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The purpose of this study was to explore whether and how students experience mathematics as an aspect of vocational knowing in the Swedish upper secondary Natural Resource Programme, in the orientation of animal care, and in the vocation. Data for the study comprised teacher's documented planning, student interviews, followed by a validation of the interviews. Data were initially analysed thematically. Thereafter, the themes were analysed with theoretical concepts from the theory of practice architectures (sayings, doings, and relatings), and interpreted in terms of characteristic arrangements (cultural-discursive, material-economic, and social-political). Themes identified in the student interviews were: 1) Vocational knowing in animal caregiving 2) Mathematics as vocational knowing 3) Mathematics as part of vocational language, and 4) Mathematics as a foundation subject. Sayings were also related to doings, because of the accessibility and character of data. It was evident that students recognized mathematics as an aspect of vocational knowing, but there was also a tension between this mathematics and for the school/as a foundation subject. Relatings represented the recurrent contexts of school, animal facilities, workplace learning but also laws and regulations for contemporary animal care. Further analysis was made to historical traces of previous education within the area and to political decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this case study was to investigate what vocational knowing was made available in subject-integrated teaching of four vocational subjects in a Swedish Health and Social Care Program (HSCP). The study was composed of two separate data collections, both ethnographic. The first data collection was performed in autumn 2012 on a theme unit called VIPS, with a group of students (16+), in a Swedish HSCP. Data comprised observations, field notes, and audio recordings of planning and teaching of the theme unit, informal discussions with teachers and students, handouts, a theme booklet, and student assignments. The second data collection was performed during spring 2018 in which life-history interviews focused on documentation were conducted with the teachers involved in the theme unit from 2012. Data comprised audio recordings and time lines. A theoretical framework and analytical work were performed with concepts from Cultural Historical Activity Theory, and from New Literacy Studies. The results indicate that the object in the teaching activity comprised vocational knowing in three areas: psychosis, ethics, and communication, and vocational literacy. Vocational contextualization of teaching was a necessary component that made available vocational knowing that contributed to the students' professional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]