SPECIAL EDUCATION: THE RESTRUCTURING OF EDUCATIONAL DISCOURSE

Year: 1989

Author: Carpenter, Cheryl

Type of paper: Abstract refereed

Abstract:
Society has undergone some dramatic changes during the late 1970's and 1980's and almost every sector of our society has faced some form of restructuring. These decades are often referred to as part of the technological era or information age. Yet others equate the significance of present day events with that of the industrial revolution. In this paper I argue that the 1980's has witnessed the formation of a new social order, that of corporatism. Corporatism is not confined to the economic or government fields but also refers to the cultural, everyday aspects of our personal and professional lives, the field of symbolic control (Bernstein, 1987). It is an integrated social order which is removing the traditional distinctions between professional, cultural, political, economic and social groups. In the place of such social categories is an all embracing social order of corporate consensus. The move towards a corporatist social order indicates a shift in the power and control relations of our society. The once widely acknowledged issues and demands of social collectives such as the women's and black movements, along with the status, authority, autonomy and influence of many professions are being delegitimised. Authority and legitimacy in the 1980's no longer belongs to members of particular social groups or professions. Instead authority and legitimacy belong to the individual who speaks the consensus decision arising from the corporate process. The change in positions of status and authority indicate the emergence of a new middle class, that of the rational Man as the model citizen advocate. As a rationally objective and politically neutral individual, the rational man is best able to identify, monitor and assess problem situations and issues and advocate those solutions which are in the general interest of all society. The rational Man, as the dominant social group, is not someone who gains their identity from class heritage, professional or political affiliation, gender or cultural background. Instead the attempt is to disassociate oneself from such areas of bias and unequal benefit by placing them as merely characteristics and skills of the individual which mathematically compound to form one's overall image and value to society. Directing the restructurings of the 1980's is the ideology of possessive individualism. The model citizen is both the possessor of skills for exchange within the market place of a free and equal society and the presenter of the right image to enhance the marketability of the product, the individual. The corporate order of the 1980's operates on a technical approach which quantifies individuals, their skills, knowledge, associations, relationships, services and organisations. Quantification serves two purposes. It depoliticises people and their social collectives by separating them from their historical, cultural, social, political and economic contexts. Quantification then repositions people as individuals within the new corporatist order which places a socially determined value on their skills and overall image. The corporatist order of the 1980's is concerned with both an economic and cultural rationalisation. I now turn to consider how the restructurings of special education fits into the corporate order of the 1980's.

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