The Correspondence Principle and the 1988 Education Reform Act

Abstract This article applies the correspondence thesis devised by Bowles and Gintis (1976) to the 1988 Education Reform Act. Theoretical shortcomings of the thesis are identified, and a reformulated version is suggested which incorporates resistances into the analysis of the education system. More limited claims for the thesis are posited. The Education Reform Act is then explored with reference to the revised correspondence principle. Building on the work of previous theorists, it is argued that we may be seeing shifts to post-Fordist education, although contradictions and tensions in this movement are identified. It is suggested that the quasi-market in education is to some extent a change in the legitimating processes of reproduction, rather than a change in what is being reproduced.