Don Zoellner
Biographic Data
| ID | 154401 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Don Zoellner |
| GIVEN NAMES | Don |
| FAMILY NAME | Zoellner |
| SIGNATURE | ZOELLNER D |
| AFFILIATIONS | Charles Darwin University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8065-6728 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 8 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Exploring the logics of governing Australian VET markets
Responding to expert observers’ reports of the historically low priority given to theory-informed vocational education and training (VET) policymaking, this article seeks to expand the sector’s research repertory by conducting a discourse analysis of Australia’s tripartite VET governance arrangements. Seeking an unconventional understanding of trilateral governance, the meta-theoretical institutional logics perspective is described along with its…
Applying discourse analysis to Australian national VET policy
VET researchers and policy-makers have historically displayed a keen interest in the future. Two assumptions link VET to the future. The first is that there is a singular object called VET and, secondly, that it can influence a forthcoming state of reality. This relationship is investigated through a rarely utilised post-structuralist discourse analysis of Australia’s development of national vocational education and training policies. The perform…
Theorising the status of VET from the institutional logics perspective
This article explores the historically contingent and normative descriptions of vocational education and training (VET) as a low-status alternative in Australia's socio-economic process of skill and knowledge development. Rather than repeating well-rehearsed shibboleths, this retheorisation of how status works applies an institutional logics perspective as a novel addition to existing research in the sector. Historical reports and contemporary di…
Fashioning groups that inhabit society’s fringes
Describing various demographic characteristics of disadvantaged students, the programs they study and their employment outcomes is a significant area of research interest in the vocational education and training (VET) sector. This article offers a preliminary exploration of how groups are problematised and the consequent influence on VET research into disadvantage in Australia. Creating categories provides the historical and political contexts th…
The results of asking a deceptively simple question
Assuming Australian training markets represent successful policy implementation facilitates an exploration of the implications for their future evolution by querying what is sold in these markets. A Foucauldian discourse analysis of relevant documentation suggests that training markets overwhelmingly provide products and/or services. Further examination finds that these two are conceptually confused as is the contention of a single national vocat…
VET market prognostications two decades later
Publishing the results of thoughtfully designed research projects allows contemporary investigators to revisit the findings years later. The willingness of academics to make specific predictions about the impact of introducing user-choice principles into a state vocational education and training market has enabled comparisons to be drawn using extensive statistical collections. These data sets do not cover each of the forecasts; for example, empl…
Institutional logics
In a number of advanced market democracies the role of public technical and vocational education and training institutions has been called into question. This is one result of a singular dominant public policy discourse favouring the provision of public services through contracting out in competitive markets. With the limitations of this default policy setting becoming increasingly apparent there is an opportunity to identify a new narrative to f…
Mission-Driven Adaptability in a Changing National Training System
This case study of an adult and community education provider based in far north Queensland describes its capacity to balance various iterations of public policy against its vision for the future of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders. Community-controlled organisations wanting to contribute to economic and social development in regional/remote Australia through the use of formally recognised vocational education and training have adjusted to …
Mission-Driven Adaptability in a Changing National Training System
This case study of an adult and community education provider based in far north Queensland describes its capacity to balance various iterations of public policy against its vision for the future of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders. Community-controlled organisations wanting to contribute to economic and social development in regional/remote Australia through the use of formally recognised vocational education and training have adjusted to …
Mission-Driven Adaptability in a Changing National Training System
This case study of an adult and community education provider based in far north Queensland describes its capacity to balance various iterations of public policy against its vision for the future of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders. Community-controlled organisations wanting to contribute to economic and social development in regional/remote Australia through the use of formally recognised vocational education and training have adjusted to …
Institutional logics
In a number of advanced market democracies the role of public technical and vocational education and training institutions has been called into question. This is one result of a singular dominant public policy discourse favouring the provision of public services through contracting out in competitive markets. With the limitations of this default policy setting becoming increasingly apparent there is an opportunity to identify a new narrative to f…
VET market prognostications two decades later
Publishing the results of thoughtfully designed research projects allows contemporary investigators to revisit the findings years later. The willingness of academics to make specific predictions about the impact of introducing user-choice principles into a state vocational education and training market has enabled comparisons to be drawn using extensive statistical collections. These data sets do not cover each of the forecasts; for example, empl…
The results of asking a deceptively simple question
Assuming Australian training markets represent successful policy implementation facilitates an exploration of the implications for their future evolution by querying what is sold in these markets. A Foucauldian discourse analysis of relevant documentation suggests that training markets overwhelmingly provide products and/or services. Further examination finds that these two are conceptually confused as is the contention of a single national vocat…
Applying discourse analysis to Australian national VET policy
VET researchers and policy-makers have historically displayed a keen interest in the future. Two assumptions link VET to the future. The first is that there is a singular object called VET and, secondly, that it can influence a forthcoming state of reality. This relationship is investigated through a rarely utilised post-structuralist discourse analysis of Australia’s development of national vocational education and training policies. The perform…
Theorising the status of VET from the institutional logics perspective
This article explores the historically contingent and normative descriptions of vocational education and training (VET) as a low-status alternative in Australia's socio-economic process of skill and knowledge development. Rather than repeating well-rehearsed shibboleths, this retheorisation of how status works applies an institutional logics perspective as a novel addition to existing research in the sector. Historical reports and contemporary di…
Fashioning groups that inhabit society’s fringes
Describing various demographic characteristics of disadvantaged students, the programs they study and their employment outcomes is a significant area of research interest in the vocational education and training (VET) sector. This article offers a preliminary exploration of how groups are problematised and the consequent influence on VET research into disadvantage in Australia. Creating categories provides the historical and political contexts th…
Exploring the logics of governing Australian VET markets
Responding to expert observers’ reports of the historically low priority given to theory-informed vocational education and training (VET) policymaking, this article seeks to expand the sector’s research repertory by conducting a discourse analysis of Australia’s tripartite VET governance arrangements. Seeking an unconventional understanding of trilateral governance, the meta-theoretical institutional logics perspective is described along with its…
Education Systems and Policy (6 works) · Pedagogy (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Public relations (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Vocational education (5 works) · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics (5 works) · Economics (4 works) · Economic growth (3 works) · Epistemology (3 works)