Challenging the skills fetish. Issue 3 (3rd April 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wheelahan, Leesa; Moodie, Gavin; Doughney, James
• Is Part Of: British journal of sociology of education. Volume 43:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 475
• Page End: 494
• Publication Date: 2022-04-03
• Subjects: skills -- skills fetish -- 21st century skills -- lifelong learning -- human capital theory -- genericism; Educational sociology -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 306.43
• DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2022.2045186
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0142-5692

Abstract

Abstract: This article describes the process through which human capital theory came to dominate policy in post-compulsory education, to result in the fetishisation of skills. It relates skills policies to the contemporaneous development of policies on lifelong learning. The fetishisation of skills is related to methodological and normative individualism displacing an understanding that capacity and skill arise from and are developed by interdependent action. The current promotion of 21 st century skills, genericism and trainability leads to the alienation of skills from the people who embody and exercise them and the social context which enables and gives value to peoples' exercise of their skills. The article argues that this reification and fetishization of skills degrades education, work and social life.