Applying Basil Bernstein's theory to social class analysis in education

What is it about?

This is a theoretical paper that aims to explain the continued relevance of the theory of the late British sociologist Basil Bernstein for the wider discussion about social class inequality in education. An extended discussion of using a Bernsteinian approach to pedagogy-specific class explanations is developed: (a) transition of code modalities between stages of education; (b) differentiated pedagogic identities in the middle class; (c) pedagogic grammars of specialized habituses; and (d) possibilities for an interruption in the process of social reproduction.

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Why is it important?

Social class analysis in education pays little attention to the inner workings of schooling, and then, oftentimes, we find the mainstream class explanations not with much explanatory power for the microsociological analysis of schooling from within itself. The importance of revisiting Bernstein's theory in this paper is to provide a theoretical framework to elucidate how the inner workings of schooling interact closely with the larger social systems in which schooling is embedded.

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