Learning, Curriculum and Life Politics: the selected works of Ivor F. Goodson
Long Waves of Educational Reform
After this stage model, they state:
we shall try to show that it is phases 2-5 that are associated with those wavelike movements in the economic and social system that have been designated since Schumpeter as ‘Kondratiev waves’ or cycles (ibid., p. 146).
The work of Freeman and Louçã is vitally important for those examining the long waves of educational change. This is because they link the technological and economic life cycle they describe to institutional and social changes. The Venezuelan economist, Carlota Perez, has extended this argument, judging that each long wave has a specific technological style, a model or paradigm for organizing production in the most efficient manner. For the upswings, this model and the social and institutional framework are broadly harmonized; conversely in the downswing, a new technological pattern brings a dysfunctional relationship with the existing socio-institutional system. In the upswings, we have conjuncture, in the downswings disjuncture (Perez 1983; Young 1988).
From the point of view of educational changes, the period of conjuncture provides maximum harmonization with new technological and economic regimes. As a result, the flow of resources to the educational system is maximized as the economic cycle produces better and better profit margins for funding the socio-institutional frameworks that accompany and facilitate the economic upswing. We would expect them to find rapid changes to schooling in periods of accelerated upswing, such as the late 60s and early 70s.
Whilst the link between economy and education is indirect, there are few who would not accept that economic cycles affect educational patterns. Hence, if Kondratiev is right, we would expect to see long waves of educational change which, in a general way, follow the long waves of economic change.
