ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the issues by considering the implications of the impact of technical and vocational education initiative (TVEI) within two key areas: school and Local Education Authorities (LEA) organisation, and student outcomes. It considers the longer term legacy of TVEI’s equal opportunities experiment, particularly given the ongoing emphasis on vocationalism within secondary education. The chapter focuses on how TVEI sought to influence teacher’s a TVEI’s limited impact on pupil outcomes forms. It also considers how TVEI sought to influence teacher’s attitudes with respect to gender inequalities in education. In contrast, under TVEI, a government quango with no formal powers over education managed to bring equal opportunities issues to the attention of key players in LEAs and schools, as well as to pupils themselves, and in many schools wrought considerable change. Contract compliance was potentially a powerful tool for bringing about rapid change. The chapter concludes with some tentative thoughts on a feminist way forward.
