Makeover Or Takeover? The strange death of educational autonomy in neo-liberal England

Datos Bibliográficos

ID11166757
AutoresJohn Beck (0000-0002-8128-8194, autor de correspondencia)
Año1999
Volumen20
Número2
Páginas223-238
Fecha de publicación1999-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaBritish Journal of Sociology of Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0142-5692 • E-ISSN: 1465-3346
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01425699995425
OpenAlexW2067817083
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas46
Referencias citadas18

This paper is concerned with the erosion of educational autonomy in Britain in recent years. Employing an analytical framework derived mainly from the recent work of Basil Bernstein, it examines ways in which weakened boundaries between the educational and the economic/political spheres may be linked to attempts by government in Britain to take over, to an unprecedented degree, domains where educators and producers of knowledge have in the past enjoyed significant, although by no means unqualified, autonomy. Implications for changing educational identities are highlighted, as is Bernstein's central contention that we may be witnessing not merely presentational changes, but rather a fundamental redefinition of the relationship between knowledge and the knower. Certain aspects of the political and educational agenda of the present New Labour government are seen as continuing many of the directions of policy set by previous New Right administrations. It is suggested that such continuities at the level of politics and policy indicate the potency of neo-liberal forms of governmentality and the extent to which they have become entrenched. Postmodernist and modernist interpretations of these developments are briefly considered. Obstacles to effective contestation of the new modalities of control are discussed

Autonomy · Criminology · Media studies · New england · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Educational Theory and Curriculum Studies · Gender Studies · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Law