Paradoxes of the Academization Process: A Sociological Exploration of the History of Foreign and Classical Language Education since 1864
CRPL Research Seminar - Speaker - Dr Eric Lybeck (University of Exeter)
Contemporary higher education has become a consumerist affair since student choice was put ‘at the heart of the system’ in 2011. This marketization extends universities’ function as an occupational clearinghouse: choice of degree course is assumed to be related to career aspirations. Yet, such expectations of rational career-accounting prove mythical if we consider the declining uptake of modern foreign languages in English-speaking countries: despite the obvious occupational skills multi-lingualism offers graduates in a globalized economy, fewer and fewer university consumers opt to study foreign languages.
| A School of Education research event | |
|---|---|
| Date | 1 December 2016 |
| Time | 13:00 to 14:30 |
| Place | Baring Court 112 |
| Provider | School of Education |
| Intended audience | Academic staff, postgraduate students and colleagues from other educational establishments |
| Registration information | No booking required |
| Cost | Free |
| Organizer | Jo Moncur |
Event details
To assess and explain this decline, narrow focus on the contemporary neoliberal university is abandoned here to reflect on a longer-term trend - an ‘academization process’ – with origins in nineteenth century efforts to widen participation in secondary education. In 1864, the Clarendon Commission responded to criticisms made by industrial elites against the perceived aristocratic ‘elitism’ of public schools. The traditional curriculum organized around Classical ‘grammar’ was compelled to give way to instruction in more ‘useful’ forms of knowledge, especially modern foreign languages. Indeed, the conflict between Classics vs. modern ‘useful’ subjects remained a central axis upon which conservative vs. progressive educational policy was debated until well into the 1970s. Because these debates ostensibly involved secondary schools, it is easy to miss the legacy of this history, which bears directly upon contemporary higher education. The precipitous decline of foreign language enrolment today can be related to consumerist changes within ‘the neoliberal university’, but equally to that same neoliberal university’s continued efforts to widen participation.
This is a Centre for Research in Professional Learning seminar. Please see our website for details of other centre activities.
Location:
Baring Court 112
