A sociology ‘of’ or a sociology ‘for’ education? The New Zealand experience of the dilemma

The sociology of education in New Zealand, as in other countries, is affected by the dilemma inherent to the discipline, namely: is it a sociology of education or a sociology for education? In this article I analyse three factors in which the dilemma is played out: ‘cultural oppositionism’ in the indigenous (kaupapa Maori) approach, critical policy research and the role of empirical research. I argue that a sociology for education is fundamentally weakened by its politicisation, a flaw not helped by the difficulties in drawing political goals from moral imperatives. In contrast a sociology of education, which uses the strengths of empirical research and theoretical analysis, offers the better hope of renewal for, what is, in New Zealand, a moribund discipline.     

Resistance and Relative Autonomy Theories: problems of distortion and incoherence in recent Marxist analyses of education

This article takes issue with the claims of Arnot & Whitty in the previous number of this journal, that many recent Marxist analyses of education are theoretically ‘open’ and use evidence to interrogate theory. On the contrary, it is argued, contemporary Marxist sociology of education is characterised by theoretical closure and an absence of empirical rigour. The reason for these shortcomings is to be found in a third factor which Arnot & Whitty mistakenly regard as a virtue of recent Marxist analyses — the optimistic commitment to social transformation.

The effect of such commitments on the validity of social scientific explanations, it is suggested, have made themselves fell in two ways: in distorted theories of resistance and transformation, where schools are seen as sites of resistance and struggle as well as places of ideological subjection; and in incoherent theories of relative autonomy which attempt to demonstrate the simultaneous autonomy and dependence of schooling.

At the end of the article, it is proposed that theoretical openness and empirical rigour can only be developed within a value‐free analysis of schooling and capitalism, and that this will entail the suspension of political commitments during the course of the analysis. Contrary to the usual Marxist critique of ‘value‐freedom’ it is also argued that such a ‘value‐free’ sociology of education is quite compatible with socialist theory and practice.     

Positivism,Structurationism and the Differentiation‐Polarisation Theory: a reconsideration of Shilling's novelty and primacy thesis

This paper critically assesses Chris Shilling's claims that structuration theory provides a new and important direction for sociology of education. That assessment is conducted with particular reference to the long‐standing research programme in the sociology of education, known as the differentiation‐polarisation theory (d‐p). The plausibility of the claim that d‐p is positivist is examined, and the extent to which d‐p meets the supposed inadequacies of sociology of education allegedly exposed by structuration theory is investigated. It is concluded that the novelty and importance of structuration theory for sociology of education and a fortiori education policy remains unproven.     

Scorched Earth: prelude to rebuilding Marxist educational theory

This paper focuses on the internal degeneration of the Marxist educational theory flowing from Bowles & Gintis (1976) and Willis (1977). It explores five interlinked ‘debilitating problematics’ ‐‐ the base/superstructure metaphor, Left functionalism, relative autonomy, resistance theory and the education for autonomy/revolution dilemma ‐‐ which have simultaneously formed the backbone of Marxist educational theory and constituted the roots of its theoretical weaknesses. The general argument is that these weaknesses are so deep‐seated that Marxists interested in theorising capitalist schooling need to start afresh. The paper points towards some possible starting points for new Marxist thinking on capitalist schooling, the preferred option being an analysis of labour‐power. One consequence of taking labour‐power as the starting point for a Marxist analysis of education is that it entails the dissolution of Marxist educational theory’. Instead, educational theory and politics become subordinated to a concern with the social production of labour‐power in capitalism.     

Marxist state theory and state autonomy theory: the case of ‘race’ education in initial teacher education

Abstract

In recent times, there have been a number of critiques of Marxist and neo‐Marxist analyses of the state and education policy. These have drawn on postmodernist, ‘quasi‐postmodernist’ and state autonomy perspectives. While the postmodernist and ‘quasi‐postmodernist’ approaches have attracted critical response, to date, the state autonomy perspective has, to our knowledge, gone unchallenged. To address this theoretical lacuna, this paper analyses one writer's attempt, via an historical case study, to uphold state autonomy theory by detailing the ongoing relationship between one quasi‐state agency and the practice of ‘race’ education in initial teacher education. We argue that there are serious conceptual weaknesses in this latest attempt to apply state autonomy theory to educational policy analysis. The arguments in the case study under consideration are seriously compromised by a basically flawed hypothesis, a misrepresentation of contemporary (neo‐) Marxist education policy analysis and by a failure to look at ‘the big picture’.     

Left Alone: end time for Marxist educational theory?

This paper provides an external account of the demise of the ‘old’ Marxist educational theory flowing from social reproductionism/ resistance theory. Five developments are explored in terms of how they have undercut the ‘old’ educational Marxism: hyper‐academicism; dislocations/disjunctions between theory and practice; the postmodern challenge; the new liberal ‘Left’ challenge; and, the ‘death of Marxism’ syndrome. The first two elements form the basis of some important ‘lessons’ for the revitalisation of Marxist perspectives on education. It is also argued that, although the five trends and developments have posed a serious challenge for the ‘old’ Marxist educational theory, nevertheless, it will probably circulate for some time‐‐given revivals, revisits, and as a source of easy criticism for anti‐Marxists. Finally, there has been a recent flowering of new approaches to theorising education from a Marxist perspective, which this paper maps out.     

Languages of Legitimation: The structuring significance for intellectual fields of strategic knowledge claims

Beginning from the argument that the sociology of educational knowledge remains a sociology without a theory of knowledge, this paper illustrates the significance of the structuring of knowledge for the development of intellectual fields through a study of cultural studies in British higher education. The paper presents a means of bridging the divide between analyses of 'relations to' and 'relations within' education (Basil Bernstein) by conceiving educational knowledge as legitimation, i.e. as both positioned strategies within a field of struggles and potentially legitimate truth claims. First, the institutional trajectory of and claims made for cultural studies by its proponents are outlined. Analysis of the underlying principles of this language of legitimation is developed into a generative conceptualisation of modes of legitimation, and cultural studies is defined as a knower mode, where knowledge is reduced to the knower and epistemology replaced by sociology. Using this framework, cultural studies is then analysed in terms of: (i) relations to its institutional trajectory (developing Pierre Bourdieu's 'field' approach); and (ii) relations within its mode of legitimation, focusing on their ramifications for the field's structure. It is argued that legitimation embraces the insights of both approaches, thereby contributing to a cumulative and epistemological sociology of educational knowledge.     

Reconceptualising Structure and Agency in the Sociology of Education: structuration theory and schooling

Since the 1970s there has been considerable debate among sociologists of education about the macro‐micro gap in educational analyses. However, educational research remains divided largely into the study of large‐scale phenomena such as social systems and national policies on the one hand, and case‐studies of individual schools and social interaction on the other. This split has had a number of unfortunate consequences for the development of the field. Most importantly, the dominant conceptions of structure and agency employed in the sociology of education are characterised by a dualism which makes it difficult to conceptualise adequately the processes involved in social change. In this paper, I briefly describe this structure‐agency dualism before critically examining three attempts which have been made to address this problem. The ability of structuration theory to overcome this dualism is then examined, and I conclude by arguing that this approach offers an important new direction for the sociology of education.     

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.     

Encountering disregard in Australian academe: the subjective perspective of a disaffiliated racial ‘other’

This article proposes that progressive frameworks underpinned by diversity are contradictory to the inclusion of the ‘other’ in Australian higher education. I integrate the critical race theory constructs of disregard and convergence with white privilege and indigenous lacking to claim that objective processes underpinned by merit embed the marginalising of the ‘other’. I draw on storytelling to enunciate my subjective experience of disregard as a Maori woman scholar to shed light on institutional culture in the maintaining of insider privilege.     

Searching for Missing Links: neo‐Marxist theories of education

Since the appearance of Bowles & Gintis’ (1976) ‘correspondence thesis’, neo‐Marxist theorizing about educational change has gone in several directions. Different approaches have emphasized capitalist reproduction requirements, contradictions between these requirements and the democratic state, hegemony theory and processes of class formation. While studies with affinity to a Marxist problematic of subordination and oppression have become more theoretically open and empirically grounded, some of the core explanatory ideas of the historical materialist perspective tend to have been ignored or dismissed. In consequence, the main conceptual, empirical and theoretical limitations of the correspondence thesis are being repeated, notably in arguments about a ‘post‐Fordist’ form of education. After a discussion of the contemporary relevance of historical materialism's core ideas for explaining educational change, the limited foci of neo‐Marxist theories of education are critically reviewed. Some suggestions are then made for overcoming these persistent limitations—most notably a hyper‐rationalistic image of education and a lack of direct attention to both production relations and educational relations per se.     

中学德育工作的新思路:德育的整合模式

随着全球化时代的来临和入世后我国进一步与国际社会的接轨，加强青少年的德育工作再一次成为人们关注的焦点，青少年的道德面貌直接关系到我国社会主义事业的兴衰成败。而我国现行的德育模式在内容上过于政治化、功利化；在方法上重认知、轻实践；在主体上忽视学生的主动参与；在途径上单一、缺乏配合。时代的发展要求新的德育模式的产生。中学德育的整合模式以其开放性、系统性、动态性和双向性突破传统的德育模式，在扬弃以往德育模式的基础上，以马克思主义认识论、系统论为理论依据，建立三级整合体系，从而丰富德育理论，为中学的德育工作提供了一条崭新的思路。     

Bourdieu’s lessons for internationalising Anglophone education: declassifying Sino-Anglo divisions over critical theorising

To ratify possibilities for worldly linguistic connectivities and critical theorising there is a need to forgo the exclusionary preoccupation with English and Western critical theories. The debates informing the international circulation of Bourdieu’s (1977, 1993, 1999, 2004) ideas provide methodological lessons for moving from critical sociology of education to educational research for critique. This study reports on the use of Chinese metaphors to critically theorise evidence of Australian education. It provides an analysis of the translation of Chinese metaphors, their use as theoretical tools and the preempting of the antagonistic reception of Chinese metaphors by Western Anglophone educators. A worldly education of linguistic connectivities and critical theorising is shown to engage in the reflexivity necessary for making Chinese research students’ bi- or multilingual competence a presence in Australian teacher-researcher education. At the, same time they are articulating claims for reconfiguring its internationalisation.     

社会主义革命和建设时期马克思主义教育理论的中国化研究

在社会主义革命和社会主义建设时期,中国共产党把马克思主义教育理论与中国的具体实际相结合,开展扫盲教育,提高人民群众的文化水平;教育干部读马列原著,提高马列主义水平,成为精通政治和业务的专家;学校教育坚持普及与提高相结合,教育与生产劳动相结合,成为具有创造精神、德智体全面发展的有社会主义觉悟的有文化的劳动者。中国共产党继承、丰富、发展了马克思主义的教育方针、政策、内容、目的,形成了中国化的马克思主义教育理论。     

论实践思维方式视域中教育观的逻辑思考

改革开放三十年以来,我国的教育事业随着社会经济的快速发展取得了长足进步,但却没有培养出适应我国经济社会发展大量需要的杰出人才;因为,社会不缺人才,缺的是杰出人才。其主要原因之一是传统的教育观还没有在思维方式上有根本的变化,没有真正在教育事业上落实马克思主义的教育实践本性思想。马克思的实践思维方式是一种正确地反映了马克思主义理论本性的思维方式。实践思维的教育观是合乎马克思主义理论本性的教育观,它规定其四个基本的维度。     

Dystopian Social Theory and Education

In this article Paul Warmington examines the dystopian analyses pervading recent work by David Blacker, John Marsh, and Pauline Lipman. Their unsettling depictions of education under late capitalism bear witness to irreversible economic and environmental malaise, the colonization of education by neoliberalism, and the unsustainability of faith in education as the driver of economic security and social mobility. In reality, our education systems are now barely able to mask the fact that increasing numbers of people are being fitted for dispensability, that is, elimination from the socio‐educational mainstream. These three authors return neo‐Marxist structural theory to us in chastened form. They acknowledge the lessons of cultural studies, feminism, and critical theories of race, but they are unafraid to suggest that correspondence, determinism, and pessimism may again need to enter our theoretical worldviews. However, their pessimism has political value. Rather than defeating us, it may become the imperative for political and educational change.     

New Trends in Swedish Educational Research

What new tendencies can be made out in Swedish educational research in the last three decades? Briefly, the following developments are described: In the 1970s, a long‐prevailing emphasis on quantitative research was challenged by a number of different qualitative methods. Traditional sociology of education, meanwhile, was challenged by the new sociology of education. During the 1980s, the dominant trend was a “didacticisation” of educational research, and here two main strands can be discerned, based in phenomenography and curriculum theory. Didactics very soon made its presence felt in educational policy, and in a major evaluation of Swedish educational research the two largely didactics‐based traditions of “teaching and learning” and “curriculum theory” were identified as internationally the most significant. In the 1990s, educational research took a “linguistic turn”—involving a wide‐ranging shift in emphasis towards language and communication—with the result that new perspectives emerged. In addition, the philosophy of education experienced a powerful renaissance, partly as a reflection of the new focus on language and communication, but also in other respects, leading to a reawakening of interest in both classical and modern philosophy (of education).     

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.     

The promise of action research for critically reflective teacher education

Abstract

This paper is an analysis of the potential that action research theory and practice hold for educating preservice teachers to become more critically reflective. First, action research theory, especially as it informs current notions of educational research and practice, is reviewed. Then critically reflective teaching is described by grounding the term in critical social science views supportive of the social reconstructionist reform tradition in teacher education. Special attention is given in this review to the claims made by action research advocates regarding the power of action research to promote critically reflective teaching. Finally, to examine the empirical basis for these claims, a brief survey is made of several reports of the use of action research by teacher educators. The analysis reveals cautious optimism for the promise action research holds for critically reflective teacher education.     

Locating the global: culture,language and science education for indigenous students

The international literature suggests the use of indigenous knowledge (IK) and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) contexts in science education to provide motivation and self‐esteem for indigenous students is widespread. However, the danger of alienating culture (as knowledge) from the language in which the worldview is embedded seems to have been left out of the philosophical and pedagogical debates surrounding research and comment in the field. This paper argues that one of the main ways in which indigenous knowledge systems will survive and thrive is through the establishment of programmes taught through indigenous languages so that a dialectal relationship between language and knowledge is established that continues to act as the wellspring. The article concludes by reviewing the situation in Aotearoa New Zealand with respect to the indigenous population, Maori, and the recent science education initiatives in te reo Maori (Maori language).