It is claimed that from the sixties onwards the educational system has contributed to the erosion of the institutionalized character of fine arts. In line with a worldwide trend towards more student-centred curricula—some authors argue that the exclusive focus on high culture in school curricula has dwindled. However, empirical research to substantiate these claims is scarce. We focus on secondary education in Flanders to study the centrality of high culture in the educational system: can we discover trends in what forms of culture are represented at school, and do these trends differ between tracks? Our analyses indicate that—in the period 1930-2000—both high and low culture is increasingly being represented in the school context. However, we find that the increment in high culture is especially situated in the academic track—the most prestigious track, which prepares for higher education. These results suggest a persisting institutional embeddedness of high culture in the educational system, and especially in its dominant track.
展开▼
