A Structural View of Knowledge and A Constitutive View of Knowledge: An Analysis of Reproductive Education Theory

This study is concerned with the ways in which school practices affect the stability and change (or transformation) of existing social relations. The main focus of this dissertation is a critical examination of two debates within reproductive educational theory--structuralism (e.g., Bowles & Gintis's, 1976, 1980, economic structuralism; Althusser's, 1969, 1971, 1976; and Althusser & Balibar's, 1970, discursive structuralism; Bourdieu's, 1977a, 1977b, 1977c, 1980, 1984 cultural structuralism; and Bourdieu & Passeron's, 1977) and culturalism (e.g., Willis, 1977, 1981, 1983; Willis & Corrigan, 1980a, 1980b). The major findings of this study are that (a) both approaches are necessarily limited and inadequate for an explanation of how and why schooling contributes to reproducing and transforming the basic social relations; and (b) both approaches fail to develop a dialectical explanation of the two key ingredients in the reproduction and the transformation of society--structural elements and human subject activity.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Kim, Chaeyoung

• Education, Philosophy of

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8701530

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/69088