Educational Change: a model for its analysis

Abstract

This article is concerned with theorising educational change. Working within a Marxist reproduction problematic, power and domination are theorised in terms of Social Forms—wage, state and civil‐forms—which are the product of capitalist social relations. Since these forms are a feature of the social formation, including the education system, a ‘translation effect’ between different levels of analysis can be identified. This approach entails recognition of the fact that reproduction is contested and has a political aspect, which is revealed by a ‘content‐theoretical’ model of educational change. This model delineates the relationship between the economic and political (the wage and state‐forms) as the dynamic for change, thereby demonstrating how the political makes possible the reproductive role of the education system. The utility of this model, and in particular its capacity to account for unintended consequences of educational change, is illustrated by reference to the recent introduction of the ‘new vocationalism’ into Further Education.