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Ambiguities of Standardisation in Education

Palle Rasmussen (Aalborg University, Denmark)

Educational Standardisation in a Complex World

ISBN: 978-1-80071-590-5, eISBN: 978-1-80071-589-9

Publication date: 20 April 2022

Abstract

Standardisation in education is an ambiguous process. Standards of time, measurement, technology and other aspects have evolved historically as basic preconditions for social life and communication, in education as well as in society at large. But excessive standardisation, especially in domains of culture and knowledge, often works as cultural and symbolic violence, undermining the qualities of education and learning situations. This chapter investigates these ambiguities, presenting concepts of standards and standardisation and developing their implications for education through selected theoretical contributions and empirical cases. The theoretical contributions include Berger and Luckmann's constructivist sociology of knowledge, Bourdieu's theory of symbolic capital and Habermas' theory of communicative action. The empirical cases include the processes of centralisation and standardisation of education in the United States and the process of standardisation in European higher education.

Keywords

Citation

Rasmussen, P. (2022), "Ambiguities of Standardisation in Education", Riese, H., Hilt, L.T. and Søreide, G.E. (Ed.) Educational Standardisation in a Complex World, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 43-60. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80071-589-920221003

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022 Palle Rasmussen. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited