Making gazes explicit: facilitating epistemic access in the Humanities

This paper addresses the problem of curriculum design in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and more specifically the challenge of designing foundation courses for first-generation or ‘disadvantaged’ learners. Located in the social realist school of the sociology of education studies that builds on the legacy of Basil Bernstein, we emphasise the importance of knowledge and understanding the principles that generate ‘what counts’ in particular courses and disciplines. In order to operationalise this, we used Maton’s Legitimation Code Theory to uncover the knowledge/knower structures in eight first year courses in four of the most popular majors in a Faculty of Humanities. Our data sources were curriculum documents and exam papers in particular. The findings are presented and the ‘codes’, ‘gazes’ and ‘lenses’ for each set of courses delineated. The findings are being used to inform the design of a set of curriculum and pedagogic interventions that aim to offer powerful ways of knowing to novices in the Humanities and Social Sciences.     

The impact of standards-based assessment on knowledge for history education in New Zealand

This paper examines how a standards-based form of assessment in operation in New Zealand has impacted upon the knowledge taught to secondary history students. The segmentation of history into assessable components along with assessment mechanisms which encourage the reduction in the number of standards being attempted has impacted upon both the breadth and range of historical content in history programmes. The reduction in knowledge is problematic as it diminishes learners’ opportunities to draw connections between inter-related historical concepts from a wider knowledge base. Social realists have raised concerns about the reduced focus on knowledge in education and its effects in restricting students’ development of conceptual knowledge which enables higher order, more abstract thinking. Experiences of standards-based assessment for history in New Zealand are indicative of this reductive phenomenon. In a culture of accountability, standards-based assessment, as enacted in New Zealand, may impede delivery of critical knowledge.     

Powerful knowledge and the curriculum: Contradictions and dichotomies

The concept of powerful knowledge (PK) has central dichotomies and contradictions, which this article questions. The origins, meaning, purpose and reality of PK are considered. PK is based in social realism, and the article suggests how critical realism could inform more illuminating analyses of knowledge and power. The two versions of realism are compared for their different approaches to dichotomies and dialectic, and to types of knowledge as sacred or profane. The dichotomies assumed in PK theory, which will be reviewed, are: separating concepts from values; informal everyday experience versus formal academic education; separating disciplines versus interdisciplinarity; passive versus active learning and curriculum versus pedagogy; and policies versus theories of power and knowledge. The article concludes that these dichotomies are unrealistic and unhelpful. If teaching informed by PK theory is to benefit students and society, and if knowledge is to be associated with power, it will be helpful to overcome or revoke the dichotomies, which are better understood through dialectical analysis, as shown throughout the article.     

Not just skills: what a focus on knowledge means for vocational education

This contribution to the symposium on Michael Young’s article ‘Overcoming the crisis in curriculum theory: a knowledge based approach’, supports his contention that curriculum theory has lost sight of its object—‘what is taught and learned in schools’, and argues that this has particularly deleterious consequences for vocational education and training (VET). VET is unproblematically positioned as applied, experiential and work-focused learning, and it is seen as a solution for those who are alienated from or unsuccessful in more traditional forms of academic education. This article argues that rather than being a mechanism for social inclusion, VET is instead a key way in which social inequality is mediated and reproduced because it excludes students from accessing the theoretical knowledge they need to participate in debates and controversies in society and in their occupational field of practice. It presents a social realist analysis to argue why VET students need access to theoretical knowledge, how a focus on experiential and applied learning constitutes a mechanism for social exclusion and what a ‘knowledge rich’ VET curriculum would look like.     

Virtualisation and the late age of schools 1

This paper raises the issue of what it is to be ‘critical’ in education studies and in social theory more generally. It argues that this idea has for a long time been associated with forms of social constructionism and sociological reductionism. These understand the idea that knowledge is social in terms of reducing it to the experiences and interests of the groups whose perspective knowledge is held to represent. In this way knowledge is conflated with knowing. This approach has the consistent problem of collapsing into a relativism that denies of possibility of objectivity in knowledge or an epistemologically independent basis for knowledge claims. This paper offers an alternative view based in critical realism that attempts to provide non‐relativist, though fallible, grounds for knowledge claims that restore a sense of autonomy to fields of knowledge production by understanding the sociality of knowledge in terms of emergent materialism. In this manner, the argument provides an alternative to both social constructionism and to Bourdieu's relationalism.     

How competency‐based training locks the working class out of powerful knowledge: a modified Bernsteinian analysis

This paper argues that competency‐based training in vocational education and training in Australia is one mechanism through which the working class is denied access to powerful knowledge represented by the academic disciplines. The paper presents a modified Bernsteinian analysis to argue that vocational education and training students need access to disciplinary knowledge using Bernstein’s argument that abstract, conceptual knowledge is the means societies use to think ‘the unthinkable’ and ‘the not‐yet‐thought’. I supplement Bernstein’s social argument for democratic access to the disciplines with an epistemic argument that draws on the philosophy of critical realism.     

Powerful knowledge,esoteric knowledge,curriculum knowledge

This paper seeks to introduce a wider audience to a set of ideas developed by a group of sociologists of education who draw on Basil Bernstein’s late work on knowledge structures and whose epistemological stance is grounded in Social Realism. The paper’s main substantive focus is the concept of ‘powerful knowledge’ – recently popularised by Michael Young – and the implications of this notion for curriculum change. ‘Powerful knowledge’ connects with two other key ideas – ‘knowledge of the powerful’ and ‘esoteric knowledge’ – all of which have fed into recent debates about curriculum development and change. Various inter-connections between these ideas are examined. The paper concludes by identifying three chronic ‘tensions’ which impede efforts to extend powerful knowledge to socially and economically disadvantaged students.     

评二十年休战期间的国际德论战

二十年休战期间,围绕国际道德问题,现实主义同理想主义展开了激烈地论战。爱德华.卡尔既不认同威尔逊倡导的国家行为应遵守与个人相同伦理的理想主义道德准则,也不完全苟同马基雅维利等人鼓吹的国家间关系只受权力支配而道德在其中不起作用的犬儒主义道德准则,而是坚持一种非至善的现实主义立场,从而,完成了从理想主义到现实主义的转变。     

从建构主义到社会实在:知识教学的反思与重构

建构主义视角下的知识教学强调学生的主动建构,注重社会文化互动与个人意义生成,却潜存过度建构而否定知识价值、混淆教学活动与一般学习活动、阻碍学生主体性发展的危害。社会实在理论批判、超越并改进了建构主义的弊端,承认知识生产的程序客观性与社会性基础,并基于其内在统一性提出知识的社会实在属性,为澄清知识教学的范畴与内涵提供了理论基础。社会实在论视角下的知识教学以优选的客观知识作为教学的主要内容和逻辑起点;以知识生产的客观逻辑与社会情境作为教学过程的设计依据;以学生的思维发生与知识结构作为教学效果的评判依据。整合的知识教学观,有助于从整体上把握教学的本质及其改革方向。     

Social Realism and the problem of the problem of knowledge in the sociology of education

This paper examines from a Social Realist perspective a set of issues in the sociology of education regarding the problem of knowledge. It focuses upon the issue of relativism associated with the constructionist approach that since the time of the New Sociology of Education in the 1970s has constituted in different forms the dominant perspective in the field. It identifies features shared between constructionism and the ‘positivist’ approach with which it contrasts itself. It is argued that these two positions have more in common than is often recognized and draws upon Critical Realism as an alternative to both. Social Realism explores the sociological implications of Critical Realism for education.     

Reconceptualising learning as a form of relational reflexivity

The paper makes a connection between transmission modes and constructivism in sociology and education, respectively. There are parallels between Archer’s criticism of upward and downward conflation in social theory, and approaches to learning in education. In her 2012 book, Archer seeks to reconceptualise socialisation as relational reflexivity. This paper seeks to connect this idea to thinking about learning in relational terms and links the analysis to Young’s account of ‘bringing knowledge back in’. The paper uses an example from field work on participation in learning to provide concrete examples that illuminate the points being made. It argues that learning theory needs to move away from transmission and the constructivists’ ideas about education and to consider the relational aspects of learning.     

Two viewpoints on the challenges of ICT in education: knowledge-building theory vs. a pragmatist conception of learning in social action

The paper contrasts two different approaches to the educational challenges of the ubiquitous, rapidly developing information and communication technologies (ICT). The first is the constructivist ‘knowledge building’ theory spearheaded by Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia and recently further developed by Kai Hakkarainen and Sami Paavola; the second is a pragmatist standpoint drawing in particular from John Dewey’s ideas about learning as a natural part of human social actions and transactions. The knowledge builders have set their approach out as a suitable answer to the challenges of the present-day, ICT-characterised ‘Knowledge Age’. But here it is argued that a pragmatist approach can be advanced that avoids the over-intellectualisation of education characteristic of knowledge builders and thereby offers a viable alternative for improving present-day educational practices in ways that promote appropriate utilisation of ICT in schools in particular.     

Theoretical Claims and Empirical Evidence in Maori Education Discourse

Post‐Marxist critical sociology of education has influenced the development of indigenous (‘kaupapa’) Maori educational theory and research. Its effects are examined in four claims made for Maori education by indigenous theorists. The claims are: indigenous kaupapa Maori education is a revolutionary initiative; it is a cultural solution to Maori educational under‐achievement; it has reversed the decline of the Maori language; it provides a valid educational alternative for an ethnically and culturally distinctive population. The analysis suggests that the indigenous theory approach is representative of the position‐taking strategy that characterises post‐Marxist critical sociology of education, concluding that claims made in kaupapa Maori voice discourse are not supported by the empirical evidence which indicates a more complex social reality.     

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.     

Bourdieu’s collective enterprise of inculcation: the moral socialisation and ethical enculturation of medical students

This paper introduces the idea of enculturation to sociology as a compliment to socialisation in the context of Bourdieu’s ‘collective enterprise of inculcation’ and social theory. Enculturation is positioned as a concept that can be used to address formal education as a factor in social reproduction. Following a discussion of socialisation and enculturation and their interrelation, they are further examined in the context of medical education. In particular, I focus on the moral and ethical aspects of medical education and the social or professional reproduction of medical students. I differentiate between ‘medical morality’ or ‘ethos’ and ‘medical ethics’ or ‘eidos’, arguing that the reproduction of the former is predominantly a matter of socialisation whilst the reproduction of the latter is a primarily a function of enculturation. Nevertheless I make clear that any eidos is not independent of the ethos in which is exists and that, therefore, any medical ethics is dependent on the socio-cultural institution of medicine and its moral ethos. Utilising the concepts of eidos and enculturation in Bourdieuan social theory facilitates a focus on the neglected cognitive aspects of social life, including explicitly pedagogic activities, and provides for a degree of indeterminacy or ‘freedom’ in a theoretical perspective that has been criticised for its deterministic implications.     

Politics,knowledge and objectivity in sociology of education: a response to the case for ‘ethical reflexivity’ by Gewirtz and Cribb

The present article examines the relationship between political values and social research, with particular reference to the case for ethical reflexivity in sociology of education put forward by Gewirtz and Cribb. It is argued that their case for such reflexivity is flawed by conceptual imprecision and over‐determination of the links between value commitments, knowledge and the political implications of research. Drawing on a case study of a controversy in sociology of education, combined with a more discriminating conceptual analysis of political values in social research, it is suggested that the Gewirtz–Cribb ‘manifesto’ for routine ethical reflexivity may be inefficient and impractical. An alternative way of thinking about political reflexivity in sociology of education is offered, as are some possible avenues of philosophical resolution between the main protagonists of the longstanding debate on ‘what to do about values’ in sociology of education.     

Post‐modern Sociology as a Democratic Educational Practice? Some suggestions

This paper explores the relationships between sociology, democracy and education. Its main argument is that post‐modernist theory (in spite of its own inherent inconsistencies) can be interpreted as a constructive challenge to the hierarchical presuppositions of academic sociology. It can thus help to provide a theoretical framework for formulating a new set of institutional arrangements for social inquiry, which would reconstitute sociology as a democratic educational practice. In order for this to occur, sociology must recognise that the problematic nature of the social relationships of authoritative interpretation constitute a key theoretical problem: a ‘democratic’ sociology must re‐focus its efforts on formulating methods for critique which would help to enfranchise practitioners in the rigorous analysis of their work.     

现实主义法学与法律方法

从卢埃林和弗兰克的现实主义法学出发对现实主义法学进行阐释,认为现实主义法学家：在法律方法方面强调法官的能动性;在法律渊源与法律发现理论中,主张只有真正适用到个案中的规则才是法律;在法律解释方面,提倡法官基于解决纠纷需要对法律进行创造性解释。他们批判把司法过程视为纯粹的逻辑推理,主张法官在直觉和经验的基础上预先形成结论,再运用法律证成该结论,开了司法论证理论的先河。     

‘The shape of things that are and were’ and ‘the shape of things to come’: some reflections on the sociology of education at the 40th anniversary of BJSE

Abstract

Reflecting through the prisms of past, present (“the shape of things that are and were”) and future (“the shape of things to come”), this paper discusses three challenges for sociology of education: the rise of populism and declining faith in ‘experts’; inequities within and re/produced by the sociology of education; and how to enact a sociology of education that can ‘make a difference’ to social inequalities. The paper puts forward some ideas in support of a current and future practice of the discipline that is pluralistic and orientated towards social justice. Arguments are made for the value of public-orientated dialogue that is conducted in a range of registers and the importance of acknowledging and engaging with the ‘debt’ (Ladson-Billings) that is owed to minoritized communities and minoritized researchers. Finally, a case is made for a sociology of education based on the principle of service as enacted through praxis partnerships.     

Keeping Secrets: ESP/LSP and the sociology of knowledge

Summary This article examines the notions of ‘specialisation’ or ‘specificity’ as they are used in expressions such as ‘English for special purposes’ (ESP) or languages for specific purposes’ (LSP). It is argued that a given variety of language is not ‘special’ or ‘specific’ in some absolute or objective way, inherent to its formal structures, topics and norms. ‘Specificity’ is, rather, the result of a particular relationship between participant and discourse, between two cultures or worlds of knowledge. For these reasons, it is often not particularly helpful to attempt to describe specific varieties in terms of linguistic features. Instead, we need to situate the problem within a general theory of the sociology of knowledge by asking fundamental questions such as ‘Specialised for who?’ and ‘Who knows what?’, ‘How do they acquire and use their knowledge?’. Such a theory will necessarily be both relative and social: relative to the individual and to the way in which knowledge is socially distributed. But it will also be a theory of discourse, since interactive language‐use is the principal mechanism by which individuals acquire, stock and share all knowledge, ‘specialised’ or otherwise. It is suggested that two factors need to be kept in mind by the didactician interested in LSP. First, is the discourse asymmetric?, i.e. does it assume or contain knowledge which the learner does not have? Secondly, is the discourse non‐collaborative?, i.e. one where no attempt is made to share the knowledge with uninitiated participants.