Civilising the Natives? Liberal Studies in Further Education Revisited

ABSTRACT

This paper uses Basil Bernstein’s work on pedagogic discourses to examine a largely neglected facet of the history of vocational education – the liberal studies movement in English further education colleges. Initially, the paper discusses some of the competing conceptions of education, work and society which underpinned the rise and fall of the liberal studies movement – if indeed it can be described as such. The paper then draws on data from interviews with former liberal and general studies lecturers to focus on the ways in which different variants of liberal studies were, over time, implicated in inculcating certain forms of knowledge in vocational learners. Whilst it is acknowledged that liberal and general studies always represented contested territory and that it was highly variable both in terms of content and quality, the paper argues that, at least under certain circumstances, liberal studies provided young working-class people with the opportunity to locate their experiences of vocational learning within a critical framework that is largely absent from further education today. This, it is argued, can be conceptualised as an engagement with what Bernstein described as ‘powerful knowledge’.

Keywords:

• liberal studies
• further education
• Bernstein

Notes

¹ The term FE college is used to describe a range of institutions that have always been multi-functional but whose main remit has traditionally been providing technical and vocational education and training to individuals over the minimum school-leaving age. During the period dealt with in this paper these included generalist institutions, often known as technical colleges or colleges of FE, and specialist institutions that focused on certain subject areas such as art and design, business or construction. Whilst international comparisons are not straightforward, FE colleges have a number of broad similarities with community colleges in the USA and the TAFE institutes in Australia.

² Certain establishments that, in the years immediately after the end of World War Two, were generally regarded as being part of the FE system were eventually drawn into the higher education sector when, over time, they were incorporated into colleges of advanced technology, polytechnics and other higher education institutions, most of which eventually became designated as universities.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Raymond Williams Foundation [grant number 1301].