1st Edition
Knowledge and Knowers Towards a realist sociology of education
We live in ‘knowledge societies’ and work in ‘knowledge economies’, but accounts of social change treat knowledge as homogeneous and neutral. While knowledge should be central to educational research, it focuses on processes of knowing and condemns studies of knowledge as essentialist. This book unfolds a sophisticated theoretical framework for analysing knowledge practices: Legitimation Code Theory or ‘LCT’. By extending and integrating the influential approaches of Pierre Bourdieu and Basil Bernstein, LCT offers a practical means for overcoming knowledge-blindness without succumbing to essentialism or relativism.
Through detailed studies of pressing issues in education, the book sets out the multi-dimensional conceptual toolkit of LCT and shows how it can be used in research. Chapters introduce concepts by exploring topics across the disciplinary and institutional maps of education:
-how to enable cumulative learning at school and university
-the unfounded popularity of ‘student-centred learning’ and constructivism
-the rise and demise of British cultural studies in higher education
-the positive role of canons
-proclaimed ‘revolutions’ in social science
-the ‘two cultures’ debate between science and humanities
-how to build cumulative knowledge in research
-the unpopularity of school Music
-how current debates in economics and physics are creating major schisms in those fields.
LCT is a rapidly growing approach to the study of education, knowledge and practice, and this landmark book is the first to systematically set out key aspects of this theory. It offers an explanatory framework for empirical research, applicable to a wide range of practices and social fields, and will be essential reading for all serious students and scholars of education and sociology.
Biography
Karl Maton is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Sydney, Australia, and Honorary Professor at Rhodes University, South Africa.
'This tour-de-force will set the agenda for the future of the sociology of education. Maton’s writing is always engaging and thought-provoking. The book offers nothing less than a new approach to the morphology of sociological knowledge itself - a "must-read".'- Professor Michael Grenfell, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland
'A truly majestic contribution that advances fundamentally the ideas of Basil Bernstein and Pierre Bourdieu. It is a formidable piece of work: imaginative, thought-provoking, intellectually out-reaching, and will surely constitute essential reading across the social sciences.'- Professor John Evans, University of Loughborough, UK
'For decades sociology has been the missing link in discourse analyses of social context. Maton’s inspirational volume consolidates a sociology of immense theoretical insight and undaunted analytical precision to make this blind-spot obsolete. Theory is every scholar’s best friend; social theory of this order is a very best friend indeed.'- Professor J.R. Martin, University of Sydney, Australia
‘this book is for those who want to take learning and knowledge in a new direction’- Professor Jill Thistlethwaite, University of Technology Sydney, in Journal of Interprofessional Care
'This monograph is best described as a guidebook―the journey is carefully signposted and there is much encouragement for the traveller―and I expect that its impact on higher education studies is going to be significant.' - Professor Jennifer Case, University of Cape Town, South Africa, in Higher Education
‘rich, layered, and highly imaginative…a major contribution…Social inclusion and achievement for all learners can be enhanced as our knowledge about knowledge and knowledge building is enhanced. This book certainly helps us move towards realising this aim.'- Dr Graham McPhail, University of Auckland, New Zealand, in Pacific-Asian Education
‘the scope and ambition of Maton’s work is remarkable and should be taken seriously … Knowledge and Knowers represents a significant contribution to the sociology of education’ - Dr Brian Barrett, SUNY, Cortland, USA, in Educational Theory
‘This highly stimulating volume… is a must-read. LCT forms …an attempt to build a systematic sociology of education with strong explanatory power with regards to knowledge in education and policy… this fascinating, wide-ranging, and internally coherent book will be of the greatest interest to sociologists and education policy scholars.’- Ernst Buyl, Ghent University, Belgium in Journal of Education Policy
‘Knowledge and Knowers is lucid, generous and written with elegance and conviction…. provocative, thought-inducing and generative; offering a powerful, multi-faceted array of analytical tools to the project of cumulative knowledge building’- Fiona Jackson,University of Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, in Journal of Education
"It is a must-read for students of the sociology of education, and for scholars who find that their current approaches may not be providing the answers they need." - Sherran ClarenceUniversity of the Western Cape
