This book is concerned with articulating a new approach to the sociology of education, one which is realist and that brings together sociological analysis of knowers with epistemological analysis of knowledge. Made up of key previously published chapters, alongside original material, its series of interconnected papers systematically unfold an original theoretical framework. A key focus of the book is how the social sciences and humanities can build knowledge over time, in terms of both new intellectual development and students' understandings. Recurrent themes include: Are these fields doomed to recurrent fragmentation, schisms and segmented learning experiences? How can knowledge be developed that builds on past achievements and integrates and subsumes existing insights? In grappling with these issues, the book itself exemplifies cumulative, integrative knowledge development. The approach engages with, builds on and integrate the insights of such major thinkers as Emile Durkheim, Pierre Bourdieu, Basil Bernstein and Roy Bhaskar.
The conceptual framework is developed cumulatively to create an integrated approach, and is at every stage grounded in substantive studies of concrete issues in education. Concepts are developed from and for empirical research into key problems in the sociology of knowledge, educational policy, curriculum, and teaching and learning, and across a range of areas from mathematics to cultural studies and from school English to professional education at university. This book is essential reading for all serious students of educational theory, and the sociology of education.
Table of Contents:
1: Seeing Knowledge and Knowers: Social realism and Legitimation Code Theory 2: Languages of Legitimation: The curious case of British cultural studies 3: The Epistemic--Pedagogic Device: Breaks and continuities in the social sciences and mathematics 4: Knowledge--Knower Structures: What’s at stake in the ‘two cultures’ debate, why school Music is unpopular, and what unites such diverse issues 5: Gazes: Canons, knowers and progress in the arts and humanities 6: Semantic Gravity: Cumulative learning in professional education and school English 7: Semantic Density: How to build cumulative knowledge in social science 8: Cosmologies: How to win friends and influence people 9: Insights, Gazes, Lenses and the 4-K Model: Fiercely-fought struggles and fundamental shifts in fields 10: Building a Realist Sociology of Education: To be continued …
About the Author :
University of Sydney University of London
Review :
"this fascinating, wide-ranging, and internally coherent book will be of the greatest interest to sociologists and education policy scholars, and in particular to those appreciating the need to question how and why the state of the sociology of education and its impact can and should be enhanced" - Journal of Education Policy: Ernst Buyl, Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, Educational Support Office, Ghent University, Belgium
'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
