A content-theoretical model of educational change : the case of the new vocationalism

• Main Author: Hodgkinson, Peter John
• Published: University College London (University of London) 1990
• Subjects: 370.1; Humanities and Social Sciences
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.536495

This thesis is concerned with theorising educational change. This involves the identification of a distinct theoretical object; the conceptualisation of a dynamic of educational change and the delimitation of the fundamental units of analysis. Together, these provide the basis for the development in Part One of the thesis of a content-theoretical model. Working within a Marxist Reproduction problematic, power and domination are theorised in terms of Social Forms - wage, state and civil-forms - which are the product of the social relations of production within the Capitalist Mode of Production. The education system is taken to be the most public and formal site of their reproduction. Since social forms are a feature of the social structure, including the education system, a 'translation effect' can be identified between different levels of analysis. This approach therefore entails recognition of the fact that reproduction is contested and has a political aspect. The object of analysis has been to reveal this political aspect by delineating the relationship between the economic and the political ( the wage and state-forms), thereby demonstrating how 'the political' makes possible the reproductive role of the education system. In Part Two of the thesis, this content-theoretical model is employed in an analysis of the introduction of the 'new vocationalism' into Further Education. Focussing upon the FE teachers' trade union organisation NATFHE, this analysis reveals that, faced with the introduction of the new vocationalism in the shape of the Youth Training Scheme, a 'strategy of opportunism' has been the dominant logic informing their collective action. Such a strategy is shown to contribute to the proletarianisation of FE teachers, thereby rendering their opposition to the new vocationalism ineffective.