Ralph Williams

The New Vocationalism Enacted? The Transformation of the Business Studies Curriculum

ABSTRACT This paper, which is based on ESRC‐funded research, draws on quantitative and qualitative data to examine the transformation of the business studies curriculum in secondary schools. It links this transformation to the emergence of the ‘new vocationalism’ and to alleged changes in the nature of work, work organisation and the labour market. The paper argues that the changes which have taken place in the business studies curriculum are the result of interplay between the rhetoric of the new vocationalism, the resources mobilised to support this rhetoric, the activities of various mediating agencies, the characteristics and environments of schools and the professional and career concerns of teachers. The paper ends by considering the place of business studies within the curriculum in the aftermath of the 1988 Education Act.

The Fate of the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative in a Pilot School: a longitudinal case study

Abstract This paper arises out of wider Economic and Social Research Council funded research on the legacy of the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) in a national sample of original pilot schools. It describes and analyses the development of TVEI in one school over the period 1983‐91 and draws on field‐work at the school in 1986 and 1991. The development and demise of a radical cross‐curricular course are explained. It is argued that the particular fate of the innovation was the result of the interplay between a range of system level, local ‘market’ and in‐school factors.

From Vertical To Horizontal? A Longitudinal Study of Information Technology in Ten Schools

ABSTRACT This paper, which arises out of wider Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded research, examines the provision of information technology in ten British secondary schools. The longitudinal nature of the research allows us to test a model proposed by Wellington, which describes the evolution of information technology in secondary schools from a vertical to a horizontal approach, against the data from the ten schools. We explore tensions between vertical and horizontal approaches and show that the evolutionary process is more complex than suggested by the model. We focus on the role of the information technology co‐ordinator in promoting horizontal approaches to information technology and explore the conditions under which the role is carried out.

Evaluating Self Reports of Action Research in Changing Educational Institutions: a response to Hugh Busher

Abstract In British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 15, No. 1, 1989 Hugh Busher relates his experience as a low status member of a department successfully operating as a change agent/catalyst in launching a journal. The account gives a rare opportunity for such a piece of research to be tested against the perceptions of participants other than the researcher. The following paper examines Bushers account in the light of these perceptions. Questions are raised about his descriptions of the structure and politics of the department and his analysis of the process of the launch of the journal. A main point of the paper is to raise questions about how the validity of such personal accounts can be assessed by the research community or by those seeking practical guidance for action in educational institutions.

The Technical and Vocational Education Initiative and School Autonomy in the Management of Curriculum Change.

Abstract This paper arises out of wider, ESRC‐funded research on the legacy of the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (TVEI) in a national sample of original pilot schools. The paper draws on two periods of fieldwork in the schools, the first in 1985 and 1986, the second in 1991 and 1992. This methodology allows the adoption of a longitudinal perspective in studying TVEI. The paper focuses on attempts to manage curriculum change through TVEI. This was to be achieved through the novel means of providing funds in return for contractual commitments by local education authorities to implement programmes which met the national TVEI aims and criteria specified by the Manpower Services Commission (this method of allocating resources became known as categorical funding). The paper begins with a brief description of TVEI and draws important distinctions between the pilot and extension phases of the Initiative. This is followed by a review of the claims for, and critiques of, the categorical funding mech...

Exploratory Group Technique: an approach to sensitising school-focused research

A technique is described for sensitising normative school‐focused research by enabling the practitioners perspective to be uncovered and systematically incorporated into research design. The procedure is based upon small group discussions, but involves specific procedures, sampling, timing and methods of recording. It is claimed that the approach not only permits teachers to articulate their views and practice in a manner which is relatively undistorted by received rhetoric, but also results in data which readily inform the design of normative research aimed at investigating the process of schooling. Two examples are given of the technique in operation, one concerned with investigating the ways that infant teachers value and use pictures and the other an evaluation of the implementation of GRIDS (Guidelines for Review and Internal Development in Schools) in a group of schools. In each case, the results of the exploratory group are shown to have substantially influenced the extent to which the related stu...

An Evaluation of the Implementation of Grids in one Local Education Authority

The introduction of GRIDS for schools to review their curricula was received positively. Teachers welcomed their greater involvement in decisions and better communications. Further work was found to be needed on the processes of change in schools.

The educational backgrounds of LEA Chief and Deputy Education Officers in England and Wales

Although the general relationship between education and occupation in Western societies is well versed and accepted there are relatively few studies into the educational backgrounds of specific occupations. Within the education service this often gives rise to speculation concerning the appropriateness, or otherwise, of the education and experience of those holding significant posts in management, leadership and evaluation. This article presents data on Chief and Deputy Education Officers (CEOs, DEOs) and is part of an on-going and extensive survey project into the relationship between education and occupation being carried out in the University of Leeds.* Education officers have received very little attention from researchers and any data on their education is particularly rare. The one published exception, Rendel (1968), surveyed all graduates in local educational administration in April 1965. Since many of the CEO/DEOs in the present survey were employed in these capacities at that date, Rendels data may be assumed to provide the basis for a view of the promotion stakes, by comparison of the intake with post-holders. However, it is not possible to make direct comparisons over time, since Rendel excluded CEOs from, and did not identify DEOs as a group in, her work. More recently I Bush and Kogan ( 1982) conducted interviews with seven, and a postal survey of all, English and Welsh CEOs. Since their study focused on the perceptions of the changing political context of the work of the CEO and few face data were collected or presented, there is little basis for any comparison with the present survey.