Parents’ Perceptions of Their Children’s Vocational Tracking

Annotation. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the country’s high schools have been divided into two main tracks: the academic track that maintains relatively high academic standard and the vocational track. The aim of the research was to study parents‘ perceptions of the vocational education that their children had received. The most prominent finding was that vocational education is not parents’ first or natural choice but a default option.


Introduction
Many countries currently face economic, social, and political challenges in facing issues such as the swift growth of technology, an ageing society, and a shortage of skilled labor. These challenges are having an impact on the way national vocational education develop, encouraging transformation and adaptation (Pilz et al., 2018).
Most primary school systems in the developed world consist of a preliminary period of exposure to the same curriculum followed by a diversification of curricula into distinct tracks. Tracking starts relatively early, after primary school, with allocation into vocational and academic tracks, often based on previous achievements.
Whereas an academic track is perceived to be prestigious, vocational education has historically been viewed as a mechanism for reinforcing social stratification by directing underrepresented students into pathways with limited educational and economic benefits.
The way parents take influence on the education of their children is a crucial aspect of intergenerational mobility. Like many developed countries, an important decision about which educational track to follow is made at a relatively early stage: after junior high school, at the age of fourteen. The parental background is strongly related to the secondary track choice of the child, and subsequent educational achievements. The connection between parental class and educational choice translates into substantial earnings differentials later in life (Dustmann, 2004). In that matter, vocational development is a process which starts already in childhood and one in which the family plays a particularly important role. Variables such as family structure, roles assumed by each member, relationships between the members, the system of values and attitudes which lie at the basis of behaviours, influence career choice, and development (Palos & Drobot, 2010).
This study aims at revealing whether this common perception toward vocational education still prevails among parents whose children attend vocational schools.

Historical overview
Israel's founders and leaders have always defined equal opportunity as a key ideal that should guide the formulation and implementation of public policy for the education system. Accordingly, successive education ministers have declared it their aim to assure intellectual and cultural equality among all children. In practice, however, the education system in Israel, built atop the Jewish system in pre-statehood Mandate Palestine , is shaped by two contradictory concepts-academic and pragmatic. Historically, the main aim of the former was to produce an educated generation, descendants of the 'people of the book'. The latter, in contrast, saw education for work as its supreme value. Over the years, it became clear that the notion of educating for labour and productivity did not take hold in Israeli culture and did not find its place in the education system. Vocational education is not something that the Israeli family aspires to for its children and is not considered a key component in Israeli society (Reichel, 2008a).
Ever since statehood was attained, high schools have been divided into two main tracks: academic and vocational. The former maintains a high academic standard that forces low-achieving students to discontinue their studies. Many such schools even screen students on the basis of their chances of future success. Students in the academic track have higher status and prestige than those in the vocational track, and most of them pass their matriculation certificate examinations and are admitted to universities and colleges. These high schools are located in reasonably well-to-do, middle-class neighborhoods in which most families, and hence most students, are of Ashkenazi (European-American cultural) origin. Vocational high schools, in contrast, are considered more suitable for students of Sephardi (Asian-African) origin, whose rate of success on matriculation examinations falls far short of that of their counterparts in academic high schools (Yonah & Dahan, 2013, Reichel, 2008a. According to Swirsky (1990), the tracking of students reflects a morally and educationally unjustified social policy of class differentiation. In its early years, Israel's education system was typically segregated geographically, with systematic discrimination among different social groups. This inequality was mirrored in the allocation of material resources, the quality of teaching staff, and even the level of the study materials. Swirsky (1990) believes that vocational studies-from carpentry and welding to data processing and bookkeeping-have no place in a school setting but rather belong to the job market, and their inclusion in the state curricula and offered as the equivalent of academic studies is the most obvious evidence of a class-oriented policy that establishes permanent differentiation among individuals. Yet, vocational education is also considered an extended education; UNESCO 1 and the international community have set the ambitious goal "to ensure that the learning needs of all young people are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programs" (World Forum on Education, Dakar, 2000). The effort to provide basic education and literacy for all children should underpin the economic and social development of countries by ensuring the capacity of people both to learn and provide the foundation for their employability and access to decent work.
Quality vocational education and training help develop the individual's knowledge in a broad occupational area requiring technical and professional competencies and specific occupational skills. National vocational systems, therefore, need to develop the knowledge and skills that should help the workforce become more flexible and responsive to the needs of local labour markets, while competing in the global economy. Some countries have introduced vocational reforms that endeavour to integrate workplace-based learning and training into the vocational education curriculum. Vocational systems, wishing to strive as extended education must also be open and all inclusive to give even the most underprivileged access to learning and training. The opportunity for people in urban and rural communities to equip themselves to lead productive and satisfying lives will undoubtedly be critical to the prosperity and well-being of the community (UNESCO Documentation, Paris, 2001 2 ).

A diachronic view of vocational education in Israel
Israel's education system, shaped by the two aforementioned clashing concepts, the academic and the pragmatic, sought in both cases to create a 'new Jew' who would replace the Diaspora Jew-a modern and secular individual in lieu of a premodern and religious one. The pragmatic view sought to attract the Hebrew-speaking student to labour as an ideal and to inspire him or her to choose productive occupations. In the pre-state era, this view was widely accepted among all Jewish education systems. The concept of productivity, however, was not implemented; it was the academic approach that rose to dominance in the education system. This approach paid mere lip-service to the ideal of labour by including handicraft and agriculture classes in the curricula of schools that remained academic in character.
Shortly before statehood, about one-fifth of all high-schoolers (1,800) studied in a vocational track (Reichel, 2008a). In the 1950s and 1960s, as the country underwent development and modernization, many Sephardi immigrants became first agricultural and then blue-collar workers. In the resulting social tableau, labourers were Israelis Jews from Morocco, Iraq, and Yemen, and not Ashkenazim from Europe as Herzl had envisioned in his Zionist theories.
After the state was declared, it was decided that vocational schools would be set up for these Sephardi boys and girls, whose culture was seen as non-canonical. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, such schools were considered appropriate for the younger generation of the working class, this was justified on the grounds that the country needed skilled workers (Swirsky, 1990). Indeed, in a review of vocational education and its aims in 1951, a committee on the topic concluded that the country should train vocational cadres in accordance with its needs and the learners' preferences. In the committee members' estimation, half of all youngsters finishing elementary school would enroll in a vocational-education setting. In reality, the proportion was much lower. The reasons for the discrepancy, it was explained, were two. First, vocational education did not offer a sufficiently wide range of options and tracks to accommodate the intended enrollees' levels and skills. Second, funding shortfalls led to a lack of suitable equipment and trained teachers. Thus, in 1953 responsibility for vocational schools was transferred to the Ministry of Labour. Ben-Zion Dinur, the Education Minister at that time, took this decision very badly, believing that putting economics above educational considerations was harmful to vocational education and reflected a disdainful attitude toward it (Reichel, 2008b). Either way, the separation of academic and vocational education was now all-encompassing and created a distinction between two types of students: equal and less-equal.
In the mid-1950s, Israel focused on industrialization as mass immigration delivered new human resources and the reparations accord with West Germany provided funding. By the early 1960s, these changes meant that many Sephardi immigrants were placed in industrial plants and vocational education began to expand. The Israeli education system, tasked at the time to create a shared cultural identity for immigrants and nonimmigrants alike, put aside its historic role and did what it thought best for the country (Yonah & Saporta, 2003). According to the resulting education policy, separate study tracks were favored and more vocational schools were built in order to better the circumstances of vulnerable population groups and enable industrialization to accelerate. This dealt a final blow to vulnerable immigrants' chances of successful integration. The policy on vocational education largely matched the basic assumptions of the new national economic-development program. In 1965, the Ministry of Education signed an agreement with two vocational-education networks, Amal and ORT, to boost enrollment-which indeed doubled within five years.
By the 1970s, Israel had large numbers of high-school students enrolled in vocational schools just as such enrollment was declining elsewhere. Not only did vocational education grow, but it also clearly became the standard for Sephardim, obstructing their socioeconomic mobility. By the end of the 1970s, two-thirds of Sephardi youth were attending vocational schools that neither prepared them for matriculation exams nor gave them high-quality vocational training that would lead to further studies in their field (Swirsky, 1990).
So it went until August 1992, when a Ministry of Education panel (the Harari Commission), in its report to Education Minister Shulamit Aloni, proposed a middle track between academic and vocational studies, to be called 'technology education'. The new alignment would greatly broaden the base of scientific and technology education and introduce total flexibility in choosing among courses of study-science subjects for those studying technology and technology subjects for youngsters in academic tracks. When the plan was implemented on the brink of the new millennium, it was decided that all students in the technology track would be allowed to take matriculation exams. An irrelevant subjects of the study were eliminated; others were updated according to developments in academia, science, and industry. The goal of the reform was that technology-track graduates would receive a high-quality science-based education and be able to use it actively (Ministry of Education, Director General's Circular 2004/1a, 'Implementing the Reform in Technology Education throughout the Education System', 01.09.2003).
Today, it may be seen that the reform inflicted damage on, and caused an ongoing decline in the standing of, the vocational schools, which remain under the auspices of the Ministry of Labor. Falling enrollment, sharp cuts in funding per student, lack of technologically skilled teachers, and very low rates of matriculation-certificate eligibility (Reichel,2008) have raised the question of where vocational education is heading (Zusman & Tzur, 2010). Despite recent attempts in the media to promote vocational education and efforts of ministers of education to leverage it, it may be stated conclusively that vocational education in Israel remains sectorial, limited in its curricula, and widely considered a tool for harmful and intentional tracking of students at a critical stage in their personality and coping-skills development. Adolescence is a period in which students consolidate their personal identity. The very fact of being tracked steers these students toward poor self-image and difficulty in attaining upward mobility from the low sense of status that is theirs (Yonah & Dahan, 2014).

Parent-school relations
A school is a complex organizational system consisting of the institution itself and its surrounding community. The community is an important social setting from which students draw their values, norms, knowledge, and cultural patterns of behaviour. Within the community lies the family, which has a tremendous influence on the student. Among other things, it is via the family's socioeconomic situation that students derive opportunities and motivation (Friedman, 2011). The parent-school connection is a cornerstone of children's development, functioning, achievements, and mental wellbeing (Katznelson, 2014).
In its Director General's Circular 2002Circular /4 (2001, the Ministry of Education states: 'Parents are responsible for their children's education and have a right and a duty to be part of the educational process taking place at school and outside it that affects their child's life as well.' Parents of children with special needs must also, by law, be present at meetings where their child's personal program is determined (Manor-Binyamini, 2004).
Parents' identification with the school is expressed in three main elements: the importance of studies-the role of the school in enabling youngsters to acquire education and knowledge, equal opportunities in life, high achievements and intelligence; the school's pedagogical quality as a means to higher education-the quality of the subject and homeroom teachers' professionalism; and the importance of the school's contribution to students' wellbeing-as a pleasant place to be, based on mutual respect (Friedman, 2011). In Israel's education system, however-a highly centralized setup that is insensitive to particular needs of individuals and population groups-parents are unable to feel that they are real partners who have any influence to speak of. This centralized system affects the nature of relations between parents and schools, even though parental involvement has been found to have a positive influence on academic achievement, as has the impact of high academic achievement on parents' desire to be involved and active in school (Chen, 1994;Friedman, 2011).
The school-parent nexus may manifest at different levels. At its most basic, it focuses on routine communication about the child's progress, regular attendance, successes, and difficulties. At a more complex level, the school develops programs designed to navigate and influence its interrelations with the community (Friedman, 2011). At the midst of the 20th century in Israel, parents were almost completely excluded from the education system. They trusted the school to teach their children and shape their behaviour and their only contact with teachers concerned matters of discipline. The 1970s saw the start of some compartmentalized contact between the family and the education system and the 1980s saw a meaningful change with the establishment of community schools and a broader choice of elective schools. Parental involvement in the education system became something that could be discussed. In the mid-1990s, the concept of 'parental sharing' became more frequently heard. Since then, parental involvement has been considered an educational value (Friedman, 2011;Katznelson, 2014). The factors behind this growing parental involvement, which is evident throughout the West, include rising levels of parental education, increased democratisation, the plethora of educational settings, competitiveness among such settings, and students' criticism Moreover, a distinction is made between two precipitants of parental involvement Cheung, & Pomerantz, 2012;Friedman, 2011): identification and alertness-parents' identification with the aims of education and alertness to what goes on in school. The more parents identify with the school's aims and the values it imparts to its students, the more involved they become. For example, at an elective school and in a program of studies that they have chosen for their child, parents exhibit greater involvement both in curricula and in participation in school activities. They also identify more strongly with anything that has to do with discipline and teaching quality. Furthermore, parents identify with schools that encourage involvement by having an 'open door' policy that assumes that most educational processes take place outside the school, i.e., in the family setting-entailing close ties between the school and the student's environment (Friedman, 2011). Respectful treatment of parents leads the latter to want to be involved in everything to do with their child's education.
Despite recent attempts in the media to promote vocational education and efforts of ministers of education to leverage it the problem of the problem of vocational education in Israel remains sectorial, limited in its curricula, and widely considered a tool for harmful and intentional tracking of students at a critical stage in their personality and coping-skills development.
The aim of this study has been to examine the perceptions of parents whose children attend vocational schools regarding vocational education in Israel.
The research question: How do parents perceive vocational education in Israel in respect of their children's present and future?

Methods
The study is based on a qualitative paradigm of data collection and analysis. This paradigm yields a profound and comprehensive description of the phenomenon in question and allows it to be understood in all its complexity and in the context in which it takes place (Stake, 2005), based on respondents' perceptions and how they interpret their experiences (Patton, 2002).
Semi-structured in-depth interviews (guided and focused) were used. Such interviews allow much flexibility and leave ample room for spontaneous interaction coupled with a clear definition of the main issues that the interview should cover (Patton, 2002).
The interview findings were subjected to a content analysis in which prominent, important, interesting, and recurrent components of the data gathered were sought. These components, constructed from within the data (i.e., emic), were defined as categories of analysis. The data analysis in this study was based on units of statements from the analysed content (Sabar, & Sabar Ben-Yehoshua, 2017), on which triangulation was used to maintain research reliability.

Research population
Forty-two parents of children enrolled in vocational schools around the country were interviewed. The parents were 39-55 years old. Most were of average socioeconomic background and lived in central and southern Israel.

Ethics
Informed consent -The participants agreed to participate in this study after receiving the relevant information regarding the subject of the study.
Privacy and anonymity -It was emphasized that all information provided will remain anonymous and confidential. Names, both of people and of organizations, are not exposed.

Parents' opinions about ensuring their children's future
A decisive majority of parents (35 out of 42 respondents-83 percent) see the vocational school as a player that should ensure their children's future by equipping them with an occupation: 'The vocational track offers children a framework of educational study where they acquire an occupation effectively and relatively easily. It creates equal opportunity for success according to their level of ability and to integrate without unnecessary frustrations […].' The youngsters' scholastic success in the vocational setting is emphasised very emphatically: 'Children with difficulties, instead of insisting on matriculation, you can teach them an occupation, better than being frustrated and nothing will come of them.' The vocational school is also seen as an alternative to the academic track that the students had quit: 'Teachers in an academic [school] quickly give up and in the vocational [school] they give a chance.' 'There are many children who didn't do well in the conventional system and this let them get to twelfth grade. They do everything so that the students won't drop out, they keep you in the system'.

Parents' opinions about their children's vocational teachers
Thirty-two out of the forty-two parents (76 percent) are satisfied with the vocational teachers.

Figure 1 Parental Satisfaction With the Teachers of the Vocational Track
Representative statements: 'The classes are small, the teachers know every child and even the families, they work with all their heart'. 'There is special attention to the soul of each child'. 'All [the teachers] are pure souls who are willing to work in a school like that; its devotion, the teachers have patience and give so much'.
Ten parents harshly criticized the quality of the teachers: 'At the vocational schools the teachers aren't on a high level. It's not fair; they seem to treat these children dismissively. These are the ones who need smart, intelligent teachers who speak the right language'. 'The teachers are very willing but of a low level'. 'The teachers usually don't have enough knowledge, they don't use new and different methods, and most of them are very old'. 'Vocational education in high school is a waste of time. The child can decide what he wants to learn after he finishes army service. They don't teach anything'. Parents' positive opinions are linked to the teachers' emotional level; their criticism relates mainly to their professional level.

Is vocational school parents' first and natural choice?
When asked whether vocational school was their first and natural choice, only nine of the forty-two respondents said that vocational school had been indeed their first and natural choice for their children.

Figure 2 Parental Choice of the Vocational Track
Most respondents (33) admitted that their choice of the vocational track was a secondary choice. Only two respondents considered it the proper and best choice from the start, i.e., tracing not to a prior experience of failure but to thinking ahead about the future: 'Yes, not all children are suited to academic studies. This school allows them to integrate and without doubt, has become a good springboard for the future'. 'Yes, choosing a better future for my son'. 'I got to this school after my son chose to go to a military school'.
In contrast, most respondents admitted that their choice was a default, brought on by a mismatch between their child and the academic track. For example: 'No, before that he studied in an academic track; he didn't do so well and they recommended this school'. 'My son has ADD and I didn't think it was right to steer him toward a school geared mainly to matriculation; he would have gotten lost and the vocational school offers options'.
The overwhelming majority of parents wanted to avoid sending their children to a vocational school because of the stigma it carries: 'I didn't choose a vocational school mainly because of the stigma, even though I saw that it was hard for him and for us. I fought for him to stay [in the academic track] because of what people would say and think of him [if he switched]'. 'At first, I fought hard. I argued with everyone that my son lacked confidence, they ruined him in the academic school, but my husband and I wouldn't let him go to a vocational school, the school has a bad name'; 'Even the children think that anyone who studies there is stupid'. 'I hid from my family that my daughter was in a vocational track so she wouldn't be seen as stupid'.

Parents' opinions about discipline issues in vocational schools
Most parents (thirty out of forty-two) mentioned acute discipline problems at the vocational school, mainly in comparison with an academic school: 'That's how it is when most of the children are problematic and have been sent away mainly because of behavioral issues'. 'You need military discipline here'. 'Sometimes the attitude of the vocational teacher is rather scornful; my son often encountered this kind of attitude'.
Relatively few parents (28 percent) claimed that there was proper discipline at the school: 'There's discipline and respect at the school'. 'Problems? Not that I know of'. 'The student population is tougher here but there's still order and discipline'.

Discussion & Conclusions
Education is a basic human right. The state is duty-bound to provide everyone with the cultural resources that will enable them to participate fully as citizens in political, cultural, and social life. In Israel, throughout its existence, the educational ideology of the pioneering Labour Movement, which stressed the values of 'education for labour' and 'Jewish labour', has served as the cornerstone of Jewish education in terms of its declarative, overt aims. Concurrently, the vociferous debate about the option of screening students into either academic or vocational tracks, dealing a substantial blow to the values of equality and social justice, remains unresolved.
The parents' perceptions of the vocational teachers reveal a dual attitude. They commend them for their warm and inclusive attitude towards the students but criticize their professional skills, which they deem to be significantly below par. It is also obvious that the parents are grateful for how the teachers cope emotionally with their children but are perceptibly dissatisfied with their quality as teachers. Pedagogical quality is one of the principles of parents' identification and cooperation with an educational setting (Friedman, 2011;Walker et al., 2018). It is possible that the respondents' disdain for the teachers' pedagogical level prompts them to treat the vocational school as an alternative place of study, a necessary evil, without cooperating and taking any real part in the education process that it accommodates. The parents hand most responsibility for education over to the vocational school but limit their satisfaction to the treatment their children receive.
The literature confirms that the average level of education and professionalism of teachers in Israel's vocational and low-prestige schools falls short of that of counterparts in academic schools (Swirsky, 1990). Some believe that teachers in vocational schools can get by with less effort (Oakes, 2005). If we add the self-image of students who are obliged to attend less well-thought-of settings, we can also explain the development of acute discipline problems.
It seems that the parents relate mainly to their children's near future and, at present, are in fact happy about the help that vocational education provides in keeping their children from dropping out of the education system.
In the interviews, only nine parents defined vocational education as their natural first choice. For most, it was a default option. Reichel (2008b) claims that today there is no alternative to academic education and that the parents have internalized this mindset. By implication, parents consider vocational education as fit for students who drop out of 'real' educational settings, i.e., academic ones, making it home to a population of youngsters who have problems with discipline, respect, and rules of behaviour.
Hence the parents in this study see the vocational school as a default rather than an option to choose proactively. By inference, they maintain the negative perception of vocational education in its current form. This is because students in vocational education are usually denied an opportunity to study core subjects at advanced levels. Consequently, their success rate on matriculation exams is much lower than that among graduates of academic schools (Cohen et al., 2013).
A survey conducted by Zusman and Tzur (2010) about the contribution of secondary vocational studies to labour-force integration, as opposed to the ability of academic studies to impart education and success in the job market, reveals that the achievements of graduates of vocational education are much lower than those in academic education. That is, youngsters who attend vocational schools eventually learn less, practice less prestigious occupations, and are paid less.
It has been argued that a vocational diploma in the hand is better than a matriculation certificate in the bush. This perception is highly anachronistic and seems to concur with the claims of Israeli governments in the 1950s, which saw vocational schooling as a tool with which to improve education for productivity, a means of achieving social and educational goals, and possibly a way to keep youngsters from dropping out altogether (Swirsky, 1990;Reichel, 2008). However, a productive job was not then, nor is it now, what Israeli parents desired for their children, and education for work does not play a key role in Israeli society (Reichel, 2008).
According to Swirsky (1990), most vocational schools do not provide high-school education in its fullest meaning; instead, they offer a 'way-station' setting that society intends for its blue-collar workers. Many subjects taught in these schools no longer meet the needs of industry or are the sort that can be learned quickly (Dai & Fan, 2012;Reichel, 2008). Today, vocational education is seen in educational philosophy and academic research as catering to the unique interests and needs of a group of children from weak population groups. It is believed in these circles that vocational education ignores the children's wishes and enlists them in the service of national needs that will, in the end, harm the students themselves (Saporta & Yonah, 2002;Vargan, 2008).
Resource allocation in terms of budget and quality of staff is found to discriminate against students in vocational tracks (Oakes 2005;Ozer1 & Perc, 2020). In the interviews, this is reflected in parents' dismissal of vocational education as the first and most obvious choice for their children. They do not see it as a path that will ensure their children's future and offer them equal opportunity. They also feel the burden of the stigma of having a child in vocational school.
As for the implications of this study, additional research questions and in-depth treatment of the issue surrounding vocational education in respect of parents' perceptions are needed. The effect of gender may also be studied, as may differences between parents who attended vocational schools and those who graduated from academic schools. Another possibility is a narrative study among school counsellors and homeroom teachers at academic schools regarding students who are referred to vocational education and their families, and the impact of such referral on the students' self-image. All such lines of inquiry would be helpful in making vocational education an equal alternative to academic education.
Academic education is still perceived, to a great extent, as embodying the greatest promise of Israeli society-an education that allows young people to join the modern world and bridge gaps (Swirsky, 1990). Even so, the perception of vocational education may be improved by resolving the following tough issues: (a) Students in vocational education are denied the opportunity to study core subjects at advanced levels and are hurt by the schools' poor quality and limited curricula (Cohen et al., 2013). (b) Rates of success on matriculation exams are significantly lower among vocational-school graduates than among academic-school peers (Swirsky, 1990;Reichel, 2008). (c) Vocational schools still retain the stigma of being 'way-stations' for society's future blue-collar workers (Swirsky, 1990). (d) Scholastically weak students who attend vocational schools are at high risk of developing low self-image and self-confidence, dysfunction, and even delinquency (Hershkowitz, 2012). The parents interviewed in this study seem to be aware of these serious problems, although some of their responses appear to rationalize the choice that they made.
Although the relatively small number of participants in this study limits the conclusions that may be drawn from it, the findings are in line with voices calling for reforms in the various settings of vocational education. Hence, we recommend future research that will increase the sample size by means of the quantitative methodology using close-ended questionnaires.
Nevertheless, the foregoing findings yield several operative recommendations. Vocational-education settings should be based on a larger number of years of study. They should be expanded and the level of education that they offer should be raised. The tools they provide should suffice for employment mobility and the ability to adjust to the changing demands and needs of the labour market. Employers and unions should get involved in vocational education under strictly supervised conditions so that the system will meet present and future market needs while preventing the training of cheap and available workers to suit employers' exigencies.
Vocational education has historically been viewed as a mechanism for reinforcing social stratification by allocating frail students into pathways with limited educational and economic benefits. However, vocational education should evolve over time, and the move toward career and technical education.