Liberal-humanist education: The vocationalist challenge

Abstract

This paper argues for the need to move beyond the ideological analysis of recent educational change. The current crisis of liberal education (both traditional and progressive) should not be seen exclusively in terms of New Right criticisms. The challenge presented by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications’ vocationalism in the ‘competency’ form predates the New Right and is opposed to both market economics and neo‐conservative traditionalism. Factors intrinsic to the development of liberal education in the post‐war period of expansion were inherently destabilising. A legitimation crisis resulted from differentiation represented in the distinction between traditionalism and progressivism and in developments such as anti‐sexist and multicultural education. Credential inflation produced diminishing returns to individual ‘investment’ in education. The cultural capital of the high status variants of liberal‐humanist education remained inaccessible to newly incorporated groups. Educational expansion was not associated with tangible gains in terms of a redistribution of social opportunities. Competency can be seen as an attempt to stabilise the system and supplant liberal‐humanist forms of education. It is argued that understandings of educational change have to move beyond a reductive analysis of the political interventions of the New Right towards a broader view of tendencies intrinsic to educational expansion and the liberal‐humanist model in the post‐war period. © 1995 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.