Pathways and Curricula: Its Distribution of Power.

Paper presented at the AARE Annual Conference 1997.

John Joshua

Historically, the pendulum of school reforms swung between two

contradictory educational philosophies: on the one hand, a

liberal progressive philosophy which sees students as potential

adults, and on the other hand, an instrumental philosophy of

education to serve the industries with sufficient human resource

capital. These two contradictory philosophies impinge on the

structure and function of schooling, teachers' work, curriculum

design and the socio-political framework which surrounds

schooling. The pendulum has shifted in favour of the pragmatic

and instrumental and not least because the student population has

changed.

I Pathways and the distribution of knowledge and power.

The social construct of the curricula is a political question;

although many teachers assume that their teaching is disciplinary

based, the formulation and presentation of subject content is a

political question as it makes social assumptions about their

students. The teaching of the natural sciences is often seen as

apolitical whereas the teaching of the social sciences is

portrayed as political as it often touches on questions of human,

political and social behavior; however, the teaching of the

natural sciences preserves the status quo and therefore is as

political as any other subject. Teaching practice and curriculum

content reflect a particular ideology which developed into an

educational Zeitgeist only to be replaced at a later stage with

a new political paradigm.

Curricula policy and its organization is applied social theory

so that Bernstein (1971) maintained that "[h]ow a society

selects, classifies, distributes, transmits and evaluates the

educational knowledge it considers to be public, reflects both

the distribution of power and the principles of social control"

(p.47). As Anyon (1980) and Oakes (1985) pointed out, curriculum

differentiation establish occupational self-identity so that

vocational courses at the secondary level may to a large extent

influence their subsequent careers. Furthermore, it may be

expected that students who opt for vocational oriented courses

more often than not come from a lower social-economic group. If

this is the case, then students' choice will merely reconfirm

their previous class status. Another aspect of social

reproduction within vocational training is the gender

distribution across the different vocational courses. It may be

anticipated that more girls than boys participate in office

management courses or clerical training courses; so that

vocational training reflects the job market. Teachers of

vocational courses are expected to convey the relevant vocational

skills, but such skills are connected to the work environment so

that such skills ought not to be taught in isolation from issues

concerning power and domination in the work force.

An analysis of who learns what may unveil the social function of

knowledge. It may be argued that curricula should reflect

students' real live experience, different curricula are needed

to reflect students diverse interests and their different

realities and hence rationalities which compete for legitimation

within the school curricula. Curricula which are designed to help

students succeed inevitably have to be geared at those students'

academic, and indeed vocational ability. The introduction of

vocational and 'real-life' skills may help to legitimate those

schools in the eyes of those who otherwise would not have

continued with their schooling.

The differentiation of knowledge engenders a social order based

on social differentiation which finds its foundation in the

material base of the social structure and thereby facilitates a

social conversion into power. A critical and reflexive pedagogy

can promote a circulation of power within and between social

fields while at the same time it may overcome many of the

impediments of distorted communication.

Any curriculum defines a pathway because it implies 'racing along

a track' (from Latin currere) towards an assumed destiny with all

its checkpoints along its path, so that a curriculum facilitates

development but is constrained within a set of parameters. As the

path unfolds, students should have the opportunity to experience

for themselves their own preferences.

However, pathways are always 'forced' in the sense that they can

never accommodate all students to an equal extent as they cannot

cater for every student's characteristics. Every pathway has its

own built-in hurdles which have to be mastered if students want

to progress. Hurdles of course can constrain students, but

students often constrain and limit themselves because of a

"mismatch between expectations and likely outcomes" of schooling

(Dwyer & Wyn, 1993:117-122); consequently, they may choose

pathways which do not provide them with the greatest

opportunities.

The best choice of the right pathway is especially important

because knowledge is unequally distributed. Knowledge is

controlled, hence constrained and distorted. Furthermore,

knowledge is dispensed selectively according to students'

perceived destiny. Indeed, knowledge can be regarded as a scarce

resource. Knowledge is not only a source of power, but it is

power that constructs knowledge in the first place through the

creation and maintaining of classificatory schemes, through the

power to define legitimate knowledge and the subsequent

construction of curricula. The exercise of power is also related

to the distribution of knowledge and its consequential perception

of the world. Foucault (1980) is concerned with the question of

how power is exercised and the consequence of such exercise. The

production of knowledge and its distribution depends on the

social environment so that control of space is vital not only for

any exercise of power but its efficacy (Foucault, 1980 & 1984).

The control of space may entail the physical separation of

students into groups through the creation of pathways which

impinges on the subsequent distribution of knowledge.

Students are streamed into 'appropriate' pathways through the

application of disciplinary and pastoral technologies which may

be examinations or more informal evaluation; such technologies

not only function as discriminators between students but also as

normalisers while at the same time setting up separate norms for

each pathway. Educational technologies thus can be regarded as

a means to an end as they represent a teleological normalisation

effect and therefore by its very nature constitute ideological

subjugation because as Foucault (1982:221-1) argues, it leads to

the domination of the recalcitrants. However, it is not only the

students who are thus controlled and dominated but teachers

themselves; for example, examinations and pre-set curricula, not

the teachers, determine what, how, when and for how long a given

course can be taught; and through such examinations and

evaluations, teachers as much as the students are assessed.

Furthermore, Willis (1977) has shown how 'recalcitrance' may lead

to a situation where students "learn to labour", rather then

expanding their opportunities. Educational outcome will largely

depend on the type of resistance: if it is offered to overcome

distorted channels of communication in order to gain more

emancipating knowledge then it will be liberating; if however

resistance is provided to withdraw from the learning process

altogether, then it will lead to domination by those who are in

control of such knowledge; hence we can speak of a positive and

negative resistance. A critical and reflexive pedagogy is vital

for emancipation as emancipatory knowledge can enable individuals

to engage in self-criticism as well as a critique of society at

large; both are essential if individuals are to expand their

horizon. Pedagogies which exclusively utilise disciplinary power

on their own may further domination rather than reduce it.

Furthermore, alternative pathways designed for students who

otherwise may leave school, are often regarded by employers as

being of less value and having a lower standard, and therefore

does not reduce significantly such students' disadvantage

(Levin,1992).

Even though power circulates, it does not equally bear fruit;

nevertheless, any monolithic portrayal of power is misleading.

Depending on the defined aim of schooling, it may be derailed if

schools are (mis)used as 'shelters' for those "reluctant stayers"

who only stay on until they obtain a job. Indeed, such "reluctant

stayers" comprised a 25 percent of the 2500 students surveyed

at year 11 (Dwyer, 1994). Research by Holden (1992) indicates

that early school leavers leave schools as a result of negative

experience with schooling; but whether schooling is experienced

in a negative way will depend on an individual's perception which

is grounded in an individual's social milieu and its relationship

to schooling.

However more recently, retention at year 12 has increased partly

because of the elimination of the under-18 unemployment benefit

and the introduction of AUSTUDY; it is a cynical move to keep the

young unemployed off the streets, while at the same time it

interferes with the learning process of those who actually want

to learn. Furthermore, as the number of full-time jobs has

declined and the number of job seekers has increased, competition

for those jobs has increased so that employers become more

demanding in applicants' credentials; consequently young

adolescents have another reason why they should stay on at

school. However, by putting the unemployed 'out of sight and out

of mind' not only postpones the problem but indeed magnifies it

as social problems will be mounting when the higher educated

young adults finally will leave schools and still have no

prospect of employment. Thus, an increase in the retention rate

of schooling to year 12 may merely postpone the transitional

problems of the labour market; the solution to unemployment does

not lie in education but rather in a structural change of the

economy. As Dwyer (1994) explains, a high rate of youth

unemployment is likely to lead to an increase in "forced

retention".

Indeed, it is suggested here that the target of 95 per cent

retention of post-compulsory years of schooling can only be

obtained through poor management of the economy; that is, it can

only be achieved if a high rate of youth unemployment will drive

adolescents back to school; thus it has nothing to do with good

management of the school system as the Finn Committee appears to

believe. Furthermore, to drive adolescents into post-compulsory

education because they may not qualify for a job search

allowance, does not imply that they actually will participate;

because, as Dwyer (1995a) argues, "retention is not

participation" (p.100).

Furthermore, as there are twice as many year 10 students who want

to go on to the University, as there are places (DEET, 1993:6),

for example, in 1992, 20,000 failed to obtain a place at a

tertiary institution (Dwyer, 1995a:99), the Finn report (1991)

aims to stream students into vocational training, are unlikely

to be fulfilled. The solution does not lay in setting economic

parameters but rather in addressing Australia's culture of

education. Vocational education has notoriously a low status in

Australia. It would be essential to revamp vocational training

if it is to attract students who are vocationally oriented.

Indeed, without such required changes, the higher expected

participation rate at post-compulsory education will exert

greater pressure to create more places at universities.

The Finn Report (1991) suggests that by the year 2001, the

retention rate of participation in post-compulsory education

should be increased to 95 per cent (p.48) from the present 80 per

cent of the 15- to 19-year-old age group. The implication is that

because the expansion of schooling is derived from a more

heterogeneous population then ever before, the content of the

education provided will become more functional and less academic

with detrimental repercussion on society in the long term.

Furthermore, no one can possible argue that the present VCE is

suitable for 95 per cent of the relevant age group or even for

those who are participating in it at the moment. Different

students have different demands, and they have to be met.

The Finn Report (1991) argues for access through expansion;

however, whether a higher participation rate in post-compulsory

education will be beneficial to such participating students will

depend on whether the expansion is structured according to

students' needs and requirements. It can be argued of course that

it may be better that all students should obtain a common general

education up to year 10. Students who opt for vocational

training enter TAFE after year 10 and enter an apprenticeship

scheme lasting for 4 years as in several countries in Europe so

that they would obtain 14 years of education. This would also

include a considerable amount of general education so that

apprentices should be able to see their vocational task within

the wider context of the economy. Business and industries should

be kept at arms length from schools, but should be deeply

involved in vocational training in TAFE Colleges so that learning

in the work place and in institutional settings becomes

intertwined. The curriculum in schools has been changed to

accommodate a diversity of students, however through its attempt

to attract a wider student population, they serve none too well.

Vocational education will always be regarded as a second best

option until polytechnics as an equal stream to the more

theoretical oriented universities has been established. As long

as TAFE institutions remain places where students go after they

have been rejected by universities, it will be regarded as a

place for 'rejects'. On the other hand, polytechnics with equal

status to universities will induce practically inclined students

to enter vocational education. Polytechnics could improve a

nations competitiveness as it could combine practice and theory,

whereas purely practical oriented training should be industry

based. Various critiques point out that "vocational education

accentuates social inequalities, and that in any case it does not

necessarily lead to jobs in the labor market" (Lewis, 1993:192);

however, a polytechnic can go a considerable way in equalizing

social and economic equalities.

In this case, the TAFE system may be best replaced with a

polytechnic model whereby students acquire multiple technical

skills which requires the coexistence of academic and vocational

education, that is, not only general education that may enhance

workers' vocational skills but also academic skills which are

needed for workers to adapt to new technologies. Such a

Polytechnic could teach at different levels from post-year 10 to

post-graduate with the appropriate credentials.

As the population taking part in post-compulsory education

becomes more heterogeneous, different and conflicting demands

will be made on resources and curricula design. The unfolding

contested discourse is subject to various influences of power

emanating from students' heterogenous priorities. The exercise

of pastoral power may assist students to choose between different

pathways; but the adverse labour market exerts a disciplinary

power over the students to remain at school, not because of

suitable available pathways, but because they have nothing better

to do. In this case, the state through schools may provide mere

pastoral care without the power as students' prospects are not

much rosier once they have left after completing the VCE, so that

there may be no necessary link between power and knowledge. The

academic curriculum exerts power because it is the academic

curriculum, which may lead to university entrance, against which

other pathways and courses are measured and compared. It is the

academic curriculum which provides the main discourse so that for

many students and parents, the vocational pathways have been

marginalised. As Foucault (1977:27) points out

power produces knowledge ... power and knowledge

directly imply one another; ... there is no power

relation without the correlative constitution of a

field of knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not

presuppose and constitute at the same time power

relations.

As the academic curriculum exerts more power than the other

courses through its combination of discourse, power and

knowledge, it is turned into a "power block" (Foucault, 1982:218)

which may act as a normalising technology. The discourse here

however is regulated and largely controlled by the centre so

that communication is not freely flowing; indeed, it is blocked

by those who are taking part in the power block. However,

previously marginalised knowledge or subjugated knowledge may

offer resistance (Foucault, 1980:78-108) and now competes for

resources, space and curricula content; but the power of

previously subjugated knowledge to find its legitimate niche came

into existence only as a consequence of the lack of power that

early school leavers have in the labour market.

As many students stay on in schools beyond the compulsory years

of schooling because of an adverse labor market, it is inevitable

that school participation will decline again as soon as

conditions for job-seekers improve in the labor market. The

degree of unemployment in OECD countries is rising while

individuals with qualifications increase so that there is no

apparent link between qualifications and the job market. The

reason is that the number of jobs requiring qualifications does

not increase whereas the supply of qualified job seekers increase

so that competition within the job market has become tight.

Before the occurrence of high participation rates in post-

compulsory education, students who did participate prepared

themselves for University entrance, so that school programs

catered for a more homogeneous student population then it is the

case at present. It is therefore suggested that different

pathways should be established to cope with the different

priorities for a more heterogenenous student population; without

the implementation of different pathways, students may not

perform at their optimum.

The present thrust towards a broader post-compulsory education

to accommodate for a heterogeneous student population (Blackburn,

1985) continues without providing viable pathways which may be

acceptable to students, teachers or the industries. In an attempt

to accommodate the different groups of students, Johnston

(1992:293) states that in 1988, the Queensland Board of Senior

School Studies accredited more than 1000 subjects such as Leisure

Studies, Office Practices, Catering, Technological Studies,

Communication Skills, Arts and Crafts, Social studies, Career

Education, and Horticulture. All but one are vocationally

oriented and the one exception presumably prepares those students

who may not obtain vocationally oriented employment. Therefore,

Johnston (1992) is right in proclaiming that

the differentiation between Board Subjects that cater

to students aspiring towards higher education and the

Board-Registered Subjects that cater to students

aspiring towards direct employment represents an

unofficial form of streaming or tracking (p.293),

whereby those vocational subjects are perceived as being of lower

status which are often used by students, with the encouragement

by teachers, to side-step the more academically demanding

subjects.

Whereas in the Board-Registered subjects, marketability in the

job market is given priority, this is not the case with the more

academically oriented Board Subjects because the two streams

cater for a different clientele of students. If teachers' "task

really became one of attracting the less decisive and less able

students away from these subjects into the new Board-Registered

Subjects" (Johnston, 1992:307), then one may well ask the

question whether this is intended to help those students who are

more inclined towards vocational studies or those who intend to

proceed to University and hence are engaged in the studies with

more academically oriented Board Subjects. The assumption may

well be that those with less academic potential interfere with

those who are endowed with higher academic potential and

therefore they have to be separated from each other.

The provision of vocational, technical and liberal education to

a large extent reflects students' social class identification and

their assumed destiny rather than their ability; however, the

provision of such pathways nevertheless may reflect students'

interest because students' awareness, curiosity, motivation and

their interest in certain subject matter is related to their own

culture; students more often than not choose such pathways to

which they can relate and which will 'get them somewhere'.

Students' interests are often reflected in the three Rs, that is,

'real', 'right-now' and 'relevant' which necessarily reflects

students' culture.

A curriculum based on students' real life situations, goal, needs

and motivation may provide many students the opportunity to

achieve their goals; the pursuit of different and often

incompatible goals is best facilitated through different

pathways. However, it cannot be argued that such pathways provide

education that is different but equal; although such pathways may

be equally successful in fulfilling the goal of their students,

that is not to say that the quality of the education provided

within each pathway is of equal standard. After all, pathways not

only facilitate students' goals but also their potential, and

both may profoundly differ between students.

Curricula often try to balance their academic and organic

components and thereby may facilitate a connection between the

parochial and the global; that is, whereas academic culture has

global currency, affective knowledge that promotes students'

pride in their own country, their own ethnicity, their own

national identity, in contrast to their individual identity and

individual endeavour, is by nature parochial and therefore

constraint. In much the same way as English is the lingua franca

in Australia and therefore the language of power which has to be

acquired by all ethnic groups if they are to succeed in

Australia's main stream culture, academic knowledge has to be

acquired by those who attempt to push out their horizon.

The reproduction of social structures through organic curricula

fosters those values which are regarded as appropriate for a

specific social destination. Vocational education may be regarded

here as a constructed organic curriculum as such education is

class based; to a large extent, it is the working class which

enters vocational education and vocational education ensures that

they will remain situated within the working class. It is argued

here that the organic curriculum makes cultural reproduction

invisible as it engages in considerable less symbolic violence

than an imposed academic curriculum.

The organic curriculum has been part of education since its

inception; for example, Bishop Beck (cited by Aasen, 1995:4)

commented in regard to Norwegian education in 1788 that "[e]ach

class must be bestowed with its peculiar destinies suitable to

their upbringing"; indeed,

[t]he poorest classes were not to receive an education

which went beyond the class the child belonged to.

Children from different classes should preferably even

have different textbooks in religion. For example, a

textbook for the peasant children had only to present

a brief discussion of the duties they had in relation

to the other classes (Aasen, 1995:4-5).

The reproduction of the class structure is then assured through

the inculcation of those values which are regarded as appropriate

for a specific social destination and so becomes part of an

individual's consciousness. Knowledge is then distributed among

the social classes according to its perceived usefulness.

The common people, according to Pastor Langbury in 1811 (cited

by Aasen, 1995:5) "were to be informed so that they would be

satisfied with the conditions they had been given by nature"; in

other words, they were taught to, if not love, then at least to

accept their 'destiny', and so will not question the status quo.

The use of symbolic violence however may be essential for those

students who want to expand their own social horizon. Symbolic

violence inculcated as self-discipline, as well as students' home

environment, is often the reason why middle class students are

more successful than working class students. Cultural rather than

economic capital is the dominant factor which can facilitate

education; although culture may be bought, it can only be

acquired, internalised and appreciated through a gradual process

of initiation.

Foucault (1982) devised two paradigms for the exercise of power:

disciplinary and pastoral. Whereas disciplinary power through

physical domination continues action of the dominated, pastoral

power may establish channels which may facilitate the empowerment

of others through the enabling of certain actions while excluding

others. However, the efficacy of pastoral power depends on the

ability of individuals to make the necessary choice. The ability

of students is often reflected through the pathways in which they

take part. Some pathways exhibit a teaching method which is more

behavioural, that is, disciplinary, for example, in some

vocational pathways. In other pathways, with a more liberal

academic emphasis, teaching methods may be more pastoral in

nature. However, any pedagogy that claims to be critical and

reflexive, ought to have a pastoral element in its method.

The aim of disciplinary and pastoral power differs; whereas

disciplinary power may be exercised to train individuals in given

skills to excel in the completion of task set by others, pastoral

power may facilitate individuals to find their potential.

Disciplinary power is more centralised while pastoral power is

more dispersed, so that the latter is a better facilitator of

social mobility. Disciplinary power is mostly implemented by

coercion while pastoral power fluctuates between coercion and

freedom; as the efficacy of pastoral power becomes apparent,

freedom increases with a consequent decline in the required

coercion. As Foucault (1982) argued, without the possibility to

exercise a choice, that is, the ability to adopt, accept or

reject given alternatives, power is mere physical domination,

more often then not exercised through behavioural teaching

methods.

Such powers can be used to sort students into different pathways.

As students' progress more towards their ability to exercise

independent decision-making power, pastoral powers come to

replace disciplinary powers. Progress here is seen in terms of

a growing critical awareness and reflexivity; as this is less

emphasised in vocational education, disciplinary power is less

replaced than in other pathways. This has repercussions later in

life as their earlier training in schools will leave marks on

their later behavioural attitudes within and outside their job

environment.

II The convergence of vocational and general education.

The Department of Employment, Education and Training constrains

in its name as well as in its policy, education by employment and

training; its intention is to facilitate growth in employment

through education and training. Individuals and governments are

guided in their decisions in the demand for and supply of

education by short-term market signals which cannot serve as

social indicators of long-term structural changes within either

the labour market or education. Therefore, it is important that

a critical pedagogy is engaged in by educators to create transfer

skills which can then be utilised for specific task. The

acquisition of transfer skills does not require the prediction

of specific demands in the future, whether in technologies or

within the economy at large. There can be no 'quick-fix solution

using a top-down approach by manipulating the last two years of

secondary schooling; instead, school reforms may be implemented

through a bottom-up approach to provide a sound base which is

situated at the primary school level.

Furthermore, the binary system of education, separating general

and vocational education, has

in some ways hindered the development and implementation of

more creative and relevant educational responses to the

rapid changes in the nature of work and the skill

requirements of individuals as workers and active

participants in modern society. Nonetheless, the notion of

a convergence between the traditionally separate processes

of education and training is increasingly becoming a

reality in Australian senior secondary schools (Finn

Report, 1991:6).

The Finn Report (1991) advocates a general vocational education;

however, the emphasis here is more on vocational rather than

general , because it "represents a transformation of education

analogous to the transformation of work and social life" (Sheed,

1993:149). In other words, educational values are seen as

extrinsic rather than intrinsic; if they do not connect to the

workforce, they become redundant. In this case, education becomes

more socially constructed because the type of education which

students will aim for is determined by the job market. General

vocational education makes workers more adaptable to the job

environment, but this has little to do with a critical and

reflexive pedagogy.

General education must go beyond the key competencies if it is

to encompass broad general knowledge. However, the Mayer

Committee (1992) argues that general education should converge

with vocational education through the teaching of "key

competencies" through which young people can apply their general

education. The aim of both the Finn and the Mayer Reports is to

vocationalize post-compulsory education and this will be helpful

to those students who want to go down the vocational track;

however, it does not encourage those who choose a more

academically oriented path. In contrast to the Finn Report

(1991), not all individuals' needs converge with those of

industries, and not only in the job market because work

experience and social or life experience will differ for most

individuals.

The Finn Report's concept of general vocational education is very

much akin to the same concept as formulated by the American

National Commission on Secondary Vocational Education (1984),

except that in contrast to the Finn report, the National

Commission advocates a general vocational education for all

secondary students thereby essentially challenging the dominance

of the academic subjects. Nevertheless, both reports advocate

general vocational education that goes beyond the development of

immediately useful vocational skills. The Commission's essential

argument is that all students require "a mix of both academic and

vocational courses and enough elective options to match their

interests and learning styles" (p.2).

Moreover, the Finn Report (1991) does not provide any substantive

link between academic study and 'real work' in their advocacy of

a general vocational education as this report is not concerned

with the academic stream of the curriculum. However, most

academic subjects, such as chemistry, physics, mathematics and

economics are largely vocational, rather than purely academic.

Most educators who argue for the integration of academic and

vocational studies are concerned with vocational students rather

than those who are bound for university, so that there is no

intention to integrate academic and vocational students.

No education in secondary schooling, whether academic or

vocational, should be too specific; that is, general vocational

education implies that vocational teachers are not teaching a

specific trade, such as mechanics, but rather general vocational

skills; this is vital as structural changes often make specific

trades redundant. However, as the Finn Report's (1991) advocacy

of a general vocational education is an idea which is not very

well entrenched in Australia's schools as yet, it might be

necessary to train and equip a new breed of vocational teacher,

after all, teachers can only teach what they have themselves

absorbed.

The proposal of a general vocational education as advocated by

the Finn Report (1991) has been preceded in several countries;

for example in Britain (Holt, 1987), Germany, Sweden, Japan, and

the United States. However, in contrast to the Finn Report (1991)

which advocates general vocational education to increase

Australia's international competitiveness, the American report

of "A Nation at Risk" (1983) advocated an academic curriculum

with emphasis given to mathematics, science, social studies and

computer science with a special thrust towards literacy, rather

than a vocational education to overcome America's vulnerability

in the international economy. It is suggested here, that the Finn

Report's (1991) proposal has to do more with achieving the 95 per

cent participation rate at year 12 level rather than increasing

Australia's competitiveness, although the authors of the Finn

report may argue otherwise.

Nevertheless, the Finn Report's general vocational education

has its counterpart in the American "vocational orthodoxy [which]

has been [also] largely reactive in nature" (Lewis, 1995:298) as

it is largely "driven by survivalist instincts" (p.298) and hence

is in reality "unauthentic" (Lewis, 1991 & 1995). Furthermore,

the general assumption here is that a nation's competitiveness

depends on the productivity of its work force (Thurow, 1992);

however, productivity remains empty rhetoric if there are few

ideas that can be implemented. Scientific research is as vital

as its implementation and a nation's competitive edge is

jeopardized when either is neglected.

The recommendations of the Finn Report (1991) are essentially

instrumental as their aim is "to develop the human capital for

'post-Fordist' Australian industries ... " (Porter, Rizvi, Knight

& Lingard, 1992:51). The Finn Report sees the tasks of educators

merely as 'providing the goods' so that its output may be slotted

into the labour market; something that the Finn Report assumes

is the only worthwhile goal in obtaining education. Thus, the

attempt to restructure the educational system is an attempt to

realign education more closely with the economy so that the

thrust of the education system is guided by an economic rather

than an educational discourse. In other words, the Finn Report

portrays a conflict of values, thus Porter, Rizvi, Knight &

Lingard (1992) state that its

"economic analysis is couched in terms that assume

that a wide variety of cultural and social practices

and institutions are non-economic and somehow

secondary, and are to be reconstituted in order to

serve particular national economic goals" (p.53).

Even though the Finn Report recommends a convergence of general

and vocational, the consequential general vocational education

does not imply more academic knowledge but rather a vocational

education, that is, broader, and hence helps the student to

acquire transferable skills, rather then narrow specialization;

thus Sheed (1993) argues that "[g]eneral vocational education

represents in the Australian context a form of vocationalism that

is an outcome of the marketization of education" (p.149). Such

convergence is a means to increase the value of human capital.

However, the process of education is constrained by time factors,

that is, if schools are to introduce vocational training in

secondary schools, then less academic education will be provided;

though it may not reduce general education as it can be defined

to include anything as long as it is not too vocationally

oriented.

And when the Finn Report (1991) argues that "[o]ngoing learning

will become a part of productive work" (p.6), then it refers to

the need of the workforce to become more skilled and hence more

adaptable, in other words, it is not interested in broader

general knowledge which has no relevance to the market place at

the relevant time. Therefore, the Finn Report's (1991) definition

of general education is one of utilitarian and instrumental

education that goes beyond the narrower vocational education, but

it does not include knowledge that is non-marketable in the

foreseeable future. This is also reflected in the Finn Report's

(1991) advocacy of general vocational education; and the greater

the convergence between general and vocational education, the

less room there will be for academic education, because it

defines general vocational education as "those aspects of general

education which are important for employment, or alternatively

as those aspects of vocational education which are important for

active citizenship" (p.7); active citizenship however is left

undefined as presumably it does not in the Finn Report directly

relate to marketable values. Thus, strategies of convergence

between vocational and general education only includes knowledge

which is marketable.

Knowledge then becomes a mere "instrument of exchange value"

(Knight, 1992:19), thus knowledge becomes reified as it becomes

another form of capital which can be cashed in at the appropriate

'job station'. Furthermore, as Porter, Rizvi, Knight & Lingard

(1992 argued: "[w]ith ends determined and assessment standardised

there is little room for pedagogic manoeuvrability" (p.56) to

make allowances for individual differences, except for streaming

students eventually into groups of perceived similarities, either

sorted by performance or suitability which cannot be assessed in

a culturally unbiased fashion.

The global debate about post-compulsory education is constrained

by economic parameters. Lyotard (1983) addressing the issue of

higher education argues that, as a result of the decline in truth

value, together with a decline of teleological systems of

history, only "performativity" is what is perceived as relevant

for research and higher education, that is, its economic utility.

This is even further intensified in the Australian current

debates on the future of education because, as Collins (1985)

argues, the Australian public sphere is dominated by an extrinsic

pragmatic and hence an absence of a philosophical and moral

discourse. In this case, anything becomes relevant if it can be

sold in the market place.

Vocational education is able to provide functional empowerment;

however, as Lakes (1994) pointed out, "[c]ritical empowerment ...

is largely ignored by the mainstream educational establishment"

(p.4), so that teaching is "more dedicated to the language of

efficiency and measurement than the moral and ethical dimensions

of education" (p.4). Many vocational courses at the VCE level as

well as in TAFEs assess their students by competency-based

criteria which are quantifiable. The task is usually given and

students are assessed according to how well they execute those

tasks. In this case, such courses confirm Claus's (1990) study

whereby vocational classes "reinforced the students' tendency to

see themselves as workers following the directions of others"

(p.24). Therefore, it may be argued that such metaphors of

vocational courses promoting meaningful work lives amongst their

students fulfils the instrumental need of employers rather than

of the employees except for the utilitarian function of 'earning

a living'; so that we may concur with Rehm (1994) that much of

vocational training is "transporting students to the existing

work culture" (p.150) and rightly stated that such vehicle

metaphor "ignores the diversity of the passengers" (p.150). The

fact remains that the overwhelming proportion of students in

vocational courses come from the lower SES groups and are

unlikely to enter positions at an executive level; therefore one

may ask the legitimate question whether at present, vocational

courses contribute to a disguised reproduction of the status quo,

or does it provide greater opportunities to those students.

However, through an infusion of critical pedagogy into vocational

courses, the potential of a participatory democracy can be

increased.

Emancipatory education has to begin and end with the power of the

individual student; no one can emancipate students without their

own cooperation, even though such cooperation can be actualized

through a critical pedagogy, it can never be a substitute. A

critical pedagogy of vocational education may include empowering

metaphor to establish a reciprocal dialogue which may discover

ways of possibilities. Metaphors may of course contribute to

emancipation or they may constrain students' possibilities.

Metaphors that seek to promote efficiency and regard vocational

education as a means to equip students with the skills demanded

by employees make students dependent on the prevailing structure

of the labour market. Rehm (1994) pointed out that "[w]hen

vocational education is considered an instrument for the economy,

students, by association, also become viewed as instruments"

(p.147). This is especially the case when vocational education

courses concentrate on the technical performative aspects to the

exclusion of acts of social empowerment.

The intention of competency based training is to create the

programmed worker who, as the new worker' goes about his or her

task in a compliant fashion; hence the National Centre for

Competency Based Training advises strongly against including in

a competency based training curriculum "non-essential activities"

(1993: unit2.5-1). "The accumulated effect of this preoccupation

with specific programs and outcomes is to construct a compliant

body of practitioners competing against each other for the

training dollar, and a processed group of graduates who measure

up to behavioural objectives" (Dwyer, 1995:472). And indeed, it

is the behavioural objectives, that is, 'skills' to obey, that

seem to be of the greatest concern of the National Centre for

Competency Based Training, rather than skills per se. The

underlying assumption is that "[d]iscipline increases the forces

of the body ... and diminishes these same forces ....in short,

it dissociates power from the body; on the one hand, it turns it

into an 'aptitude', a 'capacity', which it seeks to increase; on

the other hand, it reverses the course of the energy, the power

that might result from it, and turns it into a relation of strict

subjection" (Foucault, 1977:138). In other words, "disciplinary

coercion establishes in the body the constricting link between

an increased aptitude and an increased domination" (Foucault,

1977:138). However, the new worker requires adaptable skills to

cope with an increasingly technological age rather than skills

to adapt themselves to 'top-down' commands. Mere obedience with

little critical awareness decline the performance of industries.

"Docile bodies" may have been required for regimented

manufacturing jobs tied to a conveyer belt; such jobs however are

declining at a rapid rate as industries are becoming more

technological and service oriented where more autonomous workers

will be more effected in contrast to 'automatons' disguised as

"docile bodies" which do not question managerial prerogatives so

that it confers legitimacy upon managerial rule.

Another reason why vocational education does not create

employment is that relatively few new jobs require higher level

of skills (Levin & Rumberger, 1986) but rather the new jobs are

more likely to be in areas of high-technology and low-skill.

Furthermore, school reforms may be seen as "reaction formations

to endemic crisis" (Habermas, 1973:37) so that the pendulum of

education reforms swings from one crisis to another in order to

"muddle through" (Lindbloom, 1980) so that political demand and

expediencies may be "satisficed" (March & Simon, 1958) until new

corrective strategies have to be undertaken to forestall a new

crisis.

Managerial rational economic decision-making applied to schooling

facilitates an increasing mass production within the education

system. The assessment of competency test and skill mastery may

encourage teachers to 'teach to the test' and thus may reduce

critical awareness. Schools are often seen as basic skills

factory. "A basic skills curriculum has allowed urban school

districts to maintain large classes, particularly remedial

classes, because materials are largely self-guiding; students are

'kept busy' at their seats in the routine production of

'piecework' (Carlson, 1989:102). A move towards a 'back to

basics' is portrayed as resource management which however leads

to 'chalk and talk'. Education in this case is seen as a

production unit which promotes control and order.

Education as fulfilling the needs of students for "personal

growth and social identity has been converted into an

instrumental definition of education in terms of the needs of

industry and the formation of its work force" (Dwyer,1995:469,

and Marginson,1993:231-4). As the labour market is highly

segregated and stratified, the education system is used to rank

students and thereby sort them into 'their' careers. The ability

of schools to evaluate and sort students declines in proportion

with an increase in numbers of students who successfully complete

secondary education. Furthermore, in Australia, discourse about

educational policy "has shifted from the construction of a

socially just and equitable society to a vision of an

economically competitive and industrially restructured society

in which economic imperatives drive the education of all young

Australians" (Poole, 1989 & 1992b:2). The motto learn and earn

then becomes learning without the l and so becomes reduced to

mere pecuniary interests.

Bartlett, Knight and Lingard (1991) argue that the government's

instrumentalist view on human capital is based in economic

rationalism and managerialism, and "[a]pplied to teacher

education, it has all the potential to create narrowly skilled

rather than critically reflective teachers" (p.94). Furthermore,

"[t]he downgrading of teachers as technicians and schooling as

merely involving the multi-skilling of students is not in the

best interests of Australian society or its economy" (p.94).

Technological skilled jobs continue the process of deskilling as

it breaks up into smaller and simpler components in a similar

fashion as under the industrial revolution. There is generally

a converse relationship between the complexity of technology and

the skills required by its operators with a consequent effect of

increasing proletarianization of the work force due to the

breakdown of task into smaller units. Any vocation orientation

programs or education and training programs which facilitate the

transmission from schools to work will have to take into account

such developments within the economy. Furthermore, as Apple

(1987) pointed out "many of the 'skills' that schools are

currently teaching are transitory because the jobs themselves are

being transformed (or lost) by new technological developments and

new management offensives" (p.5).

Technology facilitates managerial control and fosters

undemocratic work practices. It ought not to be the task of

educational institutions to train students to accept such

practices; instead students ought to be taught a critical

awareness which they are then able to apply to future work

situations. Instead, students in vocational streams are taught

to accept hierarchical structures which are perceived as natural.

Apple (1987) argued that "[e]conomic and ideological pressure

have become rather intense ... The language of efficiency,

production standards, cost effectiveness, job skills, work

discipline ... has begun to push aside concerns for a democratic

curriculum, teacher autonomy and class, gender and race equality"

(p.2). However, teachers' claim for more resources does not

necessarily reduce inequality if teaching methodology remains

unchanged, it will have little effect as it merely implies more

of the same, so that Kohl (1982) stated that "[t]here is no

reason to assume that larger doses of unsuccessful teaching will

cure anything" (p.99). Nevertheless, the question may well be

asked why are cuts in educational expenditures generally made at

the lower hierarchy, that is, in schools, rather than at the

management and administrative level. If quality in education is

to excel, and if financial cuts are to be made, they are better

made at the level which contribute less to the quality of

education.

Arum and Shavit (1995) investigated the question of whether

students who undertake vocational education in high schools

actually benefit or whether it serves as a measure of social

exclusion. In their study, it was also confirmed that the

academic track is more heavily concentrated in private and

Catholic schools. Their research showed that vocational education

reduces students likelihood to continue their studies at a

college and hence have a reduced chance to enter the professions;

however, their research also indicated that vocational education

reduces the possibility of unemployment and increases

participation in the labor market as skilled workers. However,

a combination of vocational and academic education had the most

beneficial outcome on possible employment (p.196). Although Arum

and Shavit (1995) argue therefore that vocational education

serves as a 'safety net', it is also true to argue that

vocational education reinforces the class dichotomy through the

resulting division of labor; especially, as was shown by Heyns

(1974), vocational tracks recruit their students largely from the

lower social economic strata.

In other words, there is a relative advantage for students who

do not continue on to tertiary education, to engage themselves

in vocational studies because such students without the benefit

of vocational education may well become unemployed. Vocational

education is particularly important because most of those who

have completed the VCE, especially if the 95 percent

participation rate is been achieved, will not go on to tertiary

courses. However, as greater benefits can be obtained from the

completion of an academic track, it is the case that those

students who have the ability to pursue an academic course should

indeed be encouraged to do so; because to use a concrete example,

society and the individual will be better off if students who are

able to, say, invent engines, should be encouraged in doing so,

rather then repairing them. Vocational education then does not

change in any way the structure of the labor market but rather

confirms it.

Arum and Shavit (1995) point out that whether vocational

education inhibits the socioeconomic achievements of children

from lower strata will depend "on the process of track placement

and the actual curricular content of the programs" (p.202).

Certainly, students with high abilities from the low

socioeconomic strata should be encouraged to pursue the academic

stream; otherwise social inequalities will merely be reproduced.

Advocates of vocational education maintain that without the

option of vocational education, students in vocational tracks

would 'drop out'; however, this may merely postpone the time when

such students become unemployed if it is correct, as Thurow

(1975) argues, that employers do not seek employees with ready

made skills as such skills are obtained on the job. This is where

a proposal of general vocational education, as advocated for

example by the Finn report (1991), with its resulting acquired

transfer skills may be useful. However, employers may be

disinclined to hire employees who opted for a vocational stream

if such students are perceived as having lower abilities.

Employers may prefer to train on the job employees who indicated

through their school records a more promising learning curve.

III Democracy and literacy

The functioning of democracy requires the acquisition of more

than basic skills; it requires the acquisition of whole-life

skills, which above all includes the social context within which

such skills are to be acted out. Kohl (1982:110-158) suggested

six basic skills that adults require to function effectively

within a democratic society: the ability to use language, problem

solving skills, development of scientific and technological

understanding, the acquisition of imaginary skills through the

arts, an understanding of group processes, and the ability to

learn how to learn. Basic skills such as reading and writing are

meaningless unless they involve an understanding which "is itself

a basic skill" (p.112), so that sufficient time has to "be

devoted to conversation, observation, analysis, experimentation,

and other activities that lead to comprehension" (p.112). To

reduce language to mere mechanical procedures is to deprive

language of its empowering potential. An Habermasian ideal speech

situation may be aimed at if students are encouraged to develop

their speech which Kohl (1982) pointed out "should be a major

principle of curriculum development" to foster "democratic

sensibility" (p.113). However, we may well ask the question, how

many of those who complain of declining literacy really want a

totally literate workforce, especially a cultural literacy? It

may also be ask whether those advocating democratic principles

really anticipate or are willing to let the masses participate

in a participatory democracy.

Democracy can only function if students are taught the prevailing

power relationships within their society if they are to empower

their own lives. As such power relations are often hidden,

students ought to acquire research skills to enable them to gain

access to such information which may reveal structures of power.

Indeed, we may concur with Kohl (1982) who regards such skills

as required "basic education on the power of information"

(p.142). Power relationships and their structures are ignored in

education; for example, even though the Lorenz curve is mentioned

in VCE economics, the underlying power relationships of income

distribution is ignored, and so is the 'making of poverty'.

Instead, privileges are rationalized through meritocracy inside

and outside of schools. If systemic processes and actions go

wrong, it is called an aberration so that the system with its

processes prevails. Connections however are pushed aside, as

Kozol (1975) explained "[c]onnections there are none: causations

there are not any" (p.37).

There are no neutral standards of performances because students'

achievement in academic standards relates to their degree of

empowerment and disempowerment, so that students' test results

have to do more with inequality in schooling rather than

inequality in abilities. However, it is too simple to proclaim,

as did Coleman (1966) and Jencks (1973), that school achievement

is primarily determined by family income; after all, correlations

do not imply causations.

Kozol (1975) summarized the role of schools as follows: "[s]chool

is in business to produce reliable people, manageable people,

unprovocative people who can be relied upon to make correct

decisions, or else to nominate and to elect those who will make

correct decisions for them" (p.66). To ensure that schools

fulfill such functions, teachers are subject to official pressure

to teach to the tests with a consequent decline in the

development of critical awareness. If socialization is mere

inculcation of social norms and values, then it does not differ

from social indoctrination. Schooling is at the centre, it

pursues control through domestication for most and a search for

freedom for the few; so that it cannot be neutral. Furthermore,

it is people's perceived freedom which makes them susceptible to

social control, so that the operation of a democratic spirit is

vital for systemic control. Furthermore, a call to the basics is

a call to social control. Teaching as a science may promote

control through routine endeavours, whereas teaching as an art

may promote critical awareness.

It is not cultural literacy as such, that is required, but

cultural awareness. Cultural literacy may mean no more than the

learning of those dates, names or concepts that someone,

somewhere has decided to be of importance without any realization

of cultural awareness. A propagandist is concerned with 'facts'

that are regarded of national importance, whereas a pedagogist

ought to foster a critical awareness. Indeed, cultural literacy

may foster control which is more difficult in the case of

cultural awareness, so that decision-makers usually jerk away

from concepts such as cultural awareness.

Snedden (1977) argued that vocational education at the secondary

level should be trade education which should be provided only to

those who either enter or are already working in such

occupations. Furthermore, Snedden (1977) rejected a liberal

infusion into vocational education as he was concerned with

vocational training through the application of scientific

management principles as advocated by Taylor (1911) which trains

for specific tasks so narrow that such skills are misplaced

within a post-industrial society (Simon, Dippo and Schenke,

1991). Such narrow training makes students fit to execute someone

else's decision and effectively prevents them from participating

within the decision-making process as they have become reliant

on 'given orders' through the very nature of their training. A

participatory democracy requires skills that can be taught within

vocational courses which can then be transferred to the work

place which is vital for the effectiveness of team work to

produce quality decision-making and techniques of problem-

solving. Such skills can promote a quality of life in workers and

financial health of the organization.

Therefore, there are several reasons why we may agree with

Gregson's (1994) rejection of the Prosser and Snedden framework

of vocational education in favour of a Deweyan and Freirean

critical pedagogy. The learning process is stimulated when

students are able to participate so that the acquisition of

knowledge may be seen as an excursion of discovery. A critical

pedagogy may facilitate such process by allowing students "to

integrate their own experiences into the learning process,

allowing them to become aware of the relevancy of certain

knowledge and gain a better understanding of how to prepare for

and contend with the demands of the world of work" (Gregson,

1994:177).

Social justice through the provision of vocational education, in

contrast to vocational training, can be facilitated if it can be

linked to participatory industrial democracy such as a scheme of

co-determination whereby workers actually participate together

with managers within the decision-making process within the

organization; otherwise, within an hierarchical organized work

place, problem-solving skills may become redundant.

The assumption that schooling consists of a teacher-student

relationship often ignores other factors that impinge on such a

relationship. Buber (1965) saw the possibility of educational

dialogue between students and teachers; however such relationship

may be compromised when teachers identify themselves with the

social organization within which they are placed. The acquisition

of education is a struggle, but the classroom is especially a

forum of political struggle. Social actors who want to keep

political and socially sensitive issues out of the classroom

argue that politics should not enter the classroom; however, by

denying students the opportunities to become politically aware

is not less a political act. Indeed, it is a political act to

keep political ideas out of the classroom as it stifles free

discussion. Furthermore, by teaching to the book, it is often

assumed that teaching will be apolitical, thereby ignoring the

fact that the writing of text is itself a political act.

We may well ask: how innovative is the innovative classroom;

after all, as Kozol (1975) maintained: "[t]he innovative

classroom may ... be 'child-centred', but it is also teacher-

written, I.B.M.-predicted, School-Board overseen. Nobody ever

discovers anything within a well-run school in the United States

which someone somewhere does not give him license, sanction and

permission to discover" (pp.100-101).

The basic human right to education is further threatened through

the imposition of rationalization and scientific management which

does not further educational achievement nor social control over

students in schools or later in life; but control over curricula

and teaching methods; because such decision-making process

ignores the human dimension of learning. Teaching by the books

furthers such controls. Pre-packaged curricula material ignores

structures of the classroom, organization of the schools, social

background of its students, and levels individual teaching styles

to its lowest common denominators. Pre-packaged curricula

effectively transform teachers into machines, more recently they

are being replaced by machines, so that teaching becomes

routinized, predictable and uniform.

Conclusion

Education must anticipate social change, but there is no coherent

national system of technical education simply because Australia

has no national policy on economic planning and manpower.

Planning is difficult because of ever changing socio-economic,

political and cultural circumstances. Nevertheless, to set

guidelines for an educational policy and to fulfil them will be

easier within a national framework of planned change. The focus

of planned educational change however must be on people rather

than serving particular interest groups; after all, education

should be concerned with liberating people rather than, as at

present, controlling and confining them. Indeed, it may be argued

that a managerial educational policy that promotes a 'back to

basics' technique of teaching through its applied resource

management policy, can lead to 'chalk and talk'. Education thus

is seen as a production unit which promotes control and order.

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