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INTRODUCTION

The work of writers such as F.W.Taylor (1911) and H.Braverman

(1974) dominate sociological debates on deskilling, control of

the workforce and work organisation. Consequently they have been

a focus of much research. Taylor's "Principles of Scientific

Management" has been one of the most influential works concerning

the organisation of the factory shop floor and management

structure for a large part of this century.

For Taylor, controlling and planning tasks during the labour

process was an essential ingredient of gaining the upper hand

over the workforce. If management could devise and initiate the

framework of the labour process, particularly on the assembly

line, then control of the workforce and production would be in

their hands. A further important element was the process of

deskilling, which enhanced control. Before the Industrial

Revolution and during the early days of mechanisation, one is led

to believe that the craft worker had a large degree of autonomy

and discretion over the work he/she performed. One of the

characteristics of Taylorism is to reduce the element of worker

control. Thus the traditional craft skills were broken down into

small, manageable, standardised components, to be carried out by

unskilled or semi-skilled employees.

Writers such as Lane (1985) have taken the principles and

ideas outlined by Taylor and Braverman and applied them to

clerical work, in some cases with contrasting conclusions. The

work of Taylor has been applied in a manufacturing or industrial

context: Braverman (although mainly concerned with the craft

worker) attempted to broaden his theories to the office worker or

white collar worker. Since Braverman there has been a deluge of

research material covering white collar work but with the

exception of writers such as Shaw (1990), little research has

involved the teaching profession.

Teaching is potentially a rich and interesting area of

research and in many aspects it is unlike clerical work. At face

value the teacher seems to display a large degree of autonomy and

discretion, indeed control over the nature of his/her work. A

teacher even in recent times could choose between a variety of

syllabuses when deciding an approach that would best suit his/her

pupils. However, this measure of autonomy is disappearing with

the introduction of the "National Curriculum", and "Standard

Assessment and Testing in Schools". It would appear that

Taylorist ideas/techniques are slowly, perhaps for the first

time, beginning to infiltrate one of the areas of teaching that

has historically been looked upon as the teachers domain, the

classroom.

In this way it can be argued that management, in the form of

central government (see chapter 2 for structure of management) is

gradually gaining dominance over the labour process, in teaching.

The "technology" of management is being introduced into the

"technology" of teaching. It can also be argued that the skill

content of several subjects is gradually been reduced. For

example, the introduction of "Balanced Science" rather than the

continuation of specialist subjects such as physics, chemistry

and biology is reducing the scope of skills. This draws a

parallel with Braverman's deskilling debate.

We are entering a period when the skills of teachers are

also under attack, with the introduction of licensed teachers

making it possible for relatively unqualified and therefore less

skilled people to enter the teaching profession. One of the

characteristics of Taylorism is to reduce employers requirement

for dependence on skilled workers. As a consequence the wage bill

can be reduced by employing unskilled or semi-skilled workers.

The prospect of licensed teachers raises the question - will this

be the case in teaching ?

Until recently teaching has been relatively untouched by the

introduction of technology and in particular office automation.

With the introduction of Local Financial Management (Local

Management of Schools) schools are solely responsible for

managing their own budgets. To help schools perform this function

there has in some cases been an introduction of computer

technology into the school office. For example, Salford Education

Authority, running LMS as a pilot scheme, have introduced a local

area network, connecting all the comprehensive schools and so

this offers a tool for direct managerial control.

Financial management of schools means that schools are more

likely to be run as a business consequently it is possible that

industrial management techniques will be applied. For the first

time teachers must be cost effective and schools must keep within

budget. To ensure this the management grip or control of the shop

floor workers (in this case the teachers) has to be strengthened.

The aim of this dissertation is to assess whether the

techniques put forward by F.W.Taylor are slowly becoming a

characteristic of the management of teaching. The latter half of

the dissertation is mainly concerned with the National Curriculum

and in particular the new subject Technology. The question is

asked - is the National Curriculum one of the features of a

Taylorist management strategy aimed at gaining control in as many

aspects of the labour process as possible ?

 

 

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