Feminism Feudalism anarchism Freedom of Information Functionalism Gender
Global Capitalism Globalisation Great Thinkers Habituation of the Nation Hellinistic Philosophy Historical Materialism
Human Freedom Human Rights Humanity Immorality Independent Thinking Industrial Revolution
Pedagogy of Revolution

Flow of Ideas: articles - On Education for Its Own Sake

A Capital Friendly Culture for Further EducationA Capital Friendly Culture for Further Education
Academy ChainsAcademy Chains
After the Hillcole GroupAfter the Hillcole Group
Against What We Are WorthAgainst What We Are Worth
Ambassadors of Capital in SchoolsAmbassadors of Capital in Schools
An Educational Mansion House for BusinessAn Educational Mansion House for Business
Apprenticeship and the Use-value Aspect of Labour PowerApprenticeship and the Use-value Aspect of Labour Power
Artistic OutlookArtistic Outlook
Ayers Rocked In His Own UniverseAyers Rocked In His Own Universe
B GenerationB Generation
Bourdieu on CapitalBourdieu on Capital
Bourdieu on Cultural CapitalBourdieu on Cultural Capital
Bourdieu on Social CapitalBourdieu on Social Capital
Brown PFI MonsterBrown PFI Monster
Business Sponsorship of SchoolsBusiness Sponsorship of Schools
Business Takeover of Further EducationBusiness Takeover of Further Education
Cambridge University OccupationCambridge University Occupation
Caught in the Storm of CapitalCaught in the Storm of Capital
Co-payment in Hospitals and SchoolsCo-payment in Hospitals and Schools
Cold Hands and Quarter MoonCold Hands and Quarter Moon
Communitarianism for SchoolsCommunitarianism for Schools
Compulsory Consumption and Uni-NannyCompulsory Consumption and Uni-Nanny
Conforming Schools Conforming KidsConforming Schools Conforming Kids
Copy/South DossierCopy/South Dossier
Creating MonstersCreating Monsters
Creeping Privatisation in Higher EducationCreeping Privatisation in Higher Education
Critical MassCritical Mass
Critical Pedagogy and CapitalismCritical Pedagogy and Capitalism
Critical Space in EducationCritical Space in Education
Delivering E-LearningDelivering E-Learning
Digital Rights ManagementDigital Rights Management
DistillationDistillation
Dorothy L. SayersDorothy L. Sayers
Douglas Kennedy: best-selling novelistDouglas Kennedy: best-selling novelist
E-learning for Free at the BBCE-learning for Free at the BBC
Edison Schools in the UKEdison Schools in the UK
Education and Inspections Bill (2006)Education and Inspections Bill (2006)
Education As Culture MachineEducation As Culture Machine
Education FireworksEducation Fireworks
Education for DebtEducation for Debt
Education IncorporatedEducation Incorporated
Education Markets and Missing ProductsEducation Markets and Missing Products
Education RepetitionEducation Repetition
Education the HSBC WayEducation the HSBC Way
Education White PaperEducation White Paper
Education, Globalisation and the Learning SocietyEducation, Globalisation and the Learning Society
Employers and School LeaversEmployers and School Leavers
Evaluating Different Teaching MethodsEvaluating Different Teaching Methods
Everything Louder Than Everything ElseEverything Louder Than Everything Else
Finance and FearFinance and Fear
Five Endings of DesiresFive Endings of Desires
Foibles, Frolics and PhantasmsFoibles, Frolics and Phantasms
FreedomFreedom
FreewillFreewill
French New Wave CinemaFrench New Wave Cinema
Full Report Ruth Rikowski[a]s Book Launch for Globalisation, Information and LibrariesFull Report Ruth Rikowski's Book Launch for Globalisation, Information and Libraries
Gender and Spokesperson in Group Work IssuesGender and Spokesperson in Group Work Issues
Global TradingGlobal Trading
Globalisation and Education RevisitedGlobalisation and Education Revisited
Habituation of the NationHabituation of the Nation
Higher Education and Confused Employer SyndromeHigher Education and Confused Employer Syndrome
Hitchcock: classic auteurHitchcock: classic auteur
Human capital, the knowledge economy and businessHuman capital, the knowledge economy and business
In Retro GlideIn Retro Glide
In the Dentist[a]s ChairIn the Dentist's Chair
Kids in the Land of No DreamsKids in the Land of No Dreams
KM CritiqueKM Critique
Lazy Brit KidsLazy Brit Kids
Learning in the Earthworks of CapitalLearning in the Earthworks of Capital
Learning InvestmentsLearning Investments
Learning to the MaxLearning to the Max
Librarianship and Human RightsLibrarianship and Human Rights
Lifelong Learning and the Political Economy of ContainmentLifelong Learning and the Political Economy of Containment
LSBU StrategyLSBU Strategy
Marketisation of the Schools System in EnglandMarketisation of the Schools System in England
Marx and Education RevisitedMarx and Education Revisited
Marx and the Future of the HumanMarx and the Future of the Human
Marxism and Education RevisitedMarxism and Education Revisited
Marxist Educational Theory UnpluggedMarxist Educational Theory Unplugged
Maturity and FreedomMaturity and Freedom
McDonaldization and EducationMcDonaldization and Education
Michael JacksonMichael Jackson
Michele RobertsMichele Roberts
Miss Allison and Novel WritingMiss Allison and Novel Writing
Moneythought in Higher EducationMoneythought in Higher Education
Mrs Thatcher and Holes in the Kitchen FloorMrs Thatcher and Holes in the Kitchen Floor
Multiculturalism and Faith SchoolsMulticulturalism and Faith Schools
My Tony BlairMy Tony Blair
New Ideas in Ruth Rikowski[a]s Book - Part 1New Ideas in Ruth Rikowski's Book - Part 1
New Ideas in Ruth Rikowski[a]s Book - Part 2New Ideas in Ruth Rikowski's Book - Part 2
New Labour Policy for SchoolsNew Labour Policy for Schools
Nietzsche[a]s SchoolNietzsche's School
Nihilism and Educational ValuesNihilism and Educational Values
No Learner Left UnhassledNo Learner Left Unhassled
Notes on the Confessions of John DenhamNotes on the Confessions of John Denham
On Education for Its Own SakeOn Education for Its Own Sake
On Education StudiesOn Education Studies
On the Capitalisation of Schools in EnglandOn the Capitalisation of Schools in England
On Transhumanism and EducationOn Transhumanism and Education
Open AccessOpen Access
Outsourcing Public ServicesOutsourcing Public Services
Peter Wilby on School PrivatisationPeter Wilby on School Privatisation
Planet of the CapitorgPlanet of the Capitorg
PlatoPlato
Playgound Risks and Handcuffed KidsPlaygound Risks and Handcuffed Kids
Poems by Gregory RikowskiPoems by Gregory Rikowski
Poems by Victor RikowskiPoems by Victor Rikowski
Post-Fordism and SchoolsPost-Fordism and Schools
Post-Fordism in Primary SchoolsPost-Fordism in Primary Schools
Postmodern Dereliction in the Face of Neoliberal Education PolicyPostmodern Dereliction in the Face of Neoliberal Education Policy
PowerPointlessness in Higher EducationPowerPointlessness in Higher Education
Private Schools as CharitiesPrivate Schools as Charities
Privatisation of Schools in EnglandPrivatisation of Schools in England
Privatisation of Student DebtPrivatisation of Student Debt
Races in the Imperial WarRaces in the Imperial War
Readings for Teaching CourseReadings for Teaching Course
Recruitment and Labour PowerRecruitment and Labour Power
Revealed Recruitment Criteria through the Use-value Aspect of Labour-powerRevealed Recruitment Criteria through the Use-value Aspect of Labour-power
Robotic EthicsRobotic Ethics
Ruth Rikowski Updates (Archives)Ruth Rikowski Updates (Archives)
Ruth Rikowski Updates (Archives)Ruth Rikowski Updates (Archives)
School Fees and the 1944 Education ActSchool Fees and the 1944 Education Act
Schools: Building for BusinessSchools: Building for Business
Science Fiction Films and HorrorScience Fiction Films and Horror
Second Time as FarceSecond Time as Farce
Snowballs and Risk in SchoolsSnowballs and Risk in Schools
Social Contract Theory and Political ObligationsSocial Contract Theory and Political Obligations
Socialism is not DeadSocialism is not Dead
Speed of Life - Part OneSpeed of Life - Part One
Speed of Life - Part TwoSpeed of Life - Part Two
Stroppy Individuals and Oppositional Cultures in SchoolsStroppy Individuals and Oppositional Cultures in Schools
Sustainability Policy at London South Bank UniversitySustainability Policy at London South Bank University
Ten Points on Marx, Class and EducationTen Points on Marx, Class and Education
The Business of Becoming a Business for AcademiesThe Business of Becoming a Business for Academies
The Capitalisation of Schools - Federations and AcademiesThe Capitalisation of Schools - Federations and Academies
The CBI and the Business Takeover of SchoolsThe CBI and the Business Takeover of Schools
The Commodification of EducationThe Commodification of Education
The Education White Paper and the Marketisation of SchoolsThe Education White Paper and the Marketisation of Schools
The Evolution of Federations of SchoolsThe Evolution of Federations of Schools
The Last Parents EveningThe Last Parents Evening
The New Japanisation of SchoolsThe New Japanisation of Schools
The Profit Virus - The Business Takeover of SchoolsThe Profit Virus - The Business Takeover of Schools
The Standards Language-game for Schools in EnglandThe Standards Language-game for Schools in England
The Which Blair ProjectThe Which Blair Project
Three Types of Apprenticeship - Three Forms of MasteryThree Types of Apprenticeship - Three Forms of Mastery
Tony and Caroline BennTony and Caroline Benn
Tony Benn: Letters to GrandchildrenTony Benn: Letters to Grandchildren
TransportTransport
Turney[a]s and PPUTurney's and PPU
Uninspiring TowersUninspiring Towers
Universe of Capital and My SpaceUniverse of Capital and My Space
Universities in a Neoliberal WorldUniversities in a Neoliberal World
Utopia and EducationUtopia and Education
What Can Nietzsche Teach YaWhat Can Nietzsche Teach Ya
When Bullies Roam the SchoolWhen Bullies Roam the School
When the Bowers BreakWhen the Bowers Break
Why Employers Can[a]t Ever Get What They WantWhy Employers Can't Ever Get What They Want
Will Hutton and His E-FossWill Hutton and His E-Foss
Wolf on Marx Without SparksWolf on Marx Without Sparks
Women in World WarsWomen in World Wars






Chandos Book Publishing
On Education for Its Own Sake


Glenn Rikowski, London, 17th October 2005


In the Times Educational Supplement of 7th October 2005, Jill Parkin wrote a very timely and hard-hitting critique of New Labour's Academies programme. This was especially significant in the light of Mansell et al's (2005) front page report on academies in the same issue of the TES. Their report indicated that:

"Not one of the 28 schools replaced by academies was in special measures at the time of closure, despite ministers' insistence that the £5 billion academies scheme is tackling educational failure."

Schools Minister Jacqui Smith had indicated in the summer that academies were making good progress as they had replaced 'failing schools', noted Mansell et al. Not so, apparently; none of the schools were technically or officially failing (i.e. in special measures as stipulated by the Office for Standards in Education) when they were converted to academies (Ibid.). Only two of the schools had ‘serious weaknesses’ when they were moved down the academies road.

Thus, with reports like this headlining and front paging the Times Educational Supplement then Jill Parkin's analysis comes along at as strategically embarrassing moment. As Parkin (2005) noted:

"Behind it [the Academy programme] there's an assumption about "the masses" that steps right out of the 19th century - that work and profits are all."

Furthermore, Parkin has an alternative to this dismal educational philosophy: 'education for its own sake'. This is education for the sheer love of doing it. Notes Parkin:

"Of course, if we work and have family responsibilities, we are all cogs in a wheel, but we are also much more. Flawed as they were, both grammars and comprehensives [types of secondary schools for non-UK readers] recognised that the masses in the mill towns, the pit villages and the docks could dream, think and appreciate. Education for its own sake is easily sneered at, but it gives some of the keenest enjoyment mankind knows."

Now, advocating 'education for its own sake' as an alternative to 'education for work and profits' does have its appeal. It poses real education against capitalised and commercialised education for the money fetish. It sounds more wholesome, worthwhile and human even. However, in posing 'education for its own sake' as an education ideal we are likely to let the developing forms of capitalist education and training off the hook.

What we need is more analysis of capitalist education and training in order to see the nature of the beast we are up against. I have spent the last 25 years developing such an analysis, and whilst I would gladly rally round the flag of 'education for its own sake' against the anti-educational perspective of 'education for work and profits', I would not join up to this cause as an alternative to the analysis and critique of capitalist education and training. I would not put speaking out for 'education for its own sake' as a higher priority than the analysis and critique of capitalist education and training.


Education for Its Own Sake

The problems with arguing for ‘education for its own sake’ are varied. First, in these hard-nosed days of key skills, the hydra-headed phenomenon of the vocationalisation of all known subjects and topics and the increasingly assessment- and outcomes-based approach to learning it is hard to see how an effete and airy 'education for its own sake' can begin to turn the tide without some massive social movement to stoke its fires. Those such as Parkin will cheerily sing its praises but offer little in the way of how a commitment to such learning might be generated and enhanced.

Secondly, in higher education and by stealth in the schools’ system in England, the twin spectres of money and debt loom ever larger. Higher education fees have concentrated the minds of some students so that they choose more vocational degrees partly in order to maximise their chances of paying off debts. This fits in with the vocationalist agenda for a 'mass' higher education system very smoothly. Those students from affluent backgrounds can more readily make higher education choices where their love of particular subjects is not overshadowed by their need to pay off debt after they have got their first degree.

Thirdly, as Mary Evans (2004) makes clear, in the UK higher education system the culture of audit, outcomes-based learning and targets is 'killing thinking' in numerous ways. Compliance to government and employers' agendas for debt-ridden students but increasingly for fear-ridden staff is what is occurring on an expanding scale. Of course, there are still occasional outbursts of principled action by the likes of the George Fox 6; where six courageous students at the University of Lancaster peacefully protested about the commercialisation of the university (which included messing with arms dealers and GM crops companies - see Indymedia UK, 2005; and Blair, 2005). But defending 'education for its own sake' against predatory capital (which sometimes flaunts its profit drives over human betterment), given the huge raft of laws now available to the British state, becomes ever more perilous for individuals and groups [1]. The culture of higher education in Britain today is a most unhealthy social and educational environment in which 'education for its own sake' can take root and flourish.

Fourthly, it is hard to think of a time in the history of the world when 'education for its own sake' has actually existed. The social form of education is always conditioned by the nature of the society in which it exists. Perhaps for some individuals, or for some groups of researchers or academics, teaching and learning may have existed relatively independently of broader social forces. However, as a general principle underpinning the operation of whole educational systems or even whole institutions or departments the existence of 'education for education's sake' is shadowy indeed.

This last point raises the question of whether there can be a kind of ‘island pedagogy’. This is where ‘education for its own sake’ can flourish in particular places within the educational system in England. An 'island' of 'real education' may be possible within a sea of commercialisation, capitalisation, labour-power production, profit-making and mongering, fear of debt and fear of non-conformity and market failure (i.e. not enough students bringing in the flow of money).


Island Pedagogy?

Island Pedagogy is the notion that strong-willed individuals can buck the trends noted above and 'get back to where we once belonged' with 'education for its own sake'. This is basically the position taken by Frank Furedi (2004) in his book, Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone? Confronting 21st Century Philistinism. For Furedi, the problem is largely one of a lack of will, gutlessness amongst so-called intellectuals, especially those within academic life, today. Furedi ends his book by noting:

"There is very little that we can do to force the elites to give up their instrumentalist and philistine world view. But we can wage a battle of ideas for the hearts and minds of the public. How we do it is one of the key questions of our time" (p.156).

Yet Furedi provides no real answer to this question. How can 'education for its own sake' be made to win through against the tide of instrumentalism?

Furedi is a sociologist, and to my mind he takes a very unsociological view in clinging to the possibilities for Island Pedagogy in the face of the growing capitalisation of education, especially higher education, where he operates. He avoids analysing the trends that drive independent thought and existence in academic life off the face of the educational landscape at worst, or underground (through marginalisation) at best. Furedi fails to tackle on the monster that threatens his idyll: the virus of capital invading all areas of educational and social life.

Island Pedagogy appears to be wishful thinking on a massive scale. The forces of capital are gaining strength in education, in all sectors. Thus, it would seem to me that the place to start, and here is a real job for intellectuals, is the relentless critique of capitalist education and training.


Critique of Capitalist Education and Training

In my view, we take our eye off the ball if we conjure up some tranquil scenes where worthy souls can engage in Pure Education unsullied by the drives of capital. There is no Island of Real Education. Similarly, bleating about 'education for its own sake' is a comforting diversion when the wolves of capital are tearing the educational landscape apart. It takes bottle to banish such dreams, and on this score Furedi is right to point to mainstream, careerist academics who blunder into the arms of capital whilst schizoid-like holding onto their Educational Ideals. Yet Furedi ultimately is also in this dreamlike state, holding out 'education for its own sake' as a panacea and Island Pedagogy as a strategy in these troubled educational times.

Critique must become the sword with which we slay illusions in education today. It is illusions in our leaders, our systems of education, our ideas about these systems and our capacity to hope from something better from them that betray us.

Critique must become the first moment in an anti-capitalist educational outlook (see Rikowski, 2004). In the current state of the anti-capitalist movement, only on the back of critique can our dreams ultimately take on real significance and power.


Notes:

[1] See George Monbiot (2005) on the draconian laws now available to the British state that makes effective protest technically impossible. There is always some law or other to stop it if the police or government so wish to dredge it up.


References

Blair, A. (2005) Students face jail over protest, The Times, 26th September, p.10.

Evans, M. (2004) Killing Thinking: The Death of the Universities, London: Continuum.

Furedi, F. (2004) Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone? Confronting 21st Century Philistinism, London: Continuum.

Indymedia UK (2005) George Fox Six on Trial from 26th September, at: http://www4.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/09/323778.html

Mansell, W., Luck, A. & Paton, G. (2005) Ministers ‘misled’ public on academies, Times Educational Supplement, 7th October, p.1.

Monbiot, G. (2005) Protest is criminalised and the huffers and puffers say nothing, The Guardian, 4th October, p.27.

Parkin, J. (2005) Academies' glitter may be fool's gold, Times Educational Supplement, 7th October, p.22.

Rikowski, G. (2004) Marx and the Education of the Future, Policy Futures in Education, Vol.2 Nos. 3 & 4, pp.565-577. Available online: http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/viewpdf.asp?j=pfie&vol=2&issue=3&year=2004&article=10_Rikowski_PFEO_2_3-4_web&id=195.93.21.68



Print Friendly - Print Friendly with links
Anti-Imperialist
 © Copyright, Flow of Ideas, Ruth Rikowski and Glenn Rikowski
current date time:
Capital and Class
Website Design and Coding by Digo PC
Site optimisation by Bytec Solutions
Free-thought Global Family Government
Higher Education Human Progress Idealism
Immorality Income Generation Indulgence
Injustice Intellectual Development Knowledge Management

Valid CSS!