Transitions to Middle-Skill Jobs: Pathways Into the New Racio-Economic Structure of the 21st Century

Abstract

 College and Career Pathways is an educational policy initiative widely acclaimed as a commonsensical and effective measure to ease students’ transitions between secondary and postsecondary education and into the middle-skill jobs. This article investigates the internal dynamics of the Pathways’ curricular model as well as its underpinning assumptions and implications. First, it situates this development within the broader context of school-to-work reform efforts and explores its connections to the neoliberal ideological thinking. Drawing on Leonardo's (2012) critical raceclass theory of education as a conceptual lens, and with close attention to the new order of job categories, it then examines the rise of Pathways in light of the realities of class, race, and the asymmetrical power relations that characterize the modern nation state. The article concludes that pathways is best understood when situated within the dynamics of production and reproduction of a new class of workers for the new racio-economic structure of the 21st century.

Notes

¹Lewis (2008) lists Tech Prep and Youth Apprenticeships as two other initiatives inspired by previous models.

²See www.careerclusters.org for the list of clusters and pathways associated with each.

³On this topic, see Leonardo's (2012) critique of the uptake of Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital within CRT's relationship with class.

⁴See http://ab86.cccco.edu.

⁵For instance Future, English for Results series published by Pearson Longman and Ventures Transitions by Cambridge University Press.