The strange fate of progressive education

This chapter considers the 'strange fate of progressive education' in the postwar period and explores the way in which its ideas and themes have been taken up and distorted by the new vocationalism of the 1970s and 1980s. The concerns of progressive education had to some extent been reflected in liberal and general studies in the 1960s and were echoed by the 'humanism' of the Crowther Report. The aim of liberal and general studies was to move students beyond the narrow vocational concerns to examine broader issues related to society. The new voationalism of the 1970s and 1980s represents a retraction from this position and its replacement by a vocational focus. The first part of the chapter discusses the nature of progressive education in the postwar period, followed by an examination of the curricular models of the new vocationalism. I have considered the Certificate of Pre-Vocational Education (CPVE), Core Skills in YTS, and various documents produced by the Further Education Unit (FEU).