Title: (DOC) Can education change society? | Lloyd Gray - Academia.edu
Headings: Can education change society?
Can education change society?
Can education change society?

Content: It continues to argue that individuals need to change their own behaviour or circumstances to adapt to the changes, advocating the adoption of µkey transferable skills and attributes ¶ such as initiative and enterprise to secure employment, taking advantage of the wide range of educational resources µto which new technologies have yielded ¶, and contributing more to the communities around us through µactive citizenship ¶ (DfES, 2003:1). To assist individuals, personal and social development programmes are viewed as necessary to instil µresilience ¶ and µcoping strategies ¶ in individuals at risk of poor outcomes in education, employment, health and offending to recognise µthat there are options available ¶ to them (DfES, 2003:3).The idea that individuals, through supplementary education and training, are in a position to negotiate and choose their identities is problematic and will be explored in detail later in this article, however, it demonstrates how significant the idea of individual autonomy over their circumstances has become and the role education plays in that. To understand the birth of this apparent liberalisation and choice, Michel Foucault ¶s notion of µgovernmentality ¶ is useful in describing how governments of nation states construct and justify particular rationalities about how society should be structured and the way its citizens should respond (Fimyar, 2008:3).Foucault ¶s ideas originate from developments in Western European societies from the 18 th century onwards, in response to the rapid social changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution, such as the large movement of people from rural areas to congested urban cities and the new economic opportunities and risks available in business and factories (Jardine, 2003). Foucault argues that these societal changes reconfigured the relationship between the state and the citizen as they occurred through the development of new technologies, trade routes and exchanges, challenging µthe idea of the State ¶s capacity to know all ¶ (Burchell, 1993:269) and do all. Classic liberalism rose as a critique of excessive government, suggesting that the state is seen to run more effectively when government governs less, with individuals understood to be in a better position to exercise rational choices among the µeconomic networks in which they are enmeshed ¶ (Bansel, 2007:285).The subsequent response by governments, eager to legitimise their existence, was to think of new ways in which power could be exercised, using µthe capacities of free acting subjects ¶ as a means of governing them and society at large (Besley & Peters, 2007:132). The idea that people no longer bound together in feudal communities, brought into being the idea of a population of individuals as living, working and social beings, each with their µown customs, habits, histories and forms of labour and leisure ¶ (Dean, 1999:107). If the economic and social development of this new population was to be maintained, however, it was important that the welfare, health and efficiency of individuals were protected. Therefore, the management of the population became the perceived role of government as it was the basis for the state ¶s future prosperity (Fimyar, 2008). µGovernmentality ¶ examines the way in which governments went about formulating this new society, based on the idea that certain µtruths ¶, or knowledge, in social, cultural and political spheres is used as the justification of such action (Fimyar, 2008:4). Firstly, through political reasoning, ideologies and discourses provided in response to social dilemmas, the idea of social welfare and improvement of the individual through education and health were proclaimed.