ABSTRACT
The balance between liberal and vocational education within tourism and hospitality (T&H) curricula has become an increasingly noteworthy topic of discussion since Tribe (2002a), drawing from Schön’s reflective practitioner (1982, 1983; Schön & Rein, 1994), argued for a curriculum that nurtures the ‘philosophic practitioner’. The philosophic practitioner education (PPE) requires a curriculum that is composed of vocational, professional, social science and humanities
knowledge and skills that promote a balance between satisfying the demands of business and those required to operate within the wider tourism world. Several authors have been calling for this balance in education for some time (e.g. see Baum, 2005; Inui & Lankford, 2006; Lashley, 1999; McKercher, 2002), but there remain considerable challenges in terms of defining programme content, modes of delivery, appropriate pedagogies, skills and graduate capabilities (Tribe 2000). These challenges are derived from a range of internal and external factors that shape the possibilities of delivering the PPE at different institutions. This chapter argues that a more nuanced conceptualization of the PPE is required that acknowledges core principles (e.g. critical management skills and developing student reflexivity), but that also allows flexibility in the way PPE is defined and delivered at different institutions. The intention is to advance the PPE and to make it relevant to different cultural, political and educational contexts.
