Bernstein
SOCIAL CLASS AND PEDAGOGIC PRACTICE
Basil Bernstein
The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse, Volume IV: Class, Codes and Control (2003), London: Routledge, pp. 63–93
I shall start this chapter1 with an analysis of the basic social relation of any pedagogic practice. In this analysis I shall distinguish between pedagogic practice as acultural relay and pedagogic practice in terms of what that practice relays – in other words, pedagogic practice as a social form and as a specific content. I shall argue that the inner logic of pedagogic practice as a cultural relay is provided by a set ofthree rules, and the nature of these rules acts selectively on the content of any pedagogic practice. If these rules constitute what can be called the ‘how’ of any practice, then any particular ‘how’ created by any one set of rules acts selectively on the ‘what’ of the practice, the form of its content. The form of the content in turn acts selectively on those who can successfully acquire. I shall examine in some detail the social class assumptions and consequences of forms of pedagogic practice. On the basis of the fundamental rules of any pedagogic practice I shall generate: 1 2 What are regarded as opposing modalities of pedagogic practice, usually referred to as conservative or traditional and progressive or child-centred. What are regarded as oppositions within what is considered the same basic form.Here the opposition is between a pedagogic practice dependent upon the market place for its orientation and legitimation, a practice emphasizing the assumed relevance of vocational skills, and a pedagogic practice independent of the market place, claiming for itself an orientation and legitimation derived from the assumed autonomy of knowledge. It will be argued that the pedagogic practices of the new vocationalism and those of the old autonomy of knowledge represent a conflict between different elitist ideologies, one based on the class hierarchy of the market and the other based on the hierarchy of knowledge and its class supports.
The basic argument will be that whether we are considering the opposition between conservative and progressive or the opposition between market and knowledgeoriented pedagogic practice, present class inequalities are likely to be reproduced. I shall start first with some thoughts about the inner logic of any pedagogic practice. A pedagogic practice can be understood as a relay, a cultural relay: a uniquely human device for both the reproduction and the production of culture. As I have said earlier, I shall distinguish between what is relayed, the contents, and how the contents are relayed. That is, between the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of any transmission. When I refer to the inner logic of a pedagogic practice I am referring to a set of rules which are prior to the content to be relayed (Figure 3).
Social class and pedagogic practice 197 1111 2 3 4 5 6111 7 8 9 10 1 2 3111 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5 67 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 4 45 46 47 48 49 50 51111
Rules Practices
Visible (explicit)
Hierarchy Autonomous Knowledge – specialized: integrated Dependent Market – specialized: integrated
Sequence Pace
Invisible (implicit) Criteria
Intra-individual Integrated
Inter-group
Figure 3 Pedagogic practices: generic forms and modalities. Whereas invisible pedagogiesare always likely to relay integrated or embedded skills/subjects, visible pedagogies, especially of the autonomous type, are more likely to relay differentiated skills/subjects.
The relationship basic to cultural reproduction or transformation is essentially the pedagogic relation, and the pedagogic relation consists of transmitters and acquirers. I shall ...
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