Considering Capital: The limits of curriculum in an employment preparation programme
Author: St Clair R.
Source: Studies in the Education of Adults, Volume 33, Number 1, 1 April 2001 , pp. 4-19(16)
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Abstract:
This article addresses the formation of curriculum in an employment preparation programme using a theoretical perspective combining the work of Bernstein and Bourdieu. The employment preparation programme (UTP) was situated within a Canadian labour union with a progressive, community-centred philosophy. Despite this orientation, the programme was strongly reproductive of current liberal constructions of unemployment as a personal trouble rather than a public issue, resulting in a highly prescribed educational process. I explain this using ideas of social and cultural capital, viewing UTP's primary function as transmission of appropriate forms of capital to unemployed people. Like economic capital, social and cultural forms have to be guarded against contamination and inappropriate expenditure, leading to the imposition of a strong boundary around valuable knowledge. The challenge for progressive educators in vocational settings is to find a way to transmit the capital necessary for success in the workplace, while also leaving the boundaries sufficiently open for the experience and knowledge of participants to be recognised, and for the possibility of other forms of workplace relations to be recognised.Document Type: Research article
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