Review 2005

'Re-culturing' students and selling futures: School-to-work policy in Ontario

TA
Taylor, Alison
Journal of Education and Work
Journal · Vol. 18 · Issue 3 · pp. 321-340
Abstract

This paper situates recent school-to-work transition policy in Ontario, Canada, within the historical context of secondary school reform in the past 50 years. This understanding informs our analysis of interviews with representatives from government, business, organised labour, education and partnership brokers. Data suggest tensions between the rhetoric of corporatism and the reality of a market model, the rhetoric of enhancing opportunities for all students and the reality of lower graduation rates associated with new curriculum. We argue that these tensions reflect historical and continuing struggles around education and training and the adoption of neo-liberal policy approaches that decrease rather than enhance opportunities for non-college-bound students. © 2005 Taylor & Francis.

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Author Affiliations
University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Funding & Acknowledgements
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, SSHRC
This work is the first phase of a case study that is part of the ‘Work and Lifelong Learning’ project. I appreciate the funding provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the help of research assistant Andrea Spevak. Comments from Cheryl Freeman, David Livingstone, Harry Smaller and Brenda Spencer and an anonymous reviewer on an earlier draft of this paper are also gratefully acknowledged.
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