Three Educational Scenarios for the Future: lessons from the sociology of knowledge

This article draws on social realist approaches in the sociology of knowledge and in light of them constructs three scenarios for the future of education in the next decades. The primary focus of the article is on one of the most crucial questions facing educational policy makers — the relationship between school and everyday or common sense knowledge. The different possibilities for how the school/non-school knowledge boundaries might be approached are expressed in three scenarios —'boundaries treated as given', 'a boundary-less world' and the idea of 'boundary maintenance as a condition for boundary crossing'. The curriculum implications of each are explored and the article makes the case for the third scenario. The factors likely to make one or other scenario dominate educational policy in the next 20–30 years are also considered.     

From 'Ecoles Supérieures de Commerce' to 'Management Schools': transformations and continuity in French business schools

Part of the national system of grandes écoles, French Business schools have known radical changes since the 1980s, notably in size, and have become more attractive to students both at a national and an international level. As a consequence, the French elitist system has been questioned by the competition of foreign –especially Anglo-Saxon — models. An organisational/institutional analysis of these transformations is presented here. Considering that French business schools have been progressively building an organisational field since the end of the 19th century, we will analyse how this field has seen a process of de-structuration and re-structuration since the late 1980s. The article first introduces some specificities of the French higher education system. The historical construction of the national business schools field is then presented, before analysing the increasing competition between schools and its effects over the last decades.     

Qualifications Frameworks: some conceptual issues

The aim of this article is to contribute to realising the progressive and democratic opportunities that National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) can offer. In doing so it will be critical of many of the ways that NQFs have been interpreted to date and the claims that have been made for them. The article has six sections. Section 1 considers some of the reasons for the recent growth of interest in NQFs. Section 2 is concerned with the widely shared goals of NQFs and some of the contradictions and problems that they involve. Section 3 discusses the very different forms that NQFs can take. Section 4 examines a number of issues that underlie all approaches to qualifications but are made more explicit by qualification frameworks and concludes by questioning the much lauded claim that NQFs can promote and accredit informal learning. The concluding section considers the longer term implications for the future of NQFs of the earlier analysis.