Genericism and Specialisation: An Ongoing Problematic for Schools and Universities

Abstract

In this chapter we return to debates about knowledge and the purposes of schools and universities, and in particular to the questions about what role and purpose do disciplinary fields such as physics and history have in the changing environment. We consider here how teachers and academics in these fields are positioned in a changing environment, and the form generic agendas are currently taking in schools and in universities in Australia. Drawing on our project findings we argue that although there is some weakening of the conditions for specialised knowledge production, there are examples too of some countervailing tendencies. We argue that although most current curriculum reforms constitute attempts to hold together both ‘generic’ and ‘specialist’ agendas, the arrangements in practice can embed different principles and priorities of knowledge construction, with different effects in the longer term. This is particularly the case holding in view a perspective of all three phases of education studied in this project.