Adolescent images of the future and the 'ideology of schooling' / by Susan Heald. --

Abstract

The thesis addresses questions of both the methodology and the substantive content of 'cultural reproduction' studies. At the methodological level, the thesis examines the use of 'images of the future' as a tool for discovering respondents' 'knowledge.' Substantively, the thesis examines the 'ideology of schooling' as it is created/recreated by Grade 10 students in a small town in northwestern Ontario. Unlike many other 'cultural reproduction' studies, this study uses both boys and girls as subjects, although substantial differences in their ideas were not found. The data chapter records student reactions to possible schools of the future. Overall, the students are not found to have ideas about future schools that are different from those in the current system, and appear to support that system. The analysis attempts to explain this apparent lack of 'resistance' to schooling. Student views of 'human nature', of the relationship between school and work, and reactions to 'counter-school' influences appear as potential explanations. Advances in theory, feminist methodology, and the use of science fiction in developing 'images of the future' are discussed as areas of further research and practice.