The 'Empowerment' Dimension in the GNVQ: A Critical Exploration of Discourse, Pedagogic Apparatus and School Implementation

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Abstract
This article explores the new British vocational qualification, the GNVQ, focusing particularly on its emphasis on learner empowerment and transferring responsibility for learning to students. It examines the discourse of empowerment and the pedagogic principles involved, together with the homologous relationship which can be discerned between GNVQ classroom pedagogy and recent approaches to managing employment relations. In both classroom and employment settings the article notes potential contradictions between the emphasis on developing individual autonomy and empowerment and the underpinning grids of accountability and control. The article then examines some data from a school where the GNVQ was in the early stages of implementation. The data suggest how the contradictions in the pedagogy may be sharpened and exposed when the model is introduced in a situation where there is at times a substantial degree of mismatch, if not conflict, between teacher and pupil objectives. The overall aim of the article is tentative and exploratory. The purpose is to delve deeper into the complex issues surrounding classroom-level empowerment'.The article does not support an argument that the GNVQ is inherently disempowering', nor devoid of empowering' potential. It does lend support to the view that such claims need more scrutiny, definition of terms and more empirically-based evaluation than has so far taken place.

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