Schooling for work in New Zealand: a qualitative study of three high schools

Abstract

This ethnographic study set out to discover the messages given to students about work within three high schools in a provincial city of New Zealand. Attention was given to overt and covert messages, and to those messages embedded in the structure of schooling itself. The research also ascertained which of these messages students received, and which of them they accepted and contested. A number of variables which influenced both the transmission and the reception of messages were noted. With regard to teachers, these variables included their ethnicity, their personal ideology, and their group ideology as represented by the ethos of their school. With regard to students, variables included their class location, their gender and ethnicity. A confluence of these factors was observed to determine the nature of educational experiences students underwent at school, and the kinds of messages they received - both overtly and covertly - from teachers. This study contributes to the debate within the “new” sociology of education in that it focuses on the relationship between schooling and the established order in society. The data collected show that more often than not, school structures (form), the curriculum (content) and classroom processes (pedagogy) function to serve the interests of the social order, and specifically to satisfy the needs of industry rather than those of democracy. In various ways, the messages given by teachers and schools are shown to belong to the sphere of teaching for work rather than about work. The difference lies in an education which teaches critically about societal structures with the hope of eventually transforming them into more equitable ones, and an education whose main concern is to reproduce citizens who fit the established structures. While teachers are described functioning in the latter mode, the contradictions, conflicts and dialectics which were observed are highlighted to show that such reproduction does not take place without contestation - both on the part of teachers and on the part of students. This contestation in itself opens up spaces wherein students and teachers can exercise agency and autonomy to question - and formulate alternatives to - the structure.