ABSTRACT
This article argues that of necessity educational systems are in pursuit of contradictory goals. Far from attempting to resolve these contradictions, or seeing them as the symptom of advanced capitalism, one should seek to understand their consequences, especially for those least favoured in society. The nature of inequality is discussed and it is argued that the inflation of credentialism common to most societies results in the increased value of cultural intangible like style, background and connections. If the poor are not to compound their disadvantage there needs to be a shift towards crediting people with the knowledge they acquire rather than the level reached, to increase community control over the content of education and to invest in life-long education.
Throughout history there has been an active discussion of the aims of education with little assessment of their sociological feasibility. In consequence education has become entangled in competing and often contradictory goals. Investment in education is expected to lead to the promotion of economic growth, the development of social justice, the integration of society as well as the enrichment of the life of the individual. Each of these aspects is inter-connected; the quality of classroom activity is not divorced from the needs of a technological society; the goal of justice is not completely separate from the formation of an integrated society, whatever the latter may be in practice. Bourdieu & Passeron (1977) have referred to the partially determining link between education and other factors within society as the “relative autonomy” of education. They are indicating by this phrase that the links between education and society are not unilinear and completely determined but uncertain and only vaguely understood; a partial knowledge which has contributed to increasing scepticism as to the part education can play in ameliorating the life chances of the poor.
