Hilary Dickinson’s research while affiliated with Open Polytechnic and other places

The technical training and education of the young is now a major focus of Government concern. A number of European systems (particularly the West German) have been examined by bodies acting on behalf of, or at the behest of, the Government. One of the most interesting methods of industrial training in West Germany is the meistersystem. The meisteror industrial tutor (a position enshrined in German statute and practice) is a senior craftsman responsible throughout German industry for a considerable amount of the regulation of technical training of young skilled workers. The meistersystem might prove to be one ‘model’ for British industrial training and as such the role of the meisteris worthy of sociological consideration. The paper presents an outline of who the meisteris, what he or she does; and some sociological considerations on the historical development and contemporary function of the meisterare put forward. Finally, a brief conclusion on the applicability of the meistersystem to Britain is advanced.

This paper examines the occupational socialization of hairdressers, secretaries and caterers. It introduces the term moral positioning to analyse aspects of this socialization. Moral positioning refers to a stance which minimizes the economic/instrumental aspects of an occupation, instead emphasizing moral cues and social skills. We argue that the adoption of such a stance is a distortion of the real situation, where economic and instrumental considerations are of great importance. An active development of an awareness of one's social position is precluded. Instead a specific and narrow range of values and interpretations are called on, related to the task in hand; and that these values are utilized as a guise to organize economic practices by way of a perversion of moral imperatives into bureaucratic forms.

This paper examines Claude Grignon's empirical study of lower levels of vocational education in France. The concepts of technical culture and the morality of technical processes are explored. Grignon argues that the hidden curriculum of the Lycee for vocational education (Lycee d'Enseignement Professionel) socialises students into a worldview in which social relations are conflated with technical relations, and take on the appearance of the certainly of technical processes. Social control is exerted by excluding the possibility of ambiguity and change from this deterministic frame of reference. In the second part of the paper we seek to show that some of Grignon's analytic concepts may offer useful perspectives for analysing British Further Education curricula, by applying the concepts of technical and ‘technicised’ culture to some recent developments in British Further Education curricula.