How to Understand and Depict Educational Inequality from the Perspective of Basil Bernstein’s Code Theory

  • Xing Ma ,
  • Tienhui Chiang
Expand
  • School of Education Science, Anhui Normal University, Anhui Wuhu 241000, China

Accepted date: 2022-09-02

  Online published: 2023-03-11

Abstract

The phenomenon of cultural reproduction has foregrounded inequity in educational results as a social fact. Although Basil Bernstein argues that this phenomenon is rooted in students’ coding orientations that regulate the practice of rules of recognition and realization, the influence of code theory has been gradually declining mainly due to its numerous jargons. Considering this constraint, this article sets out to illustrate the interplay of rules of recognition, rules of realization, classification, framing and coding orientation in simple descriptions in order to stimulate further empirical studies. We further argue that this interplay is geared by rules of inner logic embedded within coding orientation, classification and framing. As this inner logic is systematically correspondent with the inner logic of an elaborated code, this situation situates high SES students in a privileged position in learning. Unfortunately, a restricted code doesn’t have this connection, so that it is difficult for low SES students to generate excellent performance. The principle of inner logic provides us with a gateway for improving inequity in educational results.

Cite this article

Xing Ma , Tienhui Chiang . How to Understand and Depict Educational Inequality from the Perspective of Basil Bernstein’s Code Theory[J]. Journal of East China Normal University(Educational Sciences), 2023 , 41(4) : 93 -110 . DOI: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2023.04.008

References

null 姜添辉. (2002). 九年一贯课程政策影响教师专业自主权之研究. 教育研究集刊, 48 (2), 157- 198.
null 姜添辉. (2003). 教师是专业或是观念简单性的忠诚执行者: 文化再制理论的检证. 教育研究集刊, 49 (4), 93- 126.
null 姜添辉. (2004). 讯息转化与信息融入教学. 数字学习电子期刊, 第一期, http://mail.nutn.edu.tw:80/~thchiang/article.htm.
null 姜添辉、陈伯璋. (2006). 社会领域教材内容的阶级取向与合理化的转化策略之分析. 当代教育研究, 14 (4), 29- 61.
null 姜添辉. (2008). 英国英格兰与威尔斯的教育制度沿革与启示. 台南大学教育研究学报, 42 (2), 1- 24.
null 姜添辉. (2009). 英国教育. 载于杨深坑(主编): 比较与国际教育(pp. 111?169). 台北: 台湾高等教育出版社.
null 姜添辉、周倩、董永贵. (2017). 葛兰西学派在学校抗拒文化研究的贡献与反思. 教育学报, 13 (5), 3- 11.
null 姜添辉. (2018). 文化再生产模式与文化流动模式的争辩: 惯习在不公平教育结果的角色. 当代教育与文化, 10 (6), 1- 10.
null 姜添辉、高昂、刘莹. (2018). 学术性课程的双元机制. 湖南师范大学教育科学学报, 17 (3), 27- 34.
null 姜添辉. (2019). 学术性课程知识结构的社会关系与文化再生产之关联性: 再脉络化的机会. 全球教育展望, 48 (7), 32- 45.
null Apple, M. W. (1988). Work, class and teaching. In J. Ozga (ed. ), Schoolwork: Approaches to the labour process of teaching (pp. 99−115). Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
null Arnot, M., & Reay, D. (2006). Power, pedagogic voices and pupil talk: The implications for pupil consultation as transformative practice. In R. Moore, M. Arnot, J. Beck, and H. Daniels (eds. ), Knowledge, power and educational reform: Applying the sociology of Basil Bernstein. London: Routledge.
null Ashendon, D., Connell, B., Dowsett, G. & Kessler, S. (1987). Teachers and working-class schooling. In D. W. Livingstone and contributors (eds.), Critical pedagogy & cultural power (pp. 245?268). London: Bergin & Garvey.
null Barnes, S., Gutfreund, M., Satterly, D. & Wells, G. (1983). Characteristics of adult speech which predict children’s language development. Journal of Child Language, 10 (1), 65- 84.
null Berghahn, V. R. (2010). Historiographical review: The debate on ‘Americanization’ among economic and cultural historians. Cold War History, 10 (1), 107- 130.
null Bernstein, B. (1958). Some sociological determinants of perception. British Journal of Sociology, 9, 159- 74.
null Bernstein, B. (1959). A public language: Some sociological implications of a linguistic form. London: Blackwell.
null Bernstein, B. (1960). Language and social class. British Journal of Sociology, 11, 271- 276.
null Bernstein, B. (1961). Social class and linguistic development: A theory of social learning. In A. H. Halsey, J. Floud and C. A. Anderson (eds. ), Education, economy and society (pp. 288−314). New York, N. Y.: The Free Press.
null Bernstein, B. (1970). Education cannot compensate for society. New Society, 387, 344- 347.
null Bernstein, B. (1971). On the classification and framing of educational knowledge. In M. F. D. Young (ed. ), Knowledge and control (pp. 47−69). London: Collier Macmillan.
null Bernstein, B. (1977a). Class, codes and control (Vol. 1): Theoretical studies towards a sociology of language. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
null Bernstein, B. (1977b). Class, codes and control (Volume 3). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
null Bernstein, B. (1981). Codes, modalities, and the process of cultural reproduction. Langue in Society, 10 (3), 327- 262.
null Bernstein, B. (1982). Code, modalities and the process of cultural reproduction: A model. In M. Apple (ed. ), Cultural and economic reproduction in education: Essays on class, ideology and the state (pp. 304−355). London: RKP.
null Bernstein, B. (1990). Class, codes and control (Vol. IV): The structuring of pedagogic discourse: Class, codes and control. London: Routledge.
null Bernstein, B. (1996). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity. London: Taylor & Francis.
null Bernstein, B. (1999). Vertical and horizontal discourse: An essay. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20 (2), 157- 173.
null Bernstein, B. & Solomon, J. (1999). ‘Pedagogy, identity and the construction of a theory of symbolic control’: Basil Bernstein questioned by Joseph Solomon. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20 (2), 265- 279.
null Bolander, B. & Watts, R. J. (2009). Re-reading and rehabilitating Basil Bernstein. Multilingua, 28, 143- 173.
null Bourne, J. (2003). Vertical Discourse: the role of the teacher in the transmission and acquisition of decontextualized language. European Educational Research Journal, 2 (4), 496- 521.
null Chiang, T. H.. (2013a). Pursuing ideology or conforming reality: Why does education shift its function from equity to competitiveness in the era of globalization?. Journal of Global Economy, 9 (4), 249- 262.
null Chiang, T. H.. (2013b). How teachers contribute to produce the phenomenon of cultural reproduction: The factor of normalized pedagogy. Academic Research International, 4 (6), 165- 176.
null Chiang, T. H.. (2016). Public managerialism functions as a discourse to regulate higher education in the era of globalization. Czech-Polish-Slovak Studies in Andragogy and Social Gerontology, V, 163- 178.
null Chiang, T. H.. (2019). How do underachieving working class students survive in the classroom? Critiques on the perspective of resistance. International Journal of Educational Research, 96, 32- 40.
null Chiang, T. H., Thurston, A. & Lin, H. C.. (2020). How the excellent working-class student becomes a cultural capital constructor: Reflections on the theories of cultural reproduction. International Journal of Educational Research, 101 (103625)
null Chiang, T. H., Thurston, A., Zhao, J., Haoc, Y., Ma, J. & Dong, Y.. (2020). The practice of weak framing from teachers’ perceptions in China. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 41 (8), 1180- 1199.
null Chiang, T. H.. (2021). What Freirean critical pedagogy says and overlooks from a Durkheimian perspective. Social Inclusion, 9 (4), 1- 11.
null Chiang, T. H., Zhang, P., Dong, Y., Thurston, A., Cui, L. & Liu, J.R.. (2021). How is regulative discourse recontextualized into instructional discourse in Basil Bernstein’s code theory? A study of the interplay between recognition and realization rules based on primary school teachers’ perceptions. International Journal of Educational Research, 108 (101765), 1- 13.
null Chiang, T. H. and Thurston, A.. (2022). Designing enhanced pedagogy based on Basil Bernstein’s code theory. International Journal of Educational Research, 111 (101914)
null Chiang, T. H., Thurston, A. and Cockerill, M.. (2022). Examining Basil Bernstein’s rules of recognition and realization in the case of underachieving students in math tests. International Journal of Educational Research, 115 (102021)
null Clarke, J. (2000). The skinheads and the magical recovery of community. In S. Hall and T. Jefferson (eds. ), Resistance through rituals (4th impression)(pp. 99−102). London: Routledge.
null Coleman, J. S., Campbell, E. Q., Hobson, C. J., McPartland, J., Mood, A. M., Frederic D. Weinfeld, F. D. & York, R. L. (1966). Equality of educational opportunity. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office Washington.
null Corrigan, P. (1979). Schooling the smash street kids. London: Macmillan.
null Daniels, H. (1989). Visual displays as tacit relays of the structure of pedagogic practice. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 10 (2), 123- 140.
null Daniels, H. (1995). Pedagogic practices, tacit knowledge and discursive discrimination: Bernstein and Post-Vygotskian research. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 16 (4), 517- 531.
null Daniels, H. (2006). Analysing institutional effects in activity theory: First steps in the development of a language description outlines. Critical Practice Studies, 8 (2), 43- 58.
null Daniels, H., Tse, H. M., Ferrand, L. O., Stables, A. & Cox, S. (2019). Changing schools: A study of primary secondary transfer using Vygotsky and Bernstein. British Journal of Sociology of Education. DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2019.1601546
null Downey, D. B. & Condron, D. J. (2016). Fifty years since the Coleman report: Rethinking the relationship between schools and inequity. Sociology of Education, 89 (3), 207- 220.
null Downey, D. B., Hippel, P. T. V. & Broh, B. A. (2004). Are schools the great equalizer? Cognitive inequality during the summer months and the school year. American Sociological Review, 69 (5), 613- 635.
null Durkheim, E. (1933). The division of labour in society. New York, N. Y. : Free.
null Ellis, R. & Wells, G. (1980). Enabling factors in adult-child discourse. First Language, 1 (1), 46- 62.
null Fontinhas, F., Morais, A. M. & Neves, I. P. (1995). Students’ coding orientation and school socializing contexts in their relation with students’ scientific achievement. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 32 (5), 445- 462.
null Freire, P. (1990). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, N. Y. : Continuum.
null Giroux, H. (1981). Ideology, culture, and the process of schooling. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
null Giroux, H. (1989). Schooling as a form of cultural politics: Toward a pedagogy of and for difference. In H. Giroux & P. McLaren (Eds. ), Critical pedagogy, the state and cultural struggle (pp. 125−151). New York, N. Y. : State University of New York.
null Giroux, H. (2004). Teachers as transformative intellectuals. In A. Canestrari & B. A. Marlowe (Eds. ), Educational foundations: An anthology of critical readings (pp. 205−212). London: Sage.
null Hall, W. D. (1973). Culture and education: The culturalist approach to comparative studies. In E. Edwards, B. Holmes and J. V. D. Graaff (eds. ), Relevant methods in comparative education (pp. 119−136). Hamburg: UNESCO.
null Hasan, R. (2002). Ways of meaning, ways of learning: Code as an explanatory concept. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23 (4), 537- 548.
null HMSO (1967). The Plowden Report: Children and their primary schools. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.
null Hoadley, U. (2006). Analysing pedagogy: The problem of framing. Journal of Education, 40 (1), 15- 34.
null Hoadley, U. & Galant, J. (2015). Specialization and school organization: Investigating pedagogic culture. British Journal of Sociology of Education. DOI: 10.1080/01425692.2015.1042149
null Hoadley, U. & Muller, J. (2010). Codes, pedagogy and knowledge. In M. Apple, S. Ball & L. A. Gandin (eds. ), The Routledge international handbook of the sociology of education (pp69?78). London: Routledge.
null Holland, J. (1980). Social class and changes in orientations to meanings. Sociology, 15 (1), 1- 18.
null Hong, P. Y. & Song, I. H. (2010). Glocalization of social work practice: Global and local responses to globalization. International Social Work, 53 (5), 656- 670.
null Hotam, Y. & Hadar, L. L. (2013). Pedagogy in practice: The pedagogy of a learning setting as students experience it. Oxford Review of Education, 39 (3), 385- 399.
null Huspek, M. (1995). Oppositional versus reproductive codes: A response to Basil Bernstein’s rejoinder to Michael Huspek. British Journal of Sociology, 46 (1), 127- 132.
null Ivinson, G. (2011). Bernstein: Codes and social class. In R. Wodak, B. Johnstone & P. Kerswill (eds. ), The Sage handbook of sociolinguistics (pp. 40?57). London: Sage.
null Jefferson, T. (2000). Cultural responses of the teds. In S. Hall & T. Jefferson (eds. ), Resistance through rituals (4th impression)(pp. 81?86). London: Routledge.
null Jones, L., Newman, L. & Isay, D. (1997). Life and death on the south side of Chicago: Our America. N. Y. : Pocket Books.
null Jones, P. (2013). Bernstein’s ‘code’ and the linguistics of ‘deficit’. Language and Education, 27 (2), 161- 179.
null Khondker, H. H. (2004). Glocalization as globalization: Evolution of a sociological concept. Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology, 1 (2), 12- 20.
null Kyaw, K. S. S., Tin, S. T., Underwood, L. & Grant, C. (2020). Effects of home language environment and household crowding on early expressive language development. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 41 (4), 289- 298.
null Labov, W. (1972). The logic of non-standard English. In P. P. Giglioni (ed. ), Language and social context (pp. 172−215). Harmondsworth: Penguin.
null Lingard, B. (2000). It is and it isn’t: Vernacular globalization, educational policy, and restructuring. In N. C. Burbules & C. A. Torres (eds. ), Globalization and education: Critical perspectives (pp. 79?108). New York, N. Y. : Routledge.
null Martin, J. R. (2011). Bridging troubled waters: Interdisciplinarity and what makes it stick. In F. Christie & K. Maton (eds. ), Disciplinarity: Functional linguistic and sociological perspectives (pp. 35?61). London: Continuum.
null Maton, K. (2009). Cumulative and segmented learning: exploring the role of curriculum structures in knowledge-building. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 30 (1), 43- 57.
null Maton, K. (2013). Making semantic waves: A key to cumulative knowledge-building. Linguistics and Education, 24, 8- 22.
null Mélange, G. (2009). Globalization and culture (2nd ed. ). Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield.
null Moore, R. (2010). Differentiation, inequality and the educational process. In R. Moore (ed. ), Education and society: Issues and explanations in the sociology of education (pp. 7−34). Cambridge: Polity Press.
null Morais, A. M. (1996). Understanding teachers’ evaluation criteria: A condition for success in science classes. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 33 (6), 601- 624.
null Morais, A. M. (1999). Is there any change in science education reforms? A sociological study of theories of instruction. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 20 (1), 37- 53.
null Morais, A. M. (2002). Basil Bernstein at the micro level of the classroom. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23 (4), 559- 569.
null Morais, A., Fontinhas, F. & Neves, I. (1992). Recognition and realization rules in acquiring school science – The contribution of pedagogy and social background of student. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 13 (2), 247- 271.
null Morais, A. M. & Neves, I. P. (2006). Teachers as creators of social contexts for scientific learning. In R. Moore, M. Arnot, J. Beck, & H. Daniels (eds. ), Knowledge, power and educational reform: Applying the sociology of Basil Bernstein (pp. 146?162). London: Routledge.
null Morais, A. M. & Neves, I. P. (2010). Basil Bernstein as an inspiration for educational research: Specific methodological approaches. In P. Singh, A. Sadovnik & S. Semel (eds. ), Toolkits, translation devices and conceptual accounts: Essays on Basil Bernstein’s sociology of knowledge (pp. 11?32). New York, N. Y. : Peter Lang.
null Morais, A. M. & Neves, I. P. (2018). The quest for high-level knowledge in schools: Revisiting the concept of classification and framing. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 39 (3), 261- 282.
null Morais, A. M., Neves, I. P. & Afonso, M. (2005). Teacher training processes and teachers’ competence: A sociological study in the primary school. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21 (4), 415- 437.
null Morais, A. , Neves, I. & Pires, D. (2004). The what and the how of teaching and learning: Ongoing deeper into sociological analysis and intervention. In J. Muller, B. Davies, & A. Morais (eds. ), Reading Bernstein, researching Bernstein (pp. 75?90). London: RoutledgeFalmer.
null Muller, J. (2007). On splitting hairs: Hierarchy, knowledge and the school curriculum. In F. Christie & J. R. Martin (eds. ), Language, knowledge and pedagogy: Functional linguistic and sociological perspectives (pp. 64?86). London: Continuum.
null Nash, R. (2006). Bernstein and the explanation of social disparities in education: A realist critique of the socio-linguistic thesis. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 27 (5), 539- 553.
null Neves, I. & Morais, A. M. (2001). Knowledge and values in science syllabuses: A structural approach. Sociology of Education, 64, 48- 63.
null Olssen, M. (2006). Neoliberalism, globalization, democracy: Challenges for education. In H. Lauder, P. Brown, J. Dillabough & A. H. Halsey. Education, globalization & social change (pp. 261?288). Oxford: Oxford University.
null Ong, A. (2007). Neoliberalism as a mobile technology. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 32 (1), 3- 8.
null Robertson, S. Bonal, X. & Dale, R. (2006). GATS and the education service industry: The politics of scale and global reterritorialization. In H. Lauder, P. Brown, J. Dillabough & A. Halsey (eds. ), Education, globalization & social change (pp. 228?246). Oxford: Oxford University.
null Sadovnik, A. R. (1991). Basil Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic practices: A structuralist approach. Sociology of Education, 64 (1), 48- 63.
null Schriewer, J. (2009). Comparative education methodology in transition: Towards a science of complexity? In J. Schriever (ed. ), Discourse formation in comparative education (3rd revised) (pp. 3−54). Oxford: Peter Lang.
null Singh, P. (1995). Discourses of computing competence, evaluation and gender: The case of computer use in the primary classroom. Discourse:Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 16 (1), 81- 110.
null Singh, P. (2001a). Speaking about cultural difference and school disadvantages. An interview study of ‘Samoan’ paraprofessionals in designated disadvantaged secondary schools in Australia.. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 22 (3), 317- 337.
null Singh, P. (2001b). Diversity, disadvantage and differential outcomes: An analysis of Samoan students narratives of schools. Asia Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 29 (1), 73- 92.
null Singh, P. (2002). Pedagogising knowledge: Bernstein’s theory of the pedagogic device. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23 (4), 571- 582.
null Skerritt, C. (2017). The code for success? Using a Bernsteinian perspective on sociolinguistics to accentuate working-class students’ underachievement in the Republic of Ireland. Irish Journal of Sociology, 25 (3), 274- 296.
null Stirrup, J., Evans, J. & Davies, B. (2016). Early years learning, play pedagogy and social class. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 38 (6), 1- 12.
null Veblen, T. (1994). The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Dover.
null Wells, G. (1981). Some antecedents of early educational attainment. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 2, 181- 200.
null Wells, G. (1983). Language and learning in the early years. Early Child Development and Care, 11 (1), 69- 77.
null Willis, P. (1977). Learning to labor: How working class kids get working class jobs. New York, N. Y. : Columbia University Press.
null Wong, M. Y. (2016). Teacher-student power relations as a reflection of multileveled intertwined interactions. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 37 (2), 248- 267.
Outlines

/