The third turning point: Community college movement

Abstract

Traditional American higher education system, that once was adequate for education of social elite, had to adapt, after the Second World War, to the new wave of students who would occupy middle level and relatively powerless jobs in growing corporate economy and public sector. The Community College Movement was an adequate response to the need for legitimating the new social stratification through school credentials, to the demands of minorities and lower classes youth for ever widening access to higher education, and to the demand for professionalization of some occupational groups aspiring to achieve higher social status. Through class based channeling and educational inflation, higher educational system contributes, in its own way, to preserve the existing patterns of social inequalities.

Tradicionalni američki visokoškolski sistem, koji je nekada bio odgovarajući za obrazovanje društvene elite, morao se nakon Drugog svetskog rata prilagoditi novom talasu studenata koji će zauzeti radna mesta srednjeg nivoa i male društvene moći u rastućoj korporativnoj privredi i državnom sektoru. Community College movement je bio adekvatan odgovor na potrebu za legitimisanjem nove društvene stratifikacije putem školskih diploma, na zahteve omladine iz nižih slojeva i manjina za proširenjem pristupa višem obrazovanju, kao i na zahteve za profesionalizacijom nekih zanimanja u cilju podizanja njihovog društvenog statusa. Putem klasno zasnovanog kanalisanja i obrazovne inflacije, visokoškolski sistem daje specifičan doprinos održanju postojećih obrazaca društvenih nejednakosti.