Matsangos, P; (2011) What is Enrichment For (?). (UCL Fellowship Research Project 2011-2012 ). UCL: London, UK.

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Abstract

It has long been held that schooling, the curriculum (hidden or otherwise), and the pedagogical practices pertaining to them are the perpetrators of social and economic inequalities in Western society. My interest surrounds the role of ‘enrichment’, as an auxiliary of education, in perpetuating or restricting social justice. As the enrichment coordinator within an inner city Sixth Form college, it became part of my remit to research the dispositions held by our largely underprivileged student base towards enrichment; and to investigate which aspects of enrichment represented the knowledge, norms, and values which students found to be either alien or habitual. Attempts to proffer a viable definition for the term ‘enrichment’ seem wrought with difficulties. Maybe as a starting point we could say that ‘enrichment’ has replaced the expression ‘extra-curricular’ activities - a change in educational nomenclature perhaps for euphony, as well as to heighten the basis for schools and colleges to offer more than just a diet of qualifications. Greater significance has been afforded to ‘enrichment’ - perhaps as ‘performativity’ - since it claims to allow an individual to further oneself both intrinsically and instrumentally, whilst also benefiting wider society. This paradox, as propagated and elevated by neo-liberalism, along with its speedy transformation to a form of credentialism, has blunted the term’s comprehension. In the past, the aims of extra-curricular activities were less ambiguous; their purpose perhaps was for ingratiating learners into the schooling domain in a fun and inclusive way. However, since the start-up of ‘Education PLC’, there has been an axiomatic shift between students, parents, and educational institutions towards behaving as interchangeable producers and consumers - a phenomenon which is leading the return of neo-Marxist lineaments, such as ‘social’ and ‘cultural’ capital, to the forefront of debates concerning social justice – since capital is a prerequisite for successful decision making and navigating in a market economy. In our current epoch, enrichment plays an increasingly prominent role as a form of middle class parental strategy for class reproduction, yet the state sector faces a sublating 73% slash in funding for enrichment entitlement. This begs a seemingly ephemeral question…what is enrichment for?

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