A long-standing debate has been waged over the past century or more about the purpose of education. Is the primary purpose to provide for the general edification of the individual, or must education have a pragmatic application that relates to one’s intended role in the workforce? Public education’s focus on these ends has evolved over time, often in relation to changing economic demands. Using a broad historical lens to examine recent developments, incorporating salient historical debates and social forces, the authors attempt to better understand how the relationship between education and preparation for the workforce has changed over time. They focus on the proliferation of federal innovations in this area over the past 100 years and consider persistent themes in philosophical and policy debates. They supplement this broad history and context with the results of a more focused survey of the literature in career and technical education, with search terms that yielded scholarship from the past 50 years. Drawing themes from this more recent literature, and in light of historical foci, the authors make recommendations for future directions of scholarship.
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