Education as habitus transformations

Unlike a conventional reading of Bourdieu, this article focuses on his work with regard to the transformation of social structure. In the context of a rereading, from an educational theory perspective, the article proposes an approach that allows for the linking of empirically informed social theory, on the one hand, and biography research oriented to educational theory, on the other. Education, here, is generally conceived of as habitus transformation. For reconstructing the societal conditions of the possibility of education one needs to go beyond the habitus theory and its focus on actors and groups of actors. From the perspective of a theory of practice as proposed by Bourdieu, the concept that comes to mind is that of social field, largely neglected in the theory-of-education discourse. Based on a combination of biography analysis and discourse analysis is, then, presented as a perspective for a relational theory of education. The article aims to outline an empirical reconstruction of transformation processes between habitus and field.