Author: Luisa Iñigo
Disciplines and areas in lower secondary. Exploring the correspondence between changes in the materiality of labour and the transformation of secondary school.
The global trend towards the extension of the educational attainment of the labour force expresses itself quantitatively in data series on average years of schooling. According to Lee and Lee (2016), the average years of schooling for the global population between ages 15 and 64 increased from about 1,4 years in 1910 to 3,2 years in 1950 and 8,4 years in 2010 (Lee and Lee, 2016: 33). A great part of this extension was due to the expansion of secondary school attendance, which accelerated in the early 20th century in the U.S.A., in the post-WWII period in Europe and in the late 20th century in Latin America and parts of Asia. Such expansion was simultaneous with a transformation of secondary school as to 1) its division into two, relatively different sub-levels (the basic cycle –usually named as lower secondary, which tends to be compulsory– and the higher cycle, known as upper secondary), specially since the 1960s (Benavot, 2006) and 2) the reduction of differences between formative programs (i.e., the preponderance of comprehensive over specialized secondary school, especially in the basic cycle) (Benavot, 2006; Acosta, 2011), as well as the deferment of the starting point of vocational education (Callaloids et al., 2004). In relation to this, curricular organization in lowers secondary tends to include basic subjects, mostly compulsory, with little or none elective subjects or credits. Added to this, many countries introduce curricular contents related to the development of transversal competences at this stage of secondary school(Callaloids et al., 2004). In addition, evidence shows that many countries organice lower secondary contents into integrated subjects or areas.
Much has been written about changes in secondary schooling through the 20th century, from an educational policy point and pedagogical point of view. However, the analysis of secondary school transformation in the light of changes in labour processes has been a much less common approach. Assuming school as one of the major devices through which productive attributes of workers are produced (Hirsch and Iñigo, 2007; Carcacha, et. al., 2016.) and taking into account the transformations in the materiality of labour processes that have occurred as from mid-20th century (Balconi, 2002; Iñigo Carrera, 2013 [2003]; Starosta, 2016), this paper aims at re-examining changes in secondary school curricula in the light of those material mutations. Emphasis will be placed on analysing structure and curricular changes in compulsory secondary school -particularly, in lower secondary- as well as on enriching that analysis in light of the debates about school curricula and its relation with the development of cognitive capacities. We expect this approach will imply a contribution to answering the question on which productive attributes are produced through a secondary school that has been transformed in the ways described.