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This article illustrates how the generic employability skills approach to critical thinking suffers from serious conceptual and epistemological difficulties that impact deleteriously on both its practical effectiveness and democratic appropriateness. Unlike technical skills, employability skills, in this case cognitive capacities such as critical thinking and problem solving, are traditionally presented as not job specific, and are intended to remain broadly applicable across a variety of occupations and professions. The emphasis that career education places on technical rationality in critical thinking violates principles of democratic learning by disregarding the historical context of vocational experience. Within career education, critical thinking conceived as technical rationality refers to means/end reasoning that pursues human capital and business objectives with the maximum possible effectiveness. This article proposes that a more effective, politically empowering, and epistemically coherent approach to critical thinking promotes student understanding of the various forces shaping contemporary vocational experience. Finally, this article proposes a revised critical thinking construct based on foundational rationality to remedy these problems, and offers examples of concrete classroom strategies, such as praxis, problem-posing education and collaborative learning, that protect democratic learning in career education programs.

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The historical development of vocational education in the 20th century reveals two distinctive visions on its role in preparing students for occupational and social life. Concerned with the present popularity of instrumental skills curricula in vocational education, this paper proposes an alternative approach that protects democratic ideals while still preparing students for future career challenges. It argues that a morally-appropriate model for vocational education is found within the comprehensive democratic approach developed by Dewey (1916), rather than through narrowly conceived skills-based programs.

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Career education in its various forms assumes an increasingly influential role in preparing students for the insecurities of the rapidly changing and unstable working environment within industrialized democracies. This article reviews a number of initiatives within Australia’s career education framework to explore their consistency with the key principles of democratic learning (PDL). An alternative vision for career education that promotes more democratic forms of learning to foster student political agency in shaping their future vocational conditions is suggested. The authors argue that although some Australian curricular initiatives recognize the democratic right of students in shaping labour market condition, most policies and programs violate the PDL discussed.

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This article applies a democratic learning conceptual framework to an analysis of the Ontario (Canada) Guidance and Career Education program. Although the program respects some principles of democratic learning, it fails to explicitly recognise the distinction between social and natural reality. As a result, student agency and democratic engagement is undermined by presenting prevailing structural conditions in an ahistorical manner. The authors recommend concreate classroom strategies to overcome this deficit and strengthen democratic learning practices in career education.

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