hartley - re-schooling society (review of the book)

8/22/2019 Hartley - Re-Schooling Society (Review of the Book)

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REVIEWSRe-schooling ociety.By David Hartley. Pp. 179, London: Falmer Press, 1997. ?14.95(pbk) ISBN 075070624 4 (pbk).'Everyword [of your thesis] should be full of meaning' was the advice of my super-visor once. I was reminded of this when reading (and rereading) this book for everyword is indeed full of meaning. It analyses complex theoretical issues in a mostscholarly, yet lively, style. It is a serious and important study that analyses currentcultural, economic and intellectual shifts and their implications for education. Asthe author explains in the introduction, it is not a 'how to' book, nor does it offersuggestions for dealing with the contradictions and uncertainties which charac-terise education today although it explores these contradictions and uncertainties,e.g. how strong central control (in the shape of the National Curriculum) can co-exist with approaches that are local and that espouse principles of personal empow-erment. Key themes of this sociological study are: the efficiency-oriented discoursein education policy documents is driven by an economic imperative but therhetoric of ownership, choice and personal empowerment draw on consumeristculture; technical considerations outweigh moral ones - in fact, educational issuesare re-castas technical ones and therefore they can be solved technically; and therehas been no firm break with modernity - rather there have been shifts in capitalismwith corresponding adjustments in education, the result being that schools 'are putout to tender in the marketplace, so as to make them efficient producers of futureand flexible workers, empowered and eager to take their place in the world of work'(p. 148). In this regard David Hartley's argument is not dissimilar to that of Bowlesand Gintis's 1976 study, Schoolingn CapitalistAmerica nd to that of the French soci-ologist, Bourdieu - these writershave argued that one of the principal (though notovert) functions of the education system is the reproduction and legitimation of thesocial relations of the capitalist social order. But it is in the author's demonstrationof the education system's attempt to reconcile he dilemmas and paradoxes whichpostmodernist thought, on the one hand, and economic globalization, on the otherhand, have created, that the strength and importance of this book lies. Moreover,the author argues that it is not workers, but consumers, that the economy nowneeds.It is noteworthy that the 'school' in the title includes all levels of education,including HE. The book begins with an analysisof the medieval and modern worldviews and proceeds to an analysis of the age of postmodernity. David Hartleyexpresses justifiable unease with the terms 'postmodernism' and 'postmodernity'and tends to use them as cultural, rather than chronological constructs. He noteshow the prefix 'post' implies an 'ante' period which has gone, thus implying a cleanhistorical break - he does not hold this view of a clean break with the past andargues throughout that it is premature to 'sound the death knell of modernity'. Heoffers a detailed analysis of the current economicpost-Fordism), cultural(postmod-ernism) and intellectual post-modernist theory) movements and this is followed bya wide-ranging sociological analysis of postmodernity, drawing on neo-Durkheimian theory, critical theory and Marxist theory. The first four chapters,therefore, provide a theoretical framework for interpreting the consequences ofthese shifts for four key dimensions of education: curriculum, pedagogy, assessmentand management and one chapter is devoted to each of the latter, respectively, inthe second half of the book.Curriculum policy exemplifies one of the paradoxes of education in post-modernity. Hartley observes:

338? Blackwell Publishers Ltd. and SCSE 1998


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REVIEWSOn the one hand, there may be established an over-arching, tightly specified,centrally-controlled curricular structure, from pre-school to university, whichwould be modularized, credit-weighted, predictable and 'performative'. It willbear all the hallmarks of the bureaucratic, predictable modernity. On the otherhand, there will be a rhetoric which resonates with the culture of postmod-ernism- the empowered, self-reliant, self-aware,self-supervising and autonomouslearner, quietly mopping up modules, sometimes impersonally through distancelearning, on-line, whenever and wherever. It will matter little who provides the'teaching' as long as the state centrally accredits the credentials, thereby ensur-ing quality and control. In combination, therefore, will be the modern bureau-cratic curricular structure and the postmodern progressive pedagogy (p. 71).

The end of education is not personal development and autonomy, but personaldevelopment for a purpose- the worker-to-be, the worker-in waiting; and the plea-sure-seeking consumer (p. 78). So it would seem that learner-centred pedagogy, thesubjectsof theself (e.g. personal and social education) are designed to contain thedisaffected and to deal with resistances.While the education system does appear to respond to the economic andcultural shifts of the times, it does so in a waythat does not threaten the reproduc-tion of the necessary predispositions required for production and consumption.There have been appeals to desire, choice, diversity, ownership and democracy inline with the cultural realm but it seems the economic realm - efficiency, effective-ness and technique - is foregrounded. This means policy makers' attempts to grap-ple with the intellectual ideas drawn from postmodernist theory are superficial andmerely act to neutralize the potential of these ideas for resistance, thus the endresult is that state education is a 'monument to modernity'.The concluding chapter challenges us to consider children and the pursuit ofself-interest within the confines of a market - '[d]o we wish our children to priva-tize their passions, to individualize their success and failure, to personalize theiridentities with consumables, to engage others at a 'distance', to mistrust, to marketthemselves?' (p. 152-3). Trust is a missing ingredient, Hartley argues, in currenteducational reforms in Britain. The conclusion drawn is that society is unlikely tobe 'de-schooled' in the Illichian sense but is more likely to be 're-schooled' withinthe competing values of democracy and capitalism and currently the re-schoolingin process emphasises commodification, marketisation and technical rationality. Inother words the trend is for capitalism to score at the expense of democracy. Thisis a pessimistic outlook. However, I take hope from the work of McLaren andGiroux and other critical theorists who argue for a critical pedagogy explicitlygeared to a more just and democratic society. At a minimum, one must take somesolace, as Hartley does, from the likelihood that learner-centred pedagogy, whilefunctional for post-Fordist work regimes, nevertheless encourages a questioningand reflective attitude in the learner and one which could lead to the constructionof counter-discourses.This book is important reading for social scientists, especially educationists. It isessential reading for our politicians and senior education policy makers as itteaches something they frequently seem to deny, that education cannot be sepa-rated from the economic and cultural milieu - as the author says, it is never 'above'the realms of the cultural, but alwaysof them.Leeds Metropolitan University KATHYALL

339? Blackwell Publishers Ltd. and SCSE 1998

hartley - re-schooling society (review of the book)

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