Title: Education Inequality: The Growing Gap in Modern Schools
Task: Critically analyse the current problem of equity and inequality in modern schooling in Australia with detailed reference to power and strong links to Pierre Bourdieu’s work on cultural capital and sociological theory. Use epigraph to centre discussion and to answer introduction questions through the lens of power and links to Bourdieu
For Bourdieu, culture is framed narrowly in terms of class, and pedagogy a mechanism by which it is reproduced. As such, it functions as a form of violence having much in common with Foucault’s notion of discipline. Unlike Foucault, however, who also acknowledges the enabling potential of power as a technology of the self, Bourdieu has no such equivalent. His concept of PA leaves little room for capacitation wherein, rather than a cultural arbitrary, certain skills can be seen to have an inherent use value equipping individuals with capacities that are a means for social transformation.
Key Theorist: Pierre Bourdieu
Sub Theorist: Michel Foucault
Key Topic: Equity and inequality, cultural capital, sociological theory. Link to Power, Sybolic violence
Key Theme: (Change in Equity in schools, Power and Symbolic Violence)
Epigraph: All pedagogic action (PA) is, objectively, symbolic violence insofar as it is the imposition of a cultural arbitrary by an arbitrary power
[Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture 1990]
Introduction:
Do Schools reproduce the social order through symbolic violence?
How has modern schooling changed?
Yes and no – modern schooling as changed a lot but this reproduction still occurs (see Time and Space in the Reproduction of Educational Inequality – Richard Teese)
Body: Respond to the epigraph
Must have strong links to theorist Pierre Bourdieu’s particularly reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. Can agree, disagree or some of both.
Subheadings:
Family backgrounds. – Cultural Capital, Socioeconomic status
Hidden power – Hidden curriculum, dominate view point
The problem of recognition and respect in postmodern schooling, power of student vs power of teacher, Only 20% of student achievement is driven from inside the classroom
Who has the power., the state?, the student? The student family?, the school? The teacher?
Conclusion:
Key References (All attached):
[1] Time and Space in the Reproduction of Educational Inequality – Richard Teese
[Murphy, Mark (Ed.) (2013). Social Theory and Education Research Understanding Foucault,
Habermas, Bourdieu and Derrida. London: Routledge.] [3] Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture – Pierre Bourdieu & Jean-Claude Passeron [4] Social Space and Symbolic Power Author(s): Pierre Bourdieu Source: Sociological Theory, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Spring, 1989), pp. 14-25 [5] A good student subject: a Foucauldian discourse analysis of an adolescent writer negotiating subject positions Christopher Worthmana and Beverly Troianob
[Worthman, C., & Troiano, B. (2016). A good student subject: a Foucauldian discourse analysis of an
adolescent writer negotiating subject positions. Critical Studies in Education, 1-18.] [6] Ball, S. J. (1993). Education policy, power relations and teachers’ work. British Journal of Educational
Studies, 41(2), 106-121. DOI: 10.1080/00071005.1993.9973954 [7] Beer, D. (2017). The social power of algorithms. Information Communication and Society, pp. 1-13.
