Social control in teacher education: A case study.

Abstract

In this research I have examined the relationship between an aspect of teacher education and the ideology of social control. Taking the Professional Studies Credit of a B.Ed. Honours year course, I examine the ways in which the Credit serves to develop those qualities which support the dominant social order both overtly and implicitly. I suggest that both the planning and the implementation of the Credit take place within constraining parameters and that they embody contradictions and tensions, which correspond very broadly to developments in wider society. Use of the concepts of practical theoretical and hegemonic ideologies demonstrates, I believe, the ways in which different forms of control are transmitted and legitimated. Part of the research involves also an examination of certain Government Reports on Education. By looking at these I seek to understand how the underlying social, economic and political structures influence the ideologies, which are part of everyday perceptions about education. I use a form of discourse analysis, which I believe helps to provide some understanding of how educational common sense comes to be produced and how status is created. By doing this it is my intention to avoid separating the development of a particular course from the wider issues of power and control. However, I do not see the two aspects as causatively linked, but each as part of the same social and political whole. It is my intention to reveal the ideological contradictions underpinning both the Professional Studies Credit and the selected Government Reports. But the chief emphasis of this research is upon the mechanisms and strategies by which both the Professional Studies Credit and the Government Reports create meaning.

Date of Award	1985
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bath