A class act : changing teachers' work, globalisation and the State / Susan L. Robertson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Robertson, Susan L.

Series:

Garland reference library of social science ; v. 1465.

Garland reference library of social science. Studies in education/politics ; vol. 8.

Garland reference library of social science ; v. 1465. Studies in education/politics ; v. 8

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Teaching--Political aspects.

Teaching.

Teachers--Social conditions.

Teachers.

Critical pedagogy.

Education and state.

Educational sociology.

Physical Description:

xviii, 240 pages ; 23 cm.

Other Title:

Changing teachers' work, globalisation and the State

Place of Publication:

New York : Falmer Press, 2000.

Summary:

This book offers an original and challenging theoretical and empirical approach to mapping the changing nature of teachers' work historically and in the contemporary period. It is an attempt to understand how and in what ways teachers' work has changed following the demise of the post-war settlement and the imminent collapse of teachers' project of professionalism secured through solidaristic strategies such as unionism. Dr. Robertson argues that in order to understand these issues, a more rigorous set of conceptual tools around social class, occupational power and worker control is needed. The first two sections of the book set out to address that problem. The final section elaborates on the changing contexts and conditions for contemporary teachers more generally, and argues that structural and ideological changes within educational provision have led to differing capacities in the realization of class assets.

Contents:

Introduction A Class Act: Teachers and Change 1

Changing Teachers' Work 1

Plus ca Change, Plus C'est la Meme Chose? 5

Critical Theory and Change 7

Philosophical Realism as Methodology 9

Critical Realism and Teachers' Labour 11

Part I Conceptual Contours 17

Chapter 1 Teachers and Class: The Terrain and Stakes of Struggle 19

Is Class a Viable Conceptual Tool for Understanding Teachers' Labour? 19

Class Matters 20

A Realist Framework for Class Analysis: Causes and Conditions 23

Starting Points: Economic, Organisational and Cultural Assets 24

Cultural Capital as a Cultural Asset 27

Taking the Analysis Further: Social Capital and Social Assets in Class Formation 29

Realism As Methodology: 'Consequences' and the Contribution of Lockwood 31

Chapter 2 Teachers, the State and Social Settlements 33

Settlements, Crisis and Transformation 33

Regulation Theory

the Accumulation/Institution Relation 34

A Framework for Analysing Teachers' Work in Social Settlements 38

Class and Labour

Power and Control 40

Points of Analytical Focus

Bernstein on Power and Control 42

Gouldner and the New Class Thesis 43

Part II Changing Contexts 47

Chapter 3 Laissez-Faire Liberalism, Teachers and the State 49

Liberalism and the 'Age of Capitalism' 51

Laissez-faire Liberalism and State Paternalism in England 53

Liberalism and Capitalist Expansion in America 55

Class, Gender, Segmentation and Subordination of Teachers in England 57

From Political Patronage to Administrative Efficiency in America 60

A Crisis of Profitability and Liberalism 66

Chapter 4 Fordism, Welfare Statism and the Rise of Teachers as 'Professionals' 71

Thirty Glorious Years 71

Taylor's Alchemy and the Fordist Model of Production 74

Education and the Cult of Efficiency in America 79

Managing Teacher Discontent in England 87

Keynesian Ideas and the Consolidation of the New Social Settlement 94

Teachers and the Fordist Keynesian Welfare State Settlement 99

Part III Contemporary Change 109

Chapter 5 The New Politics of 'Fast Capitalism': From Body to Soul 111

'Fast Capitalism' 111

Fast: Firmly Fixed or Attached 111

Fast: Rapid, Quick Moving, Providing or Allowing Quick Motion 113

Fast: Showing Too Advanced Time 115

Fast: Immoral, Dissipated 118

From Body to Soul: The New Politics of Consumption 119

Teachers and The New Politics of Production and Consumption 121

Displacements ... Up, Out and Down... 124

Chapter 6 Post-Fordist Discourses and Teachers' Work 125

Toolkits

the New Organisational Principles 126

New Social Visions 128

Critical Social Perspectives 130

Post-Fordist Discourses on Restructuring Teachers' Labour 132

Tools for Managing

New Principles for Reorganising 133

Social Visions, Markets and Teacher Empowerment 137

Critical Social Perspectives on Teachers' Work 141

Chapter 7 Ratcheting Up the Marketness Factor: Managing Compliance to the Competitive State Project 147

Bringing the State-Market Relation into View 147

Economic Markets and Their Relationship to the State 148

The Institutional Nature of State-Market Relations 153

Further Dimensions of Market Relations

'Marketness' and 'Embeddedness' 154

Managing Teachers' Commitment to the New Settlement 156

Chapter 8 Fast Schools and the New Politics of Production and Consumption 163

The Social Relations of Production and Consumption 163

Co-opting Schooling to the Competitive State Project 165

New Production Concepts and the Flexible Worker 169

Schools as Production Sites 172

Lifestyle Choices in the Schooling 'Super' Market 173

Product and Lifestyle Consumption 179

Cyborgs and Consumerism in an Information World 180

Fast Schools: A New Terrain for Professionalism 182

Part IV Critical Realities Reviewed 183

Chapter 9 Critical Realities Reviewed 185

A New Educational Mandate 187

Reshaping the Modes of Governance 189

The Transformation of Assets 190

Teachers' Situations at the End of the Millennium 205.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-231) and index.

ISBN:

0815335768

0815335784

OCLC:

43540590