Abstract

This dissertation is a case study of the common or public school system in mid-nineteenth century Ontario. The interpretation of this transformation in education is based on the structural version of Marxism advanced by Louis Althusser and Nicos Poulantzas. Because it proposes a concept of history which is an analysis of structural forms and transformations in these forms, it appeared well suited to this particular endeavour.

Since education is viewed as a constituent of the state by the Marxist paradigm, the establishment of the common school system represented a change in the structure of the state. The concepts of state repressive apparatus and state ideological apparatuses (including education) provide for a structural comprehension of the state. The complementary concepts of centralization - designating the relationship between the two types of apparatuses - and bureaucratization - designating the internal organization of a given apparatus - provide for the analysis of the transformation of both the structure and the role of the state in general, of education in particular.

Drawing upon the relevant legal enactments, reports made by administrative bodies, and the rhetoric of the various contending classes, and applying the concepts identified above, the nature and significance of educational transformation was analysed. Education prior to transformation was characterized by the absence of both centralization and bureaucratization, permitting a situation of voluntarism and diversity. On the basis of diversity of educational procedures, and on the determining role local communities had over the nature of educational provisions, the argument was advanced that education functioned as one of the elements reproducing the cultures of local communities. This role was undercut with the intervention of the state in the creation of the new system of education. This was accomplished by means of the sponsorship of education by the government, by the structuring of education - an ideological state apparatus - by the state repressive apparatus, a process interpreted by the concept of centralization. Complementing this was the bureaucratization of the educational system itself, analysed from the perspective of the separation of education from the control of its structure and content by local communities. In this manner, the transformed system of education became a force for an imposted national hegemony.

Since education is a component of the state, its transformation may be interpreted in the context of changes in the base of Upper Canadian society. With the assistance of census data and with the application of dependency theory, a transition from the toiler to the petty commodity mode of production was demonstrated due to the increasing significance of long-distance trade with Britain on the staple pattern. Coinciding with this transition in dominance was the appearance of a profound social crisis taking the form of populist protest, attaining the proportions of rebellion and the formulation of a political party. This crisis also had its manifestations in the moral realm, taking the form of an ideological critique of the nature of family and community culture.

In short, the transition engendered a crisis in hegemony. This evoked from the state its role of stabilization by means of the reorganization of hegemony. One of the forms this took was the transformation of education articulated closely with the state repressive apparatus by means of centralization, and the separation of education from the intrusion of local, popular classes by means of bureaucratization.

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