Bourdieu's version of field theory has had an impressive impact on the ways that sociologists of education conceptualize educational practices. These accounts tend to focus on the varying levels of ontological complicity established between students' cultural dispositions and educational institutions. In this paper, the wisdom of these…

In this article the author briefly brings up two related conceptual and political areas that Zeus Leonardo and the author might want to discuss further. These concern the status of the language of "resistance" and "agency," terms that play a large part in Leonardo's essay and that are now among the pantheon of accepted political and analytic…

In the elections of 2006 and 2008, progressive and liberal groups in the United States broke through key bulwarks of the Right to capture some of the highest hills on the political landscape. Although progressives and liberals now control key positions, the Right still holds wide swaths of terrain and still exercises considerable power in shaping…

Provides a general overview of research on the sociology of school knowledge which has focused on the dynamics of class, gender, and race. Presents a framework for analyzing how these ideological dynamics produce the stratification of culture and people in education. (KH)

The social and educational theories of Basil Bernstein are examined. (JD)

Provides an overview of the main theories, developments, and literature of critically-oriented sociology. Pays particular attention to the politics of meaning including critical discourse analysis, identity politics, racial formation, and political economy and the labor process. Concludes with a discussion of the tensions between postmodern and…