The Development of Vocational Programs in Secondary Schools

Abstract

Fourteen years ago, Goodson argued that, despite radical changes in the structures of schooling, ``the underlying fabric of curriculum has remained surprisingly constant'' (Goodson 1993: 22), with the academic curriculum continuing to dominate the operations of secondary schools. He went on to note that practical or vocational studies, despite their growing role in the secondary school curriculum, continued to be regarded as lower status curriculum options (Goodson 1993: 22). The view that school subjects are manifestations of the social construction of knowledge and that they occupy a status hierarchy has become an accepted part of educational scholarship since the work of Bernstein (1971, 1973, 1977) and Goodson (1993, 1997). This is particularly true in recent analyses of the growth in vocational subjects in schools or using Goodson's language, the utilitarian curriculum. The marginal status of the vocational curriculum is linked in academic discourse to its undistinguished lineage as an option for the children of the poor.