Expanding learner readiness of young Swedish security officers-to-be in upper secondary school

Abstract

Acquiring the conceptual and contextualised vocational knowing of surveillance law that security officers require may pose difficulties for young students due to their inexperience. This article reports research on the learner readiness of 16- to 20-year-old security officers-to-be in Swedish upper secondary vocational education and training with respect to this law. The following research questions are addressed. What surveillance law is experientially emergent for upper secondary students through vocational instruction to become security officers? How is learner readiness with respect to surveillance law expressed in the students’ feedback-making during instruction to become security officers? The analysis is based on participant observations and focus group interviews with 34 students. The main finding is that the students expand their learner readiness with respect to surveillance law as they develop a novel appreciation of surveillance law as a field of interconnected meanings. Students’ knowing of surveillance law emerges through a constant interplay of four processes: addressing a commonsensical sense of justice, formulating action plans, exercising the freedom to abstain from action, and applying for legal protection. Students expand their learner readiness with respect to surveillance law as awareness of: the need to handle personal empowerment appropriately, occupational boundaries, and laws as grids for particular actions.