The silent frontier: vocational education and its marginalization in the sociology of education

Purpose This conceptual paper examines why vocational education and training (VET/TVET) remains marginal within the sociology of education (SoE) despite its central role in contemporary education systems and youth transitions. It identifies epistemological, institutional and methodological blind spots and proposes a cultural–organizational framework as a conceptual language that allows the study of any kind of education by engaging with actors' meanings as well as institutional arrangements. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on an analytical literature review and discussion of sociological, TVET and youth studies scholarship. It sides with recent suggestions made in SoE to move beyond the focus on an individual and to take institutions into account. It proposes using Amy Binder's cultural–organizational approach as a lens to reconceptualise TVET as a site of identity formation rather than merely technical skills provision. Findings The paper identifies three interlinked mechanisms of marginalisation: (1) a historically entrenched focus on academic schooling and higher (also academic) education at the heart of SoE; (2) the dominance of inequality research that surprisingly treats TVET mainly as a residual track for the disadvantaged and (3) epistemological hierarchies that privilege abstract, academic knowledge over vocational and practice-based epistemologies. It argues that TVET is better understood as a culturally and organizationally embedded institutional field that produces subjects, aspirations and social boundaries and outlines how a cultural–organizational approach can be extended from universities to vocational institutions. Research limitations/implications As a conceptual paper, the article does not present original empirical data and is limited by the scope of selected literature. It outlines a research agenda for the SoE that would allow inclusion of the sociology of TVET into general discussions structuring the field. Social implications The neglect of TVET in the SoE reinforces the devaluation of working-class knowledge, practices and skills and obscures how vocational tracks structure life chances, identities, aspirations and social mobility within the system. Integrating the sociology of vocational education into general SoE supports more equitable recognition of diverse educational trajectories and informs policies that address classed, gendered and racialised inequalities within and through TVET systems. Originality/value The paper offers a conceptual intervention that highlights TVET as a silent frontier in the SoE. By suggesting a cultural–organizational approach as a common conceptual vocabulary, it shows directions of development both for SoE as a whole and sociology of vocational education in particular, thereby broadening the conceptual repertoire of the field.