ABSTRACT
Many academics have written and continue to write on the subject of adopting corporate structures in education and the detrimental results it has on educational values and on the autonomy of teachers, yet the author suggests that these are old arguments.
This chapter uses Blake’s epic poem ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’ to interplay with current discourses that surround FE and highlight the synthesis between the modern and the 18th-century arguments. Throughout, the author compares Blake’s frustrations at the antiquated systems of religion, and its ‘ability’ to inhibit the creativity and independence of human beings to her own frustrations at current systems of further education, in their erosion of, and unwillingness to promote the autonomy of FE colleges and their staff.
