New Economy, New Pedagogy?

Abstract

In England, the government wishes to integrate education into the economy. In this endeavour it has continued the previous Conservative government's stance on retaining direct, whole-class teaching in primary schools. It has retained the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). Standards of achievement in numeracy and literacy have increased. The country's international competitiveness is assumed to have been enhanced. But questions are being raised about this approach, mainly in government departments other than the Department for Education and Skills, notably in the Department for Media, Culture and Sport and in the Department for Industry. Their concerns can be put plainly: the Ofsted-endorsed traditional pedagogy will not well serve an emerging knowledge-based economy wherein creativity is at a premium. For its part, the government is ambivalent, seemingly reluctant to loosen its pedagogical grip on primary education, yet beginning to realise that pedagogical change is needed. Its reluctance seems not to turn on the lack of an academic basis for a new pedagogy, but on the financial implications of introducing a more progressive pedagogy which would require higher teacher-pupil ratios, and on the political risks of endorsing a more 'radical' pedagogy. The analysis is set within the context of economic globalisation and postmodern culture.