Tests, tasks and Taylorism: a Model T approach to the management of education

Abstract

In the post‐war period, education policy has attempted to strike a balance between serving the needs of two competing ideals, namely democracy and capitalism. Whenever it serves the latter, it must also seem to serve the former. If not, the policy will be difficult to ‘sell’ on democratic principles. This tactic seems to have been overlooked by the Scottish Education Department in its 1987 consultation paper Curriculum and Assessment in Scotland: a Policy for the 90s. In it the SED has sought to revive the managerial style of entrepreneurial capitalism, namely Taylorism. It has done so, however, hard on the heels of its previous advocacy of human relations management approaches. Only recently, teachers expected to be consulted; now they are to be told and (with the threat of legislation) cajoled. The result is that the SED has lost its legitimacy, and it may face a backlash calling for a move away from the cult of efficiency and enterprise towards a more democratic educational process.