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Bourdieu for Educators
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Bourdieu for Educators
Policy and Practice



January 2015 | 144 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Educational change and reform on a larger scale  

Bourdieu for Educators: Policy and Practice brings the revolutionary research and thinking of Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) of France to public educational leaders in North America, Canada, Australia, and the U.K. This text brings Bourdieu’s work into the arena of elementary and secondary educational reform and change, and offers policy, research, and practice discussions. Authors Fenwick W. English and Cheryl L. Bolton use Bourdieu to challenge the standards movement in different countries, the current vision of effective management, and the open-market notion connecting pay to performance. The text shows that connecting pay to performance won’t improve education for the poorest group of school students in the U.S., Canada, or the U.K., regardless of how much money is spent trying to erase the achievement gap. The authors lay out the bold educational agenda of Pierre Bourdieu by demonstrating that educational preparation must take into account larger socioeconomic-political realities in order for educational change and reform to make an impact.

 
Chapter 1: Introducing Pierre Bourdieu to Educational Practitioners
Bourdieu’s Biography

 
Vielseitigkeit: What is Distinctive About Bourdieu

 
Understanding the Nature of Pedagogic Work as Political Struggle

 
The “Culture Wars” in the U.S. and the U.K.: Similarities and Differences

 
The Battle Over the Correct Academic Subjects and Proper Pedagogic Work

 
The Concept of Misrecognition and How It Works

 
Some History with Misrecognition in the Past

 
Building Awareness of the Forces at Play

 
Without New Eyes: The Blinders of Doxa as Orthodoxy

 
Bourdieu as the Public Intellectual, Activist and Provocateur

 
 
Chapter 2: Unmasking the School Asymmetry and the Social System
Bourdieusian Cornerstones

 
Bourdieu’s Concept of Habitus

 
An Example of Neighborhood Habitus

 
A Case Study of How Family Habitus Works to Shape Career Aspirations

 
The Intersection of Class, Social Space and the Field

 
An Example of a Field with Its Own Logic

 
The Cultural Arbitrary

 
The Plight of Minority Children Facing the Dominant Cultural Arbitrary in Schools

 
How the System Works as a Game

 
Who Benefits from Schools as They Are?

 
Illuiso and Unquestioned Loyalty to Continuing Orthodoxies

 
The Bounded Nature of Choice Within a Designated Social Space

 
Educational Inequalities Must Remain Unnamed

 
Connecting the Dots: The Importance of Family in School Success

 
The Challenge of Reducing Social Inequality as an Educational Goal

 
 
Chapter 3: The Curriculum, Qualifications and Life Chances
The Three Forms of Capital

 
Empirical Validation of the Impact of Social Capital on School Success

 
The Power of Cultural Capital and Bourdieu’s Own Experience as a Student

 
Schools as Institutionalized Embodiments of Forms of Cultural Capital

 
Capital, Power, Symbolic Violence, and Scholastic Habitus

 
Two Recent Examples of Symbolic Power (Violence) with School Curricula

 
Social Origin and School Success: Historical and Continuing Evidence of the Linkage Between Them

 
Academic Failure as the “Fault” of the Student?

 
Academic Credentials—Essential Capital?

 
The Hidden Curriculum, Cultural Values and Schooling Success

 
Calculating Life Chances: The Academic vs. Vocational Education Debate

 
The Issue of the Mal-Distribution of Opportunity

 
 
Chapter 4: The Shifting Control of Leadership Preparation
The Construction of National Leadership Standards in the U.K. and the U.S.

 
The Major Epistemological Steps Behind National Standards

 
Core Technologies and the Reification of the Status Quo

 
The Shifting Nature of the Contestation and Changer in Power in the Education Field

 
The De-Contextualization of School Leaders via Job Standardization

 
The Reformers Blinkered Vision for Change: They Just Don’t See It

 
 
Chapter 5: A Retrospective Look at Bourdieu’s Impact
The Social Field of Education is Not Static

 
Education Is Simultaneously a Means and an End

 
Schooling as the Cultural Arbitrary Demonizes Those who are “Otherized”

 
The Dominant Consumer Culture in Education Undermines Its Moral and Humanistic Value

 
Educational Reform Will Always Benefit and Advantage the Reformers

 
The Dilemma of School Leadership, Agent of the State or of Humanity?

 

The book is excellent. Dr. English and Cheryl L. Bolton do a masterful job in explaining how educational leadership is actually under attack by outside forces. The landscape has changed significantly due to political forces disguised by accreditation initiatives. [...] Bourdieu for Educators with the application of Dr. English's ideas and insights is absolutely essential reading and adoption for those wanting to rescue the field of educational leadership and administration from the "Billionnaires Boys Club" and many other destructive factions.

 
Dr. William Kritsonis
University of Texas of the Permian Basin

While this is an excellent exploration and evaluation of Bourdieu's impact on educational theory, it is somewhat dense for undergraduate students of education. It may be better suited to postgraduate students, especially those working around educational policy development and analysis.

Dr Louise Campbell
Moray House School of Education, Edinburgh University
September 26, 2016

This is a key reading for those interested in Bourdieu work. Helpful for students and academics

Miss Joana Ferreira Fonseca
School of Edu. Theology and Leadership, St Mary's University, Twickenham
April 5, 2016

Excellent resource for enhancing students' thinking of the educational philosophy on a higher level.

Mrs Liana Beattie
Faculty of Education (Ormskirk), Edge Hill University
December 11, 2015
Key features

KEY FEATURES:  

  •  A holistic, dynamic, and fluid perspective as an introduction to Bourdieu’s unique body of work explains his approach in a way that is easier for students to unpack his philosophy.
  • Chapter conclusions connect Bourdieu’s key ideas/concepts to the world of policy and practice and help the reader understand the power of his insights and ideas in more concrete terms.
  • Definitions for key Bourdieu concepts  help readers understand Bourdieu’s special vocabulary and unique terminology.
  • Chapter introductions focus the reader on the key themes and connect the line of presentation in each.
  • Bourdieu’s concepts are reinforced through important and relevant empirical research such as the research of Rohlen in Japan relative to Bourdieu’s concept of misrecognition, Levinson’s research  on gypsy children as an example of Bourdieu’s “cultural arbitrary” idea, and Maynor’s research on Native American children in North Carolina.

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 1

Chapter 3


For instructors

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