Paul Willis—Education,Cultural Production and Social Reproduction

Learning to Labour signalled a break from mechanistic ‘social reproduction’ theories within the Sociology of Education, towards a new appreciation of the role of cultural processes within school. This paper reviews the work of Paul Willis, focussing particularly on some of the unresolved themes of Learning to Labour and the development of his own thought since this study was produced. Areas which have been under emphasised in the past include Willis’ attempt to formulate a methodological and analytical base for cultural studies within education, the theoretical relationship between culture and ideology and the essentially active, transformative nature of cultural production within educational sites. This paper aims to clarify some of these issues.