ITP List (Calendar page)

ITP Fellows only

Ross Wiener, Vice President at the Aspen Institute and Executive Director of the Education & Society Program

Dr. Michelle Jackson, Assistant Professor, Sociology, Stanford University
https://sociology.stanford.edu/people/michelle-jackson

Title: We ask so much: The division of rationalized labor in the education industry 

Abstract: A key prediction of classical theories of the division of labor is that, over time, specialized occupations are responsible for an ever-narrower range of tasks. In contrast to the predictions of classical theories, I show that the macro-level forces of scientific development and rationalization in fact work to complicate tasks and responsibilities. I use the case of the education industry to cast light on this general pattern. Using data from school yearbooks, academic journals, job task analyses, and government reports, I examine changes in the division of labor in the education industry over the past c.150 years. I show that teachers and schools are asked to take on more tasks today than in the past, and consider some of the possible consequences for teachers, schools, and societies.