abstract: '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 that allow specific practices and

  descriptors to become dominant. The major methodological approach used

  is a post-structuralist discourse analysis of policy documents,

  government VET reviews and published research into equity groups. It is

  argued that rather than envisaging VET research into disadvantage as a

  repetitious recounting of these groups'' lack of access to vocational

  education and training, other important agendas are being served by the

  continued inquiries into people that experience inequity. The influence

  of long-standing Australian discourses that valorise, mostly male,

  individual responsibility to be a self-regulating citizen who maintains

  ongoing employment ensures that policymakers require updated productive

  expert research into the population to support the specialist discourses

  of disadvantage.'
affiliation: 'Zoellner, D (Corresponding Author), Charles Darwin Univ, Northern Inst,
  Grevillea Dr, Alice Springs, NT 0870, Australia.

  Zoellner, Don, Charles Darwin Univ, Northern Inst, Grevillea Dr, Alice Springs,
  NT 0870, Australia.'
author: Zoellner, Don
author-email: don.zoellner@cdu.edu.au
author_list:
- family: Zoellner
  given: Don
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1080/02680939.2022.2156621
earlyaccessdate: DEC 2022
eissn: 1464-5106
files: []
issn: 0268-0939
journal: JOURNAL OF EDUCATION POLICY
keywords: VET; problematisation; disadvantage; research; discourse analysis
language: English
month: 2022 DEC 10
number-of-cited-references: '61'
orcid-numbers: Zoellner, Don/0000-0001-8065-6728
papis_id: 7ed709c944721ae0a2ce73d96fd41fc1
ref: Zoellner2022fashioninggroups
researcherid-numbers: Zoellner, Don/N-4065-2013
times-cited: '0'
title: 'Fashioning groups that inhabit society''s fringes: the work of Australian
  VET research into disadvantage'
type: Article; Early Access
unique-id: WOS:000896694200001
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '1'
web-of-science-categories: Education \& Educational Research
year: '2022'