups of pupils in a classroom and on a computer, or the
traditional way in which teaching is organised. The construction of vocational identity is
linked to a conception of technological and vocational teachings which could be ‘‘perfect’’
if it were not prevented, that is to say, if gifted pupils were encouraged to study these
domains, if the necessary equipment were available, if teaching conditions were of the
highest possible standard…. Training has an impact upon students’ thoughts about groups,
whether in the classroom or on a computer; it does not really change their consideration of
adapted equipment or how a good lesson should be organised. From a general point of
view, these results on the one hand ask questions about equipment and working conditions
in the academic establishments in question—the budget allocated to technical and voca-
tional high schools is very low, often inferior to that of general teaching establishments—
and on the other hand, it is a matter of thinking about a teacher’s early training in terms of
the needs and constraints for this teaching. This job is the responsibility of the ENSET,
which has to reconsider teacher training in that sense.
The results relating to ideas on their role as a teacher are even clearer cut, remaining
heavily anchored in the single duty of teaching their discipline. A teacher’s vocational
identity—and this is a general trend confirmed by students—is structured purely around the
passing on of scientific knowledge in suitable teaching conditions and with the right
materials. The very existence of the job is scrutinized by the vast majority of students, who
deem distance-learning to be a suitable alternative. The training scheme supports this view
as though, as students progress in their university courses, they were less and less con-
vinced of the importance of their role and of the need to develop on-site teaching. Distance
teaching will apparently solve the problems that on-site teaching is unable to, notably by
heightening the importance of the transmission of subject knowledge to the detriment of all
other practices. They think it is a shame that technical or vocational teaching is considered,
at least in their eyes, to be a system which ‘‘rescues’’ pupils who are failing in other
subjects, i.e. in their general studies. Hence, if they think that teachers play an important
part in academic failure, they dismiss their own responsibility, as proved by comments
such as: ‘‘you have to do a good job with pupils who ended up here because they didn’t
make the grade elsewhere’’. Answers to the question about subject ‘‘crossover’’ highlight
this trend just as much. Interest in this mixture of disciplines is a result of the training
programme, because more and more students are convinced of its merits as they advance in
their courses. Their vocational identity is constructed by distinctions in their personal
experience, their personal beliefs and convictions, and what the training course gives to
them. More generally, the contradiction between what is necessary to provide quality
technological or vocational teaching, and what is wished for, has an important effect upon
their perception of the job.
Every student’s personal appreciation of the importance of each level of knowledge
needed to be a teacher will directly influence the building of this identity. All the answers
obtained to all the questions asked highlight the dynamic of building a vocational identity
for teachers of technological and vocational disciplines, such as it is in the ENSET training
course in Libreville. In this matter, however, we can clearly see that this process leaves

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whole parts of a teacher’s job open to a student’s personal interpretation. This presents a
real problem as soon we admit that a vocational training course, whether for teachers or
other jobs, has several aims for the harmonising of practices. From this point of view,
leaving students to dwell upon the gaps in their vocational merits is like admitting that
there is no chance of piloting a process to change technological and vocational teaching in
the country. Hence, ENSET has to evolve, in order to move towards activities between the
three areas of expertise being more balanced; Most importantly, it has to move away from
a traditional science and technology training course which has never really distinguished
itself from the training course taken by another type of professional; that of engineers.

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