How Bourdieu bites back: recognising misrecognition in education and educational research

Having noted that some use of Bourdieusian concepts in educational research is superficial, this paper offers a view of the distinctiveness of Bourdieu’s concepts via the example of misrecognition, which is differentiated from the concept with the same name in Fraser’s work. An account is given of a recent research project on white middle-class identity and school choice, which suggests that whilst parents avoided a common misrecognition (regarding school quality), they were nevertheless reliant on other forms of misrecognition (regarding the qualities of their children) that are equally important in the relationship between social class and educational inequalities. Finally, the paper suggests that educational understandings, including some educational research, are predisposed to misrecognise Bourdieusian concepts, and four areas of tension are identified. The paper argues against ‘light usage’ of Bourdieu whilst acknowledging that the approach can produce a pessimistic account that is at odds with some educational values.     

Field theory and educational practice: Bourdieu and the pedagogic qualities of local field positions in educational contexts

Bourdieu’s version of field theory has had an impressive impact on the ways that sociologists of education conceptualize educational practices. These accounts tend to focus on the varying levels of ontological complicity established between students’ cultural dispositions and educational institutions. In this paper, the wisdom of these accounts is acknowledged but it is also suggested that Bourdieu’s field theory does not go far enough to detail the ways that positions in local educational fields embody pedagogic qualities and action trajectories. Drawing on insights from social psychology and relational sociology, a field theory for local educational action is outlined that more adequately accounts for the ways that students and educators directly experience and act upon curricular and pedagogic qualities in educational settings. An empirical example is then offered of the authors’ claims within the context of curricular tracking/streaming, and the article concludes by considering the practical and political consequences of this theoretical shift.     

Myths in educational research

Educational innovation research has been strongly influenced by research in other disciplines, in particular, rural, industrial and medical sociology. The resulting methodology and generalizations have often been wrongly applied to education with resulting distortions about the nature of innovators, the dissemination and the adoption of innovation in education. Research on the dissemination and adoption of new curriculum projects in British secondary schools specifically refutes a number of commonly accepted generalizations about innovation in education and questions the over-simplification of many others. Innovators are not necessarily younger or more cosmopolitan or with more change agent contact than non-innovators. However, familiarity with new curriculum projects is positively related to cosmopolitanism, contact with change agents and the use of mass media. A number of intervening variables obviously influence the differences found between teachers familiar with and those who adopt new projects. These are discussed in terms of relevance, facilitating and limiting influences, objectives and perceived effects of new projects in education. The combined use of a survey questionnaire and case studies with interviews reveals many of the methodological problems in this type of research.

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Zusammenfassung Die Forschung über Innovationen im Bildungswesen ist stark von Forschung auf anderen Fachgebieten, insbesondere der ländlichen, industriellen und medizinischen Soziologie, beeinflusst. Die sich daraus ergebende falsche Anwendung von Methodologie und Verallgemeinerungen auf das Bildungsgebiet hat zu Missverständnisse über die Natur von Innovatoren sowie die Verbreitung und Anwendung von Innovationen im Bildungsbereich geführt. Forschung über die Verbreitung und Einführung neuer Curriculum Projekte in britischen Sekundarschulen widerlegt eine Reihe allgemein akzeptierter Verallgemeinerungen über Bildungsinnovationen und stellt die übermässige Vereinfachung anderer in Frage. Innovatoren sind nicht unbedingt jünger oder kosmopolitischer als Nicht-Innovatoren, noch haben sie mehr Kontakt mit Änderungsfaktoren. Vertrautheit mit neuen Curriculums-Projekten hat jedoch eine positive Beziehung zu kosmopolitischer Einstellung, Kontakt mit Änderungsfaktoren und dem Gebrauch von Massenmedien. Offensichtlich beeinflusst eine Anzahl von Variablen die Unterschiede zwischen Lehrern, die neue Projekte kennen und solchen, die sie anwenden. Diese Variablen werden erörtert im Hinblick auf Relevanz, fördernde und beschränkende Einflüsse, Zielsetzungen und wahrgenommene Wirkungen neuer Bildungsprojekte. Durch die Kombination von Erhebungs-Fragebogen, Fallstudien und Interviews werden viele der methodologischen Probleme in dieser Art Forschung beleuchtet.

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Résumé La recherche sur la dissémination et l'adoption de nouveaux projets de curriculum dans les écoles secondaires anglaises réfute spécifiquement un nombre de généralisations ordinairement admises au sujet de l'innovation en éducation et met en question la trop grande simplification de bien d'autres généralisations. Les innovateurs ne sont pas forcément plus jeunes ou plus cosmopolites ou ont plus de contacts avec des agents de changement que les non-innovateurs. Cependant, la familiarité avec de nouveaux projets de curriculum est assurément apparentée au cosmopolitisme, au contact avec des agents de changement et à l'emploi de mass média. Un nombre de variables intervenantes influence manifestement les différences constatées entre les maîtres familiers avec les nouveaux projets et ceux qui les adoptent. Celles-ci sont discutées en ce qui concerne l'importance, les influences concernant le fait de faciliter et de limiter, les objectifs et les effets perçus des nouveaux projets 'en éducation. L'emploi d'un questionnaire pour un rapport et d'études de cas combiné à des interviews décèle bien des problèmes de méthodologie dans ce genre de recherche.

     

Priorities in educational research

This article emphasizes the need for a coordinative agency to survey, project, and direct funding for educational research. Studies are recommended on characteristics of children in the learning encounter; educational readiness for the very young child from various social settings; and the exploration of programs to meet children's needs across the total school range. The teacher, his personal qualities and behavior in the teaching act, will be a primary focus in research. Adequate means of evaluating school programs, particularly innovative programs must be devised. Researchers must reveal means whereby the teacher can become more effective on an individual basis with both child and parent.

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Résumé Cet article insiste sur le besoin d'une agence coordinative qui étudiera et dirigera les dépenses pour la recherche éducationelle. Les auteurs suggèrent des études concernant le comportement des enfants dans les rencontres éducatives; l'aptitude à apprendre de l'enfant très jeune de différents milieux sociaux; et la recherche des programmes qui réponderaient aux besoins des enfants à tous les niveaux. Les recherches se concentreront sur le professeur, ses qualités personnelles, et sa façon d'agir quand il enseigne. Des moyens appropriés d'évaluer des programmes scolaires, en particulier des programmes innovateurs, devront être recherchés. Les chercheurs devront découvrir les moyens par lesquels l'enseignant pourra devenir plus compétent dans ses contacts avec enfant et parent.

     

Hypothetico-deduction and educational research

This paper suggests that the classic account of hypothetico-deduction in educational research needs to be replaced by a more adequate model which distinguishes between the logical structure of hypothetico-deduction and its methodological application. A reconceptualization of hypothetico-deduction entails exploration of the logical relationship between three levels of explanation: observation sentences, observation categoricals and theory formulations. Taken together, these provide a framework to accommodate all inquiry. An educational example is considered to demonstrate how this reformulated account of hypothetico-deduction applies to educational research.     

Genealogy and educational research

The aim of this paper was to demonstrate how genealogy can be used as a method for critical education research. As Foucault emphasized, genealogy is a method for identifying the way in which the individuals are subjectified through discourse. The genealogical analysis in the article defines two mayor tendencies in contemporary Danish pedagogy: individualization and structuralizing. The analyses also show an example of how the two tendencies are intermingled in the Danish law of learning plans in day care institutions.     

Revisiting Bourdieu: alternative educational systems in the light of the theory of social and cultural reproduction

The paper reflects upon the principles and practice of an alternative educational system operating in rural Mexico in the light of Bourdieu’s theory of cultural and social reproduction. Bourdieu’s theory seeks to explain processes of reproduction of power relations within schools and society; whereas alternative educational systems seek to expand educational access in deprived areas in order to counteract processes of social inequality. The paper argues that, although Bourdieu’s theory does not fully explain the gradual inclusion of more people from disadvantaged backgrounds into education through alternative educational systems, processes of social reproduction in deprived communities still occur mainly because of lack of state support after primary school level, and a shortage of better infrastructure and opportunities for this sector of the population. Since the widespread upward educational and class mobility of the rural poor has not yet been achieved, the paper concludes that the processes of cultural and social reproduction continue despite the introduction of alternative educational systems.     

论教师的教育研究

在现代社会发展和教育改革发展的过程中，教师应当而且必须成为研究者，这不仅有利于教育教学质量的提高，更有利于教师的专业成长，教师的教育研究有自身的特性，属行动研究，要求教师通过自主反思意识的确立，采用多种方法研究和解决自身实践中遇到的困难和问题。