From vocational aspiration to institutional embodiment: School-level impediments and framework recommendations for Adventist secondary schools in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Vocational education is increasingly recognized as essential for preparing learners with practical, entrepreneurial, and life-oriented competencies. In Zimbabwe, competence-based curriculum reforms and international TVET policy frameworks emphasize skills development, employability, and inclusive participation. Within Seventh-day Adventist education, vocational education is also consistent with the holistic formation of the head, heart, and hand. Despite receiving philosophical and policy support, Adventist secondary schools implement vocational education unevenly. Guided by institutional theory, this study examined school-level impediments constraining vocational education implementation in Seventh-day Adventist secondary schools under the Zimbabwe East Union Conference and developed a framework for strengthening practice. The study adopted a sequential mixed-methods design. Six schools were purposively selected for qualitative exploration through interviews and focus group discussions, followed by a cross-sectional survey of 485 respondents comprising 382 students, 79 teachers, and 24 administrators drawn from ten schools. A purposive expert panel of ten members participated in a four-round Delphi validation process, and a limited pilot was conducted in two schools over one school term. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically, while quantitative data were analyzed using frequencies, percentages, means, and comparative gap analysis. Findings revealed seven interrelated impediments: attitudinal hierarchy, inadequate resources and infrastructure, timetable and curriculum overload, teacher capacity gaps, regulatory and certification barriers, weak career guidance, and gender stereotyping. The study found a substantial aspiration–implementation gap: stakeholders valued vocational education strongly, but institutional conditions for meaningful delivery were weak. The article recommends an implementation framework anchored in leadership mandate, teacher development, infrastructure mobilizations, timetable integration, attitude transformation, partnerships, certification, entrepreneurship, and monitoring. It concludes that vocational education must move from symbolic endorsement to institutional embodiment if Adventist secondary schools are to deliver holistic, equitable, and practically relevant education.