Positivism,Prejudice and Progress in the Sociology of Education: who's afraid of values?

This article is a response to Hammersley's allegations that my discussion of positivism and differentiation‐polarisation theory (d‐p), previously published in this journal, was misguided, incoherent and prejudiced against positivism. I refute those allegations by demonstrating that Hammersley has either misunderstood or misrepresented my position. Furthermore, by revealing inconsistencies in Hammersley's arguments about positivism and d‐p I expose his incoherencies and prejudices regarding the role of political values in social research. Finally and constructively, I suggest that the ‘enlightenment’ aspect of the ‘political arithmetic’ tradition has much to recommend it as a framework for progress in sociology of education.     

Art Conquers All? Herbert Read's Education through Art

Herbert Read's Education through Art (henceforth ETA) is a pioneering attempt to provide empirical evidence for the need for art in the public school system. Rooting for art education, Read applies the conclusions of the newly evolving psychological research to his thesis on education, which he holds to be a contemporary revival of Plato's educational theory. Psychological research proves, Read believes, that art is required for the healthy cognitive and emotional development of the child, thereby creating a stable and productive society. ‘Education through art’ nurtures each individual's potential, so that every professional direction one would later take would be ‘art'. Since its publication in 1943, art‐education enthusiasts seem to hold that Read was on the right track, but that ETA suffers from a lack of evidence – a mere technicality that can be amended when research advances. Contrariwise, I argue that Read's thesis is inherently problematic, rather than empirically inaccurate. Psychological research may never suffice for the justification of art education, if ‘art education’ is both substituted for ‘creativity’ and expected to produce testable – immediate and quantifiable – results. My interest is not only in Read's theory per se, but in this form of justification. To wit, the discussion examines ETA as a case study in the empirical justification of art education.     

What (a) to do about ‘impact’: a Bourdieusian critique

This paper presents a research‐based, theoretically‐informed contribution to the debate on ‘impact’ in educational research, and specifically a response to Gardner's 2011 presidential address to the British Educational Research Association. It begins by discussing the development of the research ‘impact’ agenda as a global phenomenon, and reviews the current state of debate about ‘impact’ in the UK's Research Excellence Framework. It goes on to argue that a radical alternative perspective on this agenda is needed, and outlines Bourdieu's sociology—including his much‐neglected concept of illusio—as offering potential for generating critical insights into demands for ‘impact’. The term illusio in particular calls us to examine the ‘stakes’ that matter in the field of educational research: the objects of value that elicit commitment from players and are ‘worth the candle’. This framework is then applied first to analyse an account of how an ESRC‐funded project that I led was received by different research ‘users’ as we sought to generate impact for our findings. Second, it is used to show that the field of educational research has changed; that it has bifurcated between the field of research production and that of research reception; and that the former is being subordinated to the latter. The paper concludes by arguing that, despite many educational researchers' commitments to ‘make a difference’ in wider society, the research ‘impact’ imperative is one that encroaches on academic freedom; and that academics need to find collective ways in which to resist it.     

Beyond Relative Autonomy Theories of the State in Education

This paper argues against C. Fritzell's claim that relative autonomy theory “has substantial potential within the sociology of education”. It is argued that the inconsistencies in both conception and application of this approach have led to the virtual omission of the sphere of the state from the neo‐Marxist sociology of education. This omission seriously limits research into the politics of education and leads to analyses that are over‐generalised or reductionist, and which tend to make untestable assertions about the relationship between state structures and state agents. The notions of ‘limits’ and ‘capacity’ are examined as being possible analytic tools to promote more adequate reconceptualisations of the state in education.     

‘Learning Careers’ or ‘Assessment Careers’? The Impact of Assessment Systems on Learning

Two increasingly important strands in current educational thinking are reflected in growing interest amongst researchers, policy‐makers and qualification designers in formative assessment strategies that motivate learners and enhance their educational attainment. In addition, a body of research suggests that learners develop ‘learning careers’ from primary education, through the National Curriculum into post‐compulsory education and beyond. This article engages with this work in order to highlight some key factors in ‘learning careers’, particularly in relation to the impact of formative assessment practices. It aims to relate findings from research on formative assessment in primary and further education, carried out by the authors, to studies which use Bourdieu's notions of ‘habitus’, ‘field’, ‘cultural capital’ and ‘social capital’ to explore learning careers and learning identities in different sectors of education. The article evaluates whether the concept of ‘assessment careers’ illuminates a specific strand within young people's ‘learning careers’. In particular, it asks whether the concept might offer more precise insights about how practices produced by different assessment systems, particularly those purporting to promote formative assessment, affect learners' identities and dispositions for learning.     

教育社会学中的新制度学派:基于问题史的研究

本文批判性地总结了1970年代以来美国教育社会学界兴起的新制度学派的发展轨迹,新制度学派提出三个基本的理论命题:(1)现代教育是伴随世俗个人主义而出现的一种独特的社会实体,本质上是一种制度神话和理性仪式;(2)教育组织是松散联接的系统;(3)现代教育的效果主要是对人和知识进行合法化分类。在对经典社会学家韦伯和涂尔干的继承上,新制度学派与美国当时盛行的结构功能理论和冲突论有明显的差异,认为现代教育不是维持地方国家或者特殊阶层需要的地域性事业,而是超越民族-国家和特殊群体利益的世界性制度。新制度学派对教育社会学的贡献,不只是对教育组织和教育效果的深度理论分析,而且其对教育扩张和课程内容的经验研究已经成为当代教育社会学中一个重要的学术传统,在问题意识上有其独特的价值。在借鉴新制度理论时,必须坚持中国经验本位,避免简单地套用和比附新制度理论,应解释和揭示中国教育经验内隐的深层机制,以中国经验丰富和发展新制度理论。     

Durkheim and Vygotsky's theories of knowledge and their implications for a critical educational theory

This paper is part of the ongoing work of the author and others in developing a social realist theory of knowledge for educational studies. It contrasts Durkheim and Vygotsky's theories and why both are important for educational theory. It begins by emphasizing the similarities between them; that knowledge has to be understood in terms of its historical development in human societies and that the acquisition of knowledge is the primary goal of formal education. In contrasting the ideas of the two writers the paper develops the distinction between ‘structure’ for Durkheim and ‘activity’ for Vygotsky and explores some of the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. It then examines how the ideas of the two writers have been developed by their leading followers in sociology and psychology‐ giving particular consideration to the work of Basil Bernstein and Yrjo Engestrom. It concludes with some broader issues concerning theories of knowledge in educational studies.     

Dewey's Conception of Interest and its Significance for Teacher Education

Many teachers in teacher education programs are cursorily introduced to Dewey's ‘epochmaking’ ideas on interest and effort through discussions based on the need for child‐centered pedagogies that utilize students' interests. Unfortunately, this strategy often tacitly encourages teachers to over‐rely on students' interests. In this paper, I recommend a way of introducing Dewey's conception of interest that avoids the common pitfall of over‐reliance on students' interests. I argue that if we focus on the changes Dewey made to the expression of his philosophy during a seventeen‐year period, we can help illuminate the force of his theory while protecting against unfortunate misinterpretations.     

社会学视域下涂尔干的道德教育思想研究

该文通过论证认为,埃米尔·涂尔干首次将实证主义社会学引入道德教育领域,为现代道德教育的实施提供了新思路。在涂尔干看来,社会是高于个体的现实存在,同样也是个体道德的塑造者,道德起源于社会,并归属于社会,任何脱离社会集体而谈论个体道德的研究都是片面的。他认为道德教育的根本目的在于培养理性和自主的社会个体,并以此提出学校德育论。涂尔干的社会道德论述为国内现行德育模式提供符合儿童发展规律的价值参考和理论启示。     

Person Formulation in the Process of Schooling

Mainstream sociology of education has seemingly moved away from the micro‐world of schools and classrooms before we have fully understood them. This is an attempt to reassess some of the prevailing assumptions about the social processes in classrooms, particularly in early schooling. It emerges from an investigation into the formulation of pupils by teachers in primary schools using a four year longitudinal study of a cohort of pupils in two schools. It suggests that Becker's model of ‘ideal‐matching’ may not always be appropriate for understanding interpersonal processes in primary classrooms. Rather than the ‘ideal’ pupil it is apparently the ‘normal’ or ‘average’ pupil that is the significant yardstick in teacher‐pupil dealings.     

Michael Young and the curriculum field in South Africa

The paper addresses the question of what we should make of Michael Young’s recent work with respect to curriculum theory by considering the particular case of South African curriculum reform. The paper thus traces two trajectories: the evolution of Michael Young’s ideas over time and South African curriculum reform in the post-apartheid period. The paper shows how the two trajectories have run in parallel, not least because of Young’s ongoing involvement and interest in South Africa. Three broad periods in Young’s career are identified: the new sociology of education period; a middle period where he engaged in substantial policy work, focusing predominantly on the relation between schooling and the economy; and his social realist phase, where much of his work has focused on an educational notion of specialized knowledge: ‘powerful knowledge’. The possibilities and limitations of this notion as it has been taken up in the research literature, and in relation to the South African case, are explored.     

Academic Fatalism: Applying Durkheim’s Fatalistic Suicide Typology to Student Drop-Out and the Climate of Higher Education

Student drop-out remains a critical issue facing educational professionals. For higher education, the vast research in the past 40 years has been influenced by the work of Tinto and his model of student persistence. In this model are several elements that have proven to sharpen the focus of student drop-out research such as the concept of integration. The philosophical foundation for these concepts stems from Durkheim’s work on suicide. Specifically, Tinto’s employs Durkheim’s “egotistical” suicide type as an analogy for student departure while attributing students’ departure as a decision to separate themselves from the academic community. However; assigning causation of student departure to students’ decisions stands in stark contrast to the theoretical underpinnings of Durkheim’s work. Durkheim believed that certain social tendencies cause suicides. If student drop-out is to be typified by a certain Durkheimian suicide “type,” then specific social facts must exist in those societies. In this article, student departure in higher education will be examined using Durkheim’s theory of suicide complemented with Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic violence. Egotistical suicide will then be re-examined as an analogy for student departure and the Durkheimian suicide “fatalistic” will be presented as suitable analogy for student departure.     

Data entry: towards the critical study of digital data and education

The generation and processing of data through digital technologies is an integral element of contemporary society, as reflected in recent debates over online data privacy, ‘Big Data’ and the rise of data mining and analytics in business, science and government. This paper outlines the significance of digital data within education, arguing for increased interest in the topic from educational researchers. Building on themes from the emerging sub-field of ‘digital sociology’, the paper outlines a number of ways in which digital data in education could be questioned along social lines. These include issues of data inequalities, the role of data in managerialist modes of organisation and control, the rise of so-called ‘dataveillance' and the reductionist nature of data-based representation. The paper concludes with a set of suggestions for future research and discussion, thus outlining the beginnings of a framework for the future critical study of digital data and education.     

Researching children’s rights in education: sociology of childhood encountering educational theory

This paper aims to explore and develop a theoretical approach for children’s rights research in education formed through an encounter between the sociology of childhood and John Dewey’s educational theory. The interest is mainly methodological, in the sense that the primary ambition of the investigation is to suggest a fruitful and useful theoretical base for formulating research problems and undertaking research in children’s rights in education. The paper argues that, particularly in educational settings, research into children’s rights can and must be attributed to children both as full-status humans in a socio-politically contextual present, and as continually growing and changing, immature and dependent humans. From the theoretical encounter suggested in the paper, the much-used distinction of the child as either ‘being’ or ‘becoming’ can be reconsidered, and another point of departure for the study of children’s rights issues in education can be discerned.     

Education,Dialogue and Intervention: revisiting the Freirean project

In the past two decades Paulo Freire's philosophy of education has been the subject of much discussion by academics, school teachers and adult educators in a variety of formal and informal settings. While Freire initially gained recognition for his work with adult illiterates in Brazil and Chile, since the early 1970s his ideas have found increasing application in Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This article reconsiders the literacy methods through which Freire initially attracted international attention. Freire's approach to literacy education in Brazil is outlined and brief reference is made to the other major adult education programmes with which Freire has been involved since 1964. A number of serious criticisms of Freirean pedagogy are identified, all of which deal in some way with what might be termed the problem of ‘imposition’ in Freire's work. Critiques from Berger, Bowers and Walker suggest that the Freirean project entails the imposition of a particular world‐view and mode of social practice on adult illiterates. According to these critics, Freire assumes that he knows better than the oppressed the nature of, and the best solution to, their oppression. The author argues that the Freirean system is indeed non‐dialogical and impositional in certain respects, but concludes that Freire's literacy efforts were ultimately worthwhile.     

Finding Truth in ‘Lies’: Nietzsche's Perspectivism and its Relation to Education

In his 2001 article ‘Teaching to Lie and Obey: Nietzsche on Education’, Stefan Ramaekers defends Nietzsche's concept of perspectivism against the charge that it is relativistic. He argues that perspectivism is not relativistic because it denies the dichotomy between the ‘true’ world and the ‘seeming’ world, a dichotomy central to claims to relativism. While Ramaekers' article is correct in denying relativistic interpretations of perspectivism it does not go far enough in this direction. In fact, the way Ramaekers makes his case may actually encourage the charge of relativism, especially when it comes to his appropriation of perspectivism for education. This article proposes to pick up where Ramaekers left off. It will argue that Nietzsche's denial of the opposition between the ‘true’ world and the ‘seeming’ world opens up the possibility for the reestablishment of truth, albeit in a modified form. After examining Nietzsche's modified ‘realist’ epistemology, the paper will explore the implications of it for his philosophy of education. It will be argued that Nietzsche's educational philosophy is founded on his concept of perspectivism in so far as he demands that students be rigorously inculcated into a pedagogical framework that teaches students to discriminate between ‘true’ and ‘false’ perspectives. This framework is essential for the development of an intellectually robust and life‐affirming culture.     

Computer Majors’ Education as Moral Enterprise: a Durkheimian analysis

Abstract

Recent commentators on Durkheim have stressed his work's emphasis on the moral dimensions of social reality. Building on this premise and using it to explore the contemporary education of aspiring computer professionals, we think many of Durkheim's claims are verified in the process. We posit that the college computer department studied has developed an interlocking set of images, maxims and operating assumptions‐‐a collective moral account‐‐which frames its curriculum, courses and student evaluation. In short, we contend that even in a profession dealing with arguably the most advanced edge of late 20th‐century technology, only a very thin boundary separates its technical professional education from its essentially moral claims.     

‘What it Makes Sense to Say’: Wittgenstein,rule‐following and the nature of education

In his writings Jim Marshall has helpfully emphasized such Wittgensteinian themes as the multiplicity of language games, the deconstruction of ‘certainty,’ and the contexts of power that underlie discursive systems. Here we focus on another important legacy of Wittgenstein's thinking: his insistence that human activity is rule‐governed. This idea foregrounds looking carefully at the world of education and learning, as against the empirical search for new psychological or other facts. It reminds us that we need to consider, in Peter Winch's words, ‘what it makes sense to say’ about certain educational phenomena, and how these meanings stand against understanding a wider form of life. This insight has important implications for doing educational research, and we examine some of these.     

涂尔干的道德教育理论留给我们什么?——社会学家马塞尔·福尼耶访谈录

道德教育为公民教育的一个分支领域,它于晚近一些时候在欧洲大陆兴起,以法国为主要发起国。19世纪以来,西方社会由传统农业社会向现代工业社会转变。在此过程中,旧的道德规范未能及时跟进,并建立与之相适应的新的价值理念,出现了道德真空,导致社会失范。涂尔干开出道德教育的药方,以此重建法国的道德秩序。法国教育部颁布《费里法案》,以官方形式推行涂尔干的思想。结合中国的具体语境,当前中国也处于社会转型期,物质文明上升到新的台阶,精神文明没能与物质文明同步协调发展,道德失范事件频发。涂尔干的道德教育思想对于当前中国以马克思主义占据主导地位的思想体系具有启示意义。围绕这个问题,对加拿大蒙特利尔大学社会学荣休教授马塞尔·福尼耶进行访谈。