In STC reforms, unlike other school reform proposals, work and occupations take center stage. In some cases, the occupational area defines course or program content as, for example, in apprenticeship programs, which prepare students for work in a particular industry. In other cases, the occupational area provides a focused context for learning--a source of meaningful examples which illustrate the application of knowledge in use--as in many career academies. In both cases, teachers require knowledge of the occupational area in addition to knowledge of their discipline.
Academic teacher training, however, typically follows a baccalaureate model, which emphasizes subject-matter preparation with the addition of courses in traditional teaching methods. Once in school, teachers are often assigned to subject-specific departments, an organizational structure which can hamper interdisciplinary collaboration. A century of tradition separates academic from vocational teachers and students in most comprehensive high schools. Staff development programs are few, of short duration, and do not normally give teachers the opportunity to come in contact with the world of work outside the schoolhouse (AFT, 1997; Stasz et al., 1992).
A core idea behind the mini-sabbatical is that teachers need deeper knowledge of work and work practice to make use of the occupation or industry as a context for (or sometimes object of) learning. The challenge is to develop a way for teachers to acquire the knowledge they need--short of becoming working practitioners in the occupation.
Thus, we designed the mini-sabbatical to link teacher participants with workplaces and workers as sources of knowledge about real-world work contexts. Teachers visited workplaces with the goal of understanding work so they could identify contexts where generic skills and subject-matter knowledge are required and used. This understanding forms the basis for their curriculum design. Even if teachers continue to make use of traditional teaching methods, the content of instruction will be more authentic if they learn how to assess and make use of nontraditional sources, such as the workplace, to inform and supplement curricula and teaching in classrooms.