Research On Bourdieu's Theory Of Cultural Reproduction

Pierre Bourdieu's life experiences are the history of reform and development of French higher education.Times,social context,education experiences,cultures and ethos formed his educational sociology.He evaluated French higher education with critical thinking and disclosed the false impression that French higher education had democratized.Bourdieu's educational sociology is the reflections and explorations of transformation from elite education to mass education of France in mid-20~thh century.The expansion of mass education gave ordinary people a chance to get higher education,which however highlighted the weakening or vanishing of the function of social mobility of higher education as well.Instead of promoting social mobility,it became anexchanger of duplicating existing social structure.Bourdieu attempted to find out the way and mechanism of social reproduction of higher education from the angle of economic foundation,power,family environment,and psychological structure.Present researcheson Bourdieu's educational sociology are unsystematic and are lack of logic.The dissertation elaborates systematically the basis,origin,core idea,concepts on function of education,theoretical characteristics and theoretical contributions of Bourdieu's educational sociology.Thedissertation thinks that there are three foundations for the construction of Bourdieu's educational sociology:social roots,foundations of education and cultures and ideology.It attempts to borrow two significant ways of literary criticism,that is social-historic criticism and psychological criticism,to analyze the foundations for construction of Bourdieu's educational sociology,probes into social environment and conditions of its own time,identifies the social and historical foundations from the dimensions of ethos,and analyzes the subjective conditions from the dimension of biographical research method.Field,habitus and capital are three pillars of Bourdieu's educational sociology.At present the research community is isolated and each does things in his own way,consequently research results are not systematic.Thedissertation attempts to integrate the three concepts and break away from the dilemma of scattered research,answer the cause of individual actions in educational field,probe into operating mechanism of the field under the influences of capital and habitus,and finally get the integration mechanism and convergence effect of habitus,capital and field.The dissertation thinks the theory of action is the premise of the theory of cultural reproduction,which is the core of Bourdieu's educational sociology.The dissertation will launch research on the theory of cultural reproduction on the basis of analysis of the theory of action.The theory of cultural reproduction thinks that higher education cannot integrate social classes and break down walls of social mobility,but solidifies class status instead.The theory of cultural reproduction has such logic as follows:school education is somehow a kind of symbolic violence and schools make cultural reproduction of the dominant class,which results in social reproduction,and this is Bourdieu's so-called“Social Alchemy”.This chapter is the core of the paper and will be undertaken from six aspects.This chapter will analyze the logical starting point of the theory of cultural reproduction and will make deep analysis according to above contents to get clear venation of ideological system.Then,thedissertation will analyze the theoretical characteristics and essence of cultural reproduction,deduce the path of cultural reproduction of institutions of higher education and tease the mechanism characteristics of cultural reproduction.Based on the deep analysis of cultural reproduction,thedissertation will focus on Bourdieu's perspectives on higher education,which is the key point of research on educational sociology.Perspectives on higher education have undergone such historical development:positive-only?negative?positive and negative.This chapter will tease differences and historical evolution between the theory of interaction of educational sociology and the theory of functionalism of higher education,and evaluate Bourdieu's educational sociology.He thought that symbolic violence is the essence of education and it not only a tool,but also a way of beautifying education.As to individual value,Bourdieu thought education cannot help underclass flow upward and cannot change the reality of solidification of social structure,and it is helpless for them.He thought higher education is the tool of cultural reproduction and social reproduction,and he thought higher education is negative.The last chapter will evaluate the theoretical characteristics and significances of Bourdieu's educational sociology,and will discuss the position and influences on France and the world as well.