This article offers a critical analysis of recent trends in educational policy with particular reference to their assumptions about the knowledge society. It examines the implications of the analysis for the issue of elitism and the promotion of greater educational equality. The article concludes by offering an alternative approach to educational policy based on a social realist theory of knowledge.
AllaisS.M. (2009) Smokes and Mirrors: What's really informing the growth of national qualifications frameworks internationally? Paper presented at UKFIET Conference, Oxford, 14–17 September.
BernsteinB. (1975) Class and Pedagogies: Visible and invisible. Studies in the Learning Sciences, No. 2. Washington, DC: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
5.
BernsteinB. (2000) Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity. Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield.
6.
BolstadR. & GilbertJ. (2009) Disciplining or Drafting? Rethinking the New Zealand Senior Secondary Curriculum for the Future. Wellington, NZCER Press.
DelorsJ. (1996) Education for the 21st Century. The Delors Report. Paris: UNESCO.
13.
DurkheimE. (1983) Pragmatism and Sociology, trans. AlcockJ.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
14.
European Commission (2009) New Skills for New Jobs. Draft Report Expert Group. Brussels: European Commission.
15.
FineB. (2001) Social Capital versus Social Theory: Political economy and social science at the turn of the millennium, ed. MitchieJonathan. London and New York: Routledge.
16.
FineB. & MilonakisD. (2009) From Economics Imperialism to Freakonomics: The shifting boundaries between economics and other social sciences. London: Routledge.
MagalhãesA.M. (2008) Creation of the EHEA, ‘Learning Outcomes’ and Transformation of Educational Categories in Higher Education, University of Oporto, unpublished.
22.
MatonK. & MooreR. (2009) Social Realism, Knowledge and the Sociology of Education. London: Continuum.
23.
MooreR. (2004) Education and Society. London: Polity Press.
24.
MorrowW. (2009) Bounds of Democracy; epistemological access in higher education. Pretoria: HSRC Press.
YoungM. (2009a) NVQs in the UK; their origins and legacy. Report prepared for the International Labour Organisation's Implementation of National Qualifications Research Project.
38.
YoungM. (2009b) What are Schools For? In DanielsH.LauderJ. & PorterJ. (Eds) Knowledge, Values and Educational Policy. London: Routledge.
39.
YoungM. & AllaisS.M. (2010) Conceptualising the Role of Qualifications in Educational Reform. ILO Discussion document, unpublished.