8 Kostas Dimopoulos
2.2. The Second Ideal Type: Post Modern Schooling (Mid Seventies Until
Today)
The second ideal-type of schooling corresponds to the prevailing socio-cultural climate of
the period from the mid-seventies until today. This ideal type seems to be deeply shaped by
the notion of post-modernity which has dominated the positions put forward by the vast
majority of the agencies/agents of symbolic control during this period. Specifically at the
level of theory, post-modernity is usually associated with heightened degrees of
fragmentation, pluralism, individualism and relativism (Lyotard, 1984). At the political level
post-modernity is superimposed over initiatives for extending individuals‘ rights, enhanced
accountability and promotion of the market values. These influences have contributed this
ideal type to be characterized by:
a) selection of the content to be delivered on the basis of social and market criteria,
b) skills based objectives and performance models of assessment, and
c) implicitly hierarchical and diffuse social relationships between persons, subjects or
whole programs (Koulaidis and Dimopoulos, 2006).a. Content Selection
The content to be learned in the educational programs lying closer to this second ideal
type is selected on the basis of social or market criteria. Therefore instead of promoting the
epistemic integrity of specialized disciplines as is the case with the programs of the first ideal
type, these programs seem mostly to stress the utilitarian aspects of various knowledge forms
being integrated into a common framework. In this way, the content is a pastiche of elements
originating from various knowledge domains (both academic and more practically oriented
ones) and selected due to their suitability for dealing with local, segmental, context
dependent, tacit and multi-layered problematic situations, arising either from social or market
conditions. Using terms introduced by Bernstein, we would say that the programs belonging
to this ideal type seem to promote a horizontal knowledge discourse.^ The emphasis here is
given to various contexts of applications rather than to distinct subject areas.
b. Objectives and Mode of Assessment
The objectives set in the education programs belonging to this second ideal type are
mainly related to skills and certain generic competencies rather than to knowledge. This type
of objectives is grounded on the basis of performance based models of evaluation.
Performance-based models focus on what is to be learned-the subject knowledge-and judge
development more so in terms of the standard of output at the end of each educational cycle
and less so in terms of inner control (Bernstein, 1996).^ The emphasis is upon what is absent in
a learner‘s product against prototype, predefined and standardised products. This leads to
explicit and specific criteria of evaluation.
The preference for skills based objectives follows directly from the instrumental nature of
the corresponding programs and their orientation towards fulfilling usually pressing needs of
either society or the market economy. In this case what is required is not the acquisition of
knowledge structures but the certification of one‘s ability to carry out specific tasks, usually
of quite practical nature. In extreme versions, these programmes aim at just cultivating a set