In this talk I will discuss the decreasing significance of education as a means of social advancement. While governments have always strived to make education the servant of their national interests (Lyotard, 1979), for most of the postwar period this was associated with entry into the labour market, and especially into the professional and managerial occupations, as well as with attendant upward social mobility.
The primacy of education among other routes of occupational advancement and social mobility was achieved thanks to government policy and planning, which led to the unparalleled expansion of all education sectors. This expansion coincided with the socio-economic conditions that prevailed in the so-called ‘Golden Age’ of capitalism (throughout the fifties and sixties), which emphasised economic growth and development within mixed market economies against other considerations, such as ethical, equitable, sustainable and socially just development. In this context, education started being viewed as an instrument for economic growth and a necessary means of improving a nation’s productive capacity, in short, as an engine of growth in its own right (Schultz, 1971).
However, more recently education appears to have lost its capacity to promote individuals’ social advancement. Instead, many argue (cf. Reay, 2006) it has become an instrument of social stasis. At the same time, the economic and financial crisis that has engulfed the world since 2008, has ground the economies of most economically advanced countries to a halt or even made them shrink considerably. The formerly cherished ‘education-based panacea’, both in terms of individual and country-specific benefits, is under scrutiny and disbelief, while, the rising numbers of graduate unemployment, student debt, and the concomitant devaluation of educational credentials give more reasons for discontent.
In this talk, I shall present findings from selected, advanced and less-advanced economically, countries in order to illustrate how education has abolished its potential to promote upward social mobility and will discuss some of the chief reasons behind this trend. The discussion is framed in a critique of the political economy and the dominant model of production that has been in operation after WWII in many Western capitalist countries.
References
Lyotard, J-L. (1979) The Postmodern Condition. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Schultz, T.W. (1971) Investment in Human Capital. The Free Press: New York.
Speaker(s): Dr Spyros Themelis, Lecturer in Education, Middlesex University
Venue: LCSS, 227/228 Strand (Second floor), London, WC2R 1BE
Date: Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Time: 6:00pm - Registration, Tea & Coffee;
6:30pm - Main Talk
Biography:
Spyros Themelis is a lecturer in Education at Middlesex University, London. His interests are in the area of social class analysis, meritocracy, social mobility and education as well as on issues of social exclusion/inclusion. He has researched minority issues and taken part in international research projects on Roma/Gypsies. Apart from the UK, he taught and/or conducted research in Greece, Italy, Hungary, Romania and the USA. He is a research fellow of the Centre for Contemporary immigration Studies, University of California, San Diego and a member of the editorial board of the Journal for Critical Education Studies (JCEPS). He is currently working on a monograph on education and social class dynamics.
