Student Experiences of the Leaving Certificate Applied Programme

6 ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE?Figure 1.1: Rates of Youth Unemployment 1990-2005Source: Smyth (2007).1.4InternationalEmpirical andTheoreticalResearch onCurriculumDifferentiationThe previous section has indicated that the practice of differentiating thecurriculum has been apparent in the Irish context for quite some time. Inaddition, it has also outlined that the practice of differentiating thecurriculum at senior cycle has been motivated by labour market conditions,particularly in response to large-scale youth unemployment in the 1960sand 1970s. Most of the literature on curriculum differentiation derives fromthe United States, and within this literature, the practice of placing studentsaccording to ability or differentiating the curriculum for different groups ofstudents is commonly referred to as ‘tracking’. Practices of ‘tracking’ and‘streaming’ are at the heart of theoretical debates regarding education andinequality in the sociology of education. Much of the research on trackinghas focused on how tracks operate and how this affects students and restson two competing theories: that of human capital theory, and theories ofsocial reproduction. Human capital theory views educational attainment,both academic and vocational, as an investment (Becker, 1975). It alsoviews the provision of vocationally related education within second-leveleducation as a safety-net which retains less academic young people within theeducational system and enhances their chances of finding employment asskilled workers. According to this view, vocational education equipsstudents with skills that can enhance their productivity on the job.Therefore, vocationally educated workers are in demand and their chancesof gaining employment and decent wages are enhanced compared to thosewith lower levels of educational qualifications (see Blossfeld 1992 and anextension of this argument in Shavit and Muller 2000). Alternatively, othercommentators draw on theories of class reproduction to argue thatproviding a differentiated curriculum is a mechanism for the reproduction ofsocial inequality across generations. This view suggests that this system ‘sorts’working class people and socialises them into subordinate roles. While thismay help people out of unemployment, the effects on other labour marketoutcomes (such as job security and status) may be less favourable (Iannelliand Raffe, 2007, p. 49). Furthermore, this view holds that working-classstudents are typically placed in lower tracks which, in turn, reduce theirchances of attending university, and of subsequently entering theprofessions and other high prestige occupations (Gamoran and Mare, 1989;Iannelli, 1997; Shavit, 1990).