Deschooling L'Earning: Young Adults and the New Spirit of Capitalism(Policy and Practice in the Classroom)

Deschooling L'earning explores how recent reforms to young adults' senior secondary schooling have given rise to capital friendly learning-and-earning (l'earning) webs, reporting how leaders committed to deschooling have mobilised capability brokers to create l'earning networks. Using Illich's ideas to explain disenchantment with classroom-centric schooling, and Neo-Weberian conceptions of the new spirit of capitalism to deepen understanding of reforms, Singh and Harreveld's analysis suggests that deschooling l'earning builds young adults' commitment to twenty-first century modes of capital accumulation. Deschooling also gives insights into how they might secure their future, and reassures them that this can serve the common good. These conceptual resources provide tools for corrective and transformative critiques that test government policies and practices for their adverse effects.

Table of Contents:
1. Classrooms Need Not Interfere with L'earning 2. Disenchantment with Classroom-Centric Schooling 3. Brokering Capital Friendly L'earning Webs 4. Networking Policy for Deschooling L'earning 5. Networking L'earning Webs is Not So Radical 6. Deschooling Network Leadership 7. Deschooling, Democracy and Accountability 8. Tests of Government Accountability 9. Concepts and Implications for Deschooling

About the Author :
Michael Singh is Professor of Education at the University of Western Sydney, Australia, where he leads the Research Oriented School Engaged Teacher-Researcher Education Program. Bobby Harreveld is Associate Professor in Professional and Vocational Education and Deputy Dean at Central Queensland University, Australia. She was formerly the Foundation Director of the Learning and Teaching Education Research Centre.

Review :
"The promise of Singh and Harreveld is that in breaking down structural barriers in learning, and placing student agency right at the centre of our thinking, a new kind of democratised economy can emerge - an economy in which both private good and public good will advance, without the perpetual conflict between them which seems inescapable in the world we presently inhabit. Deschooling L'earning is an original, forward thinking and highly stimulating book, at one and the same time both radically mainstream and deeply subversive." - Simon Marginson, Professor of International Higher Education, Institute of Education, University of London, UK "This book brings the long awaited notion of deschooling learning and earning to the forefront of young adults' life/work transitions. Its innovative analysis of vocationally oriented learning talks to the diverse and intersecting issues of organisations seeking to recognise individual pathways and achievements." - Lori Hocking, Chief Executive Officer, VETnetwork, Australia "This research by Singh and Harreveld crosses the disciplines of education and sociology to examine the emerging and intersecting trajectories of schooling, leadership and workplace learning/training. Based on decades of research and reflection, they present the challenges of the deschooling phenomena for young adults that has emerged as a consequence of multiple new providers of education, training and work. Theirs is a necessary cautionary voice that will help educators be more discerning navigators of educational policies and practices." - Mary Kalantzis, Dean, College of Education, University of Illinois, USA "Singh and Harreveld have produced an empirically-based, internationally significant analysis which examines the ways in which secondary schooling is changing in response to global and local influences of capitalism. In moving beyond debates about retention, the authors offer practical directions about the ways in which secondary schooling needs to change in order to better meet the needs of young adults in these turbulent times. This is a book that should be read by all principals, teachers, parents, and researchers interested in understanding how to advance real options for young adults' education, training and work and their post-school destinations." - Professor Michele Simons, President of Australian Vocational Education and Training Research Association, and Dean, School of Education, University of Western Sydney, Australia