Further education, pedagogy and production

The argument in this chapter is that there is no underlying continuity or causal link between education and production in the sense that educational practices develop skills or attitudes and values that are appropriate to corresponding sectors of the occupational structure. The supposed requirements of the occupational structure do not, therefore, explain developments in education carried out under the rhetoric of ‘the world of work’ or ‘vocational preparation’. I will argue that these things are in fact pragmatic responses to control problems within educational institutions that occur as a result of critical changes in the social compositions of their intakes. Such responses take the form of a differentiation of pedagogies within the affected sites. The chapter will focus upon substantive issues related to ‘vocational preparation’. A parallel will be drawn with social education in the schools at the time of the raising of the school leaving age to sixteen (ROSLA, 1972-3). The underlying macro model of the educational system/occupational structure relationship is that of R. Boudon (1) and the theoretical perspective is that of B. Bernstein’s classification and framing theory of the educational field. (2)