7 - Symbolic violence, academic capital and reflexivity: A case-study of post-apartheid curriculum change for teacher education using Bourdieu
Corresponding Author(s) : Wayne Peter Dirk
African Sociological Review,
Vol. 24 No. 2 (2020): African Sociological Review
Abstract
This paper provides an account of a failed attempt to transform the teacher education curriculum in the Faculty of Education at a historically white university in South Africa. Based on a larger study, the paper argues that academics in the Faculty were strongly allied to the apartheid- tainted education philosophy of Fundamental Pedagogics (FP) that caused them to resist curriculum transformation. Using their dominant positions, the senior academics undermined the transformation process by deceiving the administrative structures of the university. Using Bourdieu’s signature concepts of field, habitus, capital and hysteresis (a condition in which the habitus is no longer in synch with a field that is undergoing fundamental change), this paper argues that the practices of the senior academics were acts of symbolic violence because they arbitrarily chose to continue the established culture of FP that was targeted for transformation by the university. The institutional power of the senior Professors that enabled their practice of symbolic violence is explained with the concept of academic capital. Bourdieu’s theory of reflexivity is discussed as a practical intervention that has the potential to assist academics and university managers to limit the effects of symbolic violence in curriculum production. In closing, the paper briefly touches on the recent student protests at South African universities and argues for the extension of Bourdieu’s conceptualisation of symbolic domination to include the relationship between symbolic and physical violence, which is a neglected area of higher education studies, particularly in societies with a history of colonialism and racialised social inequality.
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- Apple, M. W. (2013). Knowledge, power and education: The selected works of Michael W. Apple. New York: Routledge.
- Bourdieu, P, & Passeron, J. C. (1970).Reproduction in education, society and culture.London: Sage.
- Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. London: Cambridge University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
- Bourdieu, P. (1989).Social space and symbolic power. Sociological Theory, 1, 14-25.
- Bourdieu, P. (1990). In other words: essays towards a reflexive sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Bourdieu, P, & Wacquant, L. (1992). An invitation to a reflexive sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Bourdieu, P. (1992). “Doxa and the common Life” (In conversation, Pierre Bourdieu and Terry Eagleton) New Left Review, 191: 111-121.
- Bourdieu, P. (1993). The field of cultural production. USA: Columbia University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1996). The state nobility: elite schools in the field of power. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Bourdieu, P. (1997). The forms of capital. In: Halsey, A., Lauder, H., Brown, P& Wells,S. (Eds.), Education: culture, economy and society (pp 46-58). London: Oxford University Press.
- Bourdieu, P. (1998).Practical reason: on the theory of action. Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (1999). The social conditions of the international circulation of ideas (pp221-228). In: Shusterman, R. Bourdieu: a critical reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
- Bourdieu, P. (2001). Masculine domination. United Kingdom: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (2000).Pierre
- Bourdieu: Pascalian meditations. Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (2005a). The social structures of the economy. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Bourdieu, P. (2005b).Habitus. In: Hillier, J., & Rooksby, E. (Eds.), Habitus a sense of place (pp 43-49). Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
- Bourdieu, P. (2006).Principles for reflecting on the curriculum. The Curriculum Journal, 1:307-314. DOI:10.1080/0958517900010308
- Bourdieu, P. (2007). Sketch for a self-analysis. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Burawoy, M., & von Holdt, K. (2012).Conversations with Bourdieu: The Johannesburg moment. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
- Carmen, M, & Gale, T. (2007).Researching social inequalities in education: Towards a Bourdieuian Methodology. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20, 433-447.
- Denzin, K., & Lincoln, Y. (2000). Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Dirk, W (2013). Constructing and Transforming the Curriculum for Higher Education: A South African Case Study. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of South Africa: Pretoria.
- Enslin, P. (1984). The role of fundamental pedagogics in the formulation of educational policy in South Africa. In: Kallaway, P. (Ed.), Apartheid and education: The South Africans. (pp 139-147).Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
- Department of Education, (1997).White Paper 3: A programme for the transformation of higher education. Pretoria: Department of Education.
- Department of Education, (2008). Report of Ministerial Committee into Transformation and Social Cohesion and the Elimination of Discrimination in Higher Education. Pretoria: Department of Education.
- Emirbayer, M, Johnson, V. (2008). Bourdieu and organizational analysis. Theory and Society, 37, 1–44.
- Giliomee, H.(2003). The rise and possible demise of Afrikaans as a public language.PRAESA Occasional Papers 17, University of Cape Town: PRAESA.
- Glenn, I. (2010). The lost interview. Critical Arts 24, 31-50.
- Go, J. (2016). Postcolonial thought and social theory. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
- Grenfell, M., & James, D. (with: Reay, D., Hodkinson, P., & Robbins, D.) (1998).Bourdieu and education: acts of practical theory. London: Falmer Press.
- Grundlingh, A. (1990).Politics, principles and problems of a profession: Afrikaner historians and their discipline. Paper presented to the History Workshop, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
- Hilgers, M, & Mangez, E (Eds.), (2015). Bourdieu’s theory of social fields: Concepts and applications. New York: Routledge.
- Johnson, R. (1993). Editor’s introduction: Pierre Bourdieu on art, literature and culture. In: Bourdieu, P. The field of cultural production, pp 1-25.Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Kupfer, A. (2015). “Symbolic violence: Education as concealed power. In: Kupfer, A (Ed.). Power and education: Contexts of oppression and opportunity, pp 26-40. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Kloot, B. (2009). Exploring the value of Bourdieu’s framework in the context of institutional change. Studies in Higher Education, 34, 469-481.
- Langa, P. (2010). Disciplines and engagement in African universities: a study of the distribution of scientific capital and academic networking in the social sciences. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cape Town.
- Le Grange, L. (2008). The didactics tradition in South Africa: a reply to Richard Kruger.Journal of Curriculum Studies, 40, 399-407.
- Maton, K. (2003). Reflexivity, relationism and research: Pierre Bourdieu and the epistemic conditions of social scientific knowledge. Space and Culture 6: 52-65.
- Maton, K. (2005). A question of autonomy: Bourdieu’s field approach and higher education policy. Journal of Education Policy, 20, 687-704. DOI: 10.1080/02680930500238861.
- Moguerane, K. (2007). Post-apartheid politics of integration at a residential student uth Africa. African Sociological Review, 11, 42-63.
- Moore, R. (2003). Curriculum restructuring in South African higher Education: academic identities and policy implementation. Studies in Higher Education 28,303-319.
- Moore, R. (2004). Cultural capital: objective probability and the cultural arbitrary.British Journal of Sociology, 25, 445-456.
- Muller, J., & Hoadley, U. (2018).Pedagogic Modality and Structure in the recontextualising field of curriculum studies, In: Barret, B., Hoadley, U. & Morgan, J. (Eds.). Knowledge, curriculum and equity: Social Realist perspectives, pp 80-99. Routledge: New York.
- Mouton, F. A. (2007). Professor Leo Fouché, The history department and the afrikanerisation of the University of Pretoria. In: Mouton, F. A, (ed.), Southey, N., & van Jaarsveld, A. History, historians and afrikaner nationalism: Essays on the history department of the University of Pretoria, 1909-1985, pp 13-43. South Africa: Kleio.
- Naidoo, R. (2004). Fields and institutional strategy: Bourdieu on the relationship between higher education, inequality and society. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 25, 457-471.
- Oloyede, O. (2009). Critical reflection on the report of the Ministerial Committee on Transformation, Social Cohesion and the Elimination of Discrimination in Public Higher Education. Perspectives in Education, 27, 426-434.
- O’Meara, D. (1996). Forty lost years: The Apartheid State and the Politics of the National Party 1948-1994.Randburg: Ravan Press.
- Reay, D. (2015). Habitus and the psychosocial: Bourdieu with feelings. Cambridge Journal of Education, 45, 9-23.DOI:10.1080/0305764X.2014.99042.
- Rousseau, N. (2016). “Unpalatable truths” and “Popular hunger”: Reflections on popular history in the 1980s. In: Forte, J.R., Israel, P., and Witz, L. (Eds.), Out of history: Re-imagining South African pasts, pp 53-72. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
- Sehoole, T. (2005).Democratizing higher education policy: constraints of reform in post- apartheid South Africa. London: Routledge.
- Swartz. D. (1997). Culture and power: The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. London and Chicago: University of Chicago.
- Swartz, D. (2008). Bringing Bourdieu’s master concepts into organisational analysis.Theory and Society 37, 45-52.
- Wacquant, L. (1989). Towards a reflexive sociology: a workshop with Pierre Bourdieu.Sociological Theory 7, 26-63.
- Young, M. (2008). From Constructivism to Realism in the Sociology of the Curriculum.ch in Education 32, 1-28. DOI: 10.3102/00091732X07308969.
References
Apple, M. W. (2013). Knowledge, power and education: The selected works of Michael W. Apple. New York: Routledge.
Bourdieu, P, & Passeron, J. C. (1970).Reproduction in education, society and culture.London: Sage.
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. London: Cambridge University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Bourdieu, P. (1989).Social space and symbolic power. Sociological Theory, 1, 14-25.
Bourdieu, P. (1990). In other words: essays towards a reflexive sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P, & Wacquant, L. (1992). An invitation to a reflexive sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1992). “Doxa and the common Life” (In conversation, Pierre Bourdieu and Terry Eagleton) New Left Review, 191: 111-121.
Bourdieu, P. (1993). The field of cultural production. USA: Columbia University Press. Bourdieu, P. (1996). The state nobility: elite schools in the field of power. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1997). The forms of capital. In: Halsey, A., Lauder, H., Brown, P& Wells,S. (Eds.), Education: culture, economy and society (pp 46-58). London: Oxford University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1998).Practical reason: on the theory of action. Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (1999). The social conditions of the international circulation of ideas (pp221-228). In: Shusterman, R. Bourdieu: a critical reader. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Bourdieu, P. (2001). Masculine domination. United Kingdom: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (2000).Pierre
Bourdieu: Pascalian meditations. Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. (2005a). The social structures of the economy. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bourdieu, P. (2005b).Habitus. In: Hillier, J., & Rooksby, E. (Eds.), Habitus a sense of place (pp 43-49). Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Bourdieu, P. (2006).Principles for reflecting on the curriculum. The Curriculum Journal, 1:307-314. DOI:10.1080/0958517900010308
Bourdieu, P. (2007). Sketch for a self-analysis. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Burawoy, M., & von Holdt, K. (2012).Conversations with Bourdieu: The Johannesburg moment. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.
Carmen, M, & Gale, T. (2007).Researching social inequalities in education: Towards a Bourdieuian Methodology. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20, 433-447.
Denzin, K., & Lincoln, Y. (2000). Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Dirk, W (2013). Constructing and Transforming the Curriculum for Higher Education: A South African Case Study. Unpublished PhD dissertation, University of South Africa: Pretoria.
Enslin, P. (1984). The role of fundamental pedagogics in the formulation of educational policy in South Africa. In: Kallaway, P. (Ed.), Apartheid and education: The South Africans. (pp 139-147).Johannesburg: Ravan Press.
Department of Education, (1997).White Paper 3: A programme for the transformation of higher education. Pretoria: Department of Education.
Department of Education, (2008). Report of Ministerial Committee into Transformation and Social Cohesion and the Elimination of Discrimination in Higher Education. Pretoria: Department of Education.
Emirbayer, M, Johnson, V. (2008). Bourdieu and organizational analysis. Theory and Society, 37, 1–44.
Giliomee, H.(2003). The rise and possible demise of Afrikaans as a public language.PRAESA Occasional Papers 17, University of Cape Town: PRAESA.
Glenn, I. (2010). The lost interview. Critical Arts 24, 31-50.
Go, J. (2016). Postcolonial thought and social theory. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
Grenfell, M., & James, D. (with: Reay, D., Hodkinson, P., & Robbins, D.) (1998).Bourdieu and education: acts of practical theory. London: Falmer Press.
Grundlingh, A. (1990).Politics, principles and problems of a profession: Afrikaner historians and their discipline. Paper presented to the History Workshop, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Hilgers, M, & Mangez, E (Eds.), (2015). Bourdieu’s theory of social fields: Concepts and applications. New York: Routledge.
Johnson, R. (1993). Editor’s introduction: Pierre Bourdieu on art, literature and culture. In: Bourdieu, P. The field of cultural production, pp 1-25.Cambridge: Polity Press.
Kupfer, A. (2015). “Symbolic violence: Education as concealed power. In: Kupfer, A (Ed.). Power and education: Contexts of oppression and opportunity, pp 26-40. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kloot, B. (2009). Exploring the value of Bourdieu’s framework in the context of institutional change. Studies in Higher Education, 34, 469-481.
Langa, P. (2010). Disciplines and engagement in African universities: a study of the distribution of scientific capital and academic networking in the social sciences. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cape Town.
Le Grange, L. (2008). The didactics tradition in South Africa: a reply to Richard Kruger.Journal of Curriculum Studies, 40, 399-407.
Maton, K. (2003). Reflexivity, relationism and research: Pierre Bourdieu and the epistemic conditions of social scientific knowledge. Space and Culture 6: 52-65.
Maton, K. (2005). A question of autonomy: Bourdieu’s field approach and higher education policy. Journal of Education Policy, 20, 687-704. DOI: 10.1080/02680930500238861.
Moguerane, K. (2007). Post-apartheid politics of integration at a residential student uth Africa. African Sociological Review, 11, 42-63.
Moore, R. (2003). Curriculum restructuring in South African higher Education: academic identities and policy implementation. Studies in Higher Education 28,303-319.
Moore, R. (2004). Cultural capital: objective probability and the cultural arbitrary.British Journal of Sociology, 25, 445-456.
Muller, J., & Hoadley, U. (2018).Pedagogic Modality and Structure in the recontextualising field of curriculum studies, In: Barret, B., Hoadley, U. & Morgan, J. (Eds.). Knowledge, curriculum and equity: Social Realist perspectives, pp 80-99. Routledge: New York.
Mouton, F. A. (2007). Professor Leo Fouché, The history department and the afrikanerisation of the University of Pretoria. In: Mouton, F. A, (ed.), Southey, N., & van Jaarsveld, A. History, historians and afrikaner nationalism: Essays on the history department of the University of Pretoria, 1909-1985, pp 13-43. South Africa: Kleio.
Naidoo, R. (2004). Fields and institutional strategy: Bourdieu on the relationship between higher education, inequality and society. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 25, 457-471.
Oloyede, O. (2009). Critical reflection on the report of the Ministerial Committee on Transformation, Social Cohesion and the Elimination of Discrimination in Public Higher Education. Perspectives in Education, 27, 426-434.
O’Meara, D. (1996). Forty lost years: The Apartheid State and the Politics of the National Party 1948-1994.Randburg: Ravan Press.
Reay, D. (2015). Habitus and the psychosocial: Bourdieu with feelings. Cambridge Journal of Education, 45, 9-23.DOI:10.1080/0305764X.2014.99042.
Rousseau, N. (2016). “Unpalatable truths” and “Popular hunger”: Reflections on popular history in the 1980s. In: Forte, J.R., Israel, P., and Witz, L. (Eds.), Out of history: Re-imagining South African pasts, pp 53-72. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Sehoole, T. (2005).Democratizing higher education policy: constraints of reform in post- apartheid South Africa. London: Routledge.
Swartz. D. (1997). Culture and power: The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. London and Chicago: University of Chicago.
Swartz, D. (2008). Bringing Bourdieu’s master concepts into organisational analysis.Theory and Society 37, 45-52.
Wacquant, L. (1989). Towards a reflexive sociology: a workshop with Pierre Bourdieu.Sociological Theory 7, 26-63.
Young, M. (2008). From Constructivism to Realism in the Sociology of the Curriculum.ch in Education 32, 1-28. DOI: 10.3102/00091732X07308969.