How Bourdieu bites back: recognising misrecognition in education and educational research

Abstract

Having noted that some use of Bourdieusian concepts in educational research is superficial, this paper offers a view of the distinctiveness of Bourdieu's concepts via the example of misrecognition, which is differentiated from the concept with the same name in Fraser's work. An account is given of a recent research project on white middle-class identity and school choice, which suggests that whilst parents avoided a common misrecognition (regarding school quality), they were nevertheless reliant on other forms of misrecognition (regarding the qualities of their children) that are equally important in the relationship between social class and educational inequalities. Finally, the paper suggests that educational understandings, including some educational research, are predisposed to misrecognise Bourdieusian concepts, and four areas of tension are identified. The paper argues against 'light usage' of Bourdieu whilst acknowledging that the approach can produce a pessimistic account that is at odds with some educational values.

A transformative exploration of epistemic individual(istic) identity formation within a synergistic decolonial student support system

“…Postma (2016) and others like Apple (2016); Alexander (2014) and Boughey (2007), by implication, bemoan the demerits of the corporatisation, commercialisation and capitalisation of higher education. The contention here is that this reasoning perpetuates apartheid's mission of misrecognition (Bourdieu, 2000;Fraser, 2009;James, 2015& Fataar, 2017. Bourdieu (2000) also refers to this phenomenon as symbolic violence that has implications for the academic performance of black first generation (G1) students' -who, within the context of this discussion, represent the African child.…”

The ability trap: reductionist theorising about academic ability and the ramifications for education policy and school-based practice

“…However, this is a largely polemical use of the concepts of ability and potential that contradicts the way these specific constructs are utilised in studies that draw on empirical data, such as that by Morris et al There is widespread deferment to constructivist framings of academic ability as being appropriate when social justice concerns are under discussion, but which also draw on empirical pupil data in this way, and this example is in no way unusual or intended to single out these authors in particular. Indeed, the point of this paper is that influenced in large part by the seminal Bourdieusian idea of 'misrecognition', whereby something socially formed can be reinterpreted as something natural (James, 2015), approaches to educational stratification fall into this contradictory space of both looking to such empirical data to evidence stratification, whilst also disavowing the nature of what it is the data measures. Ball exemplifies the stance often adopted in stating: 'Resource differences and collective efforts and investments made or not within families become translated into individual "ability" differences or indicators of different sorts of "abilities"' (Ball, 2010, p. 162).…”

“…West et al argue that to have a fuller understanding of capital, we need 'more fine-grained, psychosocial analysis of how inner worlds may shape outer worlds ' (West et al 2013, p. 123). This is curtailed because of Bourdieu's focus on the 'socialized body' (James, 2015), in what Goldthorpe refers to as an 'oversocialized' view of the individual (2007, p. 8). Sayer describes Bourdieu's view of action as lying 'between the extremes of external determination and rational choice, having an unexamined, bodily, practical character, scarcely mediated let alone directed by reason ' (1999, p. 405).…”

“…Despite Bourdieu's directive to 'put into practice' his concepts (Reay, 2004, p. 440), we see how they have a powerfully descriptive role in educational discourse, and are utilised as over-arching theory, shaping -and arguably delimiting -school-based practices as a result (Mazzoli Smith & Todd, 2019). James (2015), in a sympathetic critique of Bourdieu, suggests that Bourdieu's compass -or scale -of analysis is such that it is hardly likely to deliver recipes for action. However, he does argue that this does not prevent change for the better.…”

“Learning the Hard Way”: Understanding the Workplace Learning of Sports Coach Mentors

“…Individuals in dominant positions are granted the ability to determine "the appropriation of profits" whilst possessing the "power to impose the laws of functioning of the field" (Bourdieu, 1986, p. 49). Fields produce knowledge, which is essentially a form of capital, associated with prestige or power and viewed as a symbolic product (James, 2015). The regional mentors in charge of employing the coach mentors possessed the requisite capital to govern what knowledge is perceived as legitimate within the SGB fields.…”