Closely Observed Training: An exploration of Links Between Social Structures, Training and Identity

[1] For several key articles providing reviews of and historical perspectives on debates within economics on training, see Oxford Review of EconomicPolicy, Vol. 4, No. 3, Autumn 1988, Issue on "Education Training and Economic Performance'. Earlier notable studies of training are those developed by the Chicago school interactionists, e.g. Boys in White (Becker et al., 1961) and Making the Grade (Becker, Geer & Hughes, 1968). See also Atkinson (1983) for critical community on the latter. [2] There are of course some deep tensions between aspects of the work of Foucault, Marxism and Feminism which I have not attempted to address. [3] The research involved participant observation on the two year scheme for about a year. During this period I spent time with first and second year 'Care girls' thus observing both new entrants and leavers. I mixed with the girls in college during off-the-job training, and visited them in their placements in homes for the elderly. Data was gathered through informal chat with trainees, tutors and the elderly and was sometimes tape-recorded. In addition trainees and tutors were 'interviewed1 from time to time in order to allow for fuller discussion of emerging issues. [4] All vocational qualifications in the UK are currently being re-organized within a new national system of vocational qualifications which specifies five standards of achievement, level one being the simplest and level five the most advanced. [5] I am describing here marked tendencies in patterns of care. Similar patterns have also been noted in research on nursing (see e.g. Williams, 1983; Stannard, 1983). This is not to suggest there were not also examples of kindly treatment and respect for human dignity. However, these were the exception rather than the rule and occurred despite rather than because of the social pressures of the job. [6] This study did not formally encompass research into the experience of the elderly themselves and this would have required a different research strategy. However some data was gathered informally through chats with residents both in my research capacity and in a more personal capacity, for example as a hospice helper. This suggested that the residents themselves frequently experienced their treatment as insensitive and, at times, distressing. It also suggests that the well known dread of the elderly of 'going into a home' is quite well-founded. [7] For discussion of the role of surveillance in relation to schools sec Hargreaves & Reynolds (1989). [8] SomeofthematerialincludedinthisarticlewasfirstpublishedinBritishJournalofEducation andSocial Work,Volume3,Number2,pp.91-110,1990. [9] The research on which this article was based was funded by the ESRC.