ABSTRACT This paper analyses the underlying conflicts between the principles of education and the market. After identifying an international movement towards justifying excellence in education in terms of a goal external to education, namely “to compete effectively in the international marketplace”, the paper shows that: (i) this justification of education has been increasingly presupposed or prescribed by corporate, government and educational leaderships, and (ii) education as a social institution has been correspondingly subordinated to international market goals, including the language and (...) self-conceptualization of educators themselves. The argument of the paper demonstrates that there are fundamental contradictions between the market and education models in terms of (1) Goals, (2) Motivations, (3) Methods and (4) Standards of Excellence. Counter-arguments to this analysis are presented, and replies are given. The article concludes that the long-term development of education and of civilization itself requires the autonomy of education from market command. (shrink)

Recent initiatives from the Employment Department in the UK have promoted ‘enterprise education’. This paper discusses the relationship of enterprise education to the more established notion of a liberal education. It is argued that enterprise education should be understood not as replacing the aspirations of a liberal education, but rather as supporting or extending them. It does this (i) by helping pupils to understand what is arguably a significant form of life; (ii) by developing understanding of the economic conditions of (...) our social functioning; and (iii) by developing personal qualities which equip us practically to pursue our chosen paths in a competitive and sometimes hostile world. (shrink)

The paper responds to Professor Bridges's paper:‘Enterprise and liberal education’, the thesis of which is taken to be that enterprise education is not only compatible with liberal education, but a necessary part of it. A number of reasons are urged against this claim. In particular, it is argued that being enterprising is neither necessarily generalizable nor always desirable; that enterprise education is inextricably, though ambiguously, related to ‘the enterprise society’, yet ignores the harmful aspects of such a society; and that (...) the claim that enterprise education is liberal because it uses progressive pedagogic methods, is unsustainable. (shrink)