Really Useful Knowledge: Photography and Culturalk Studies in the Transition from School

Really useful knowledge was a term given by educational radicals in the 19th century to certain forms of critical understanding of self and society which were of direct relevance to the struggle for social justice. It included a knowledge of why you were poor or oppressed and why, due to force of custom or circumstance, you were the sort of person you were.

Today the idea has to be re-introduced in the light of the new forms of knowledge power which have come to dominate 'post modern' capitalism; it also has to take account of the corresponding changes which have taken place in working class life and labour. This book describes a project which set out to take up that challenge in one key area: at the interface between pre-vocational education and the cultural industries.

In contrast to the narrow, employer led, priorities of the New vocationalism, young people were here encouraged to question the 'common sense' of many current occupational ideologies, as part of the process of gaining confidence in dealing with the demands of work. Photography was not taught as just another technical skill to be acquired, but as a means of representing issues around the transition from school to work in a way which was significant for school leavers themselves.

The book provides a close grained reading of the images the students produced for what it reveals about the changing languages of gender and class through which they negotiated a sense of personal identity. There is a discussion of different approaches to using photography in education, and of the distinctive contribution of 'really useful knowledge', in - and against- the National Curriculum.

The text is illustrated throughout and provides a fascinating case study of an educational process which will be of interest to a wide range of teachers, and to anyone who is concerned with issues of contemporary photography or popular culture.