Bernstein's Theory Research Articles

Institutional Discourse and Practice. A Case Study of the Social Construction of Technological Competence in the Primary Classroom

In this paper concepts from Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse are used to analyse student communication in the computer setting of the classroom. The perceptions of the classroom teacher and year fwe students, four girls and seven boys, about social relations in the classroom are the focus of analysis. It is argued that the pedagogic device of technocratic masculinity is socially constructed to relay power/knowledge relations. In the case study a group of male students manage to gain a position of power because they select, sequence, organise and transmit technological knowledge forms. The boys’ control over power/knowledge relations in the computer setting is strengthened by the support of the classroom teacher, who acknowledges the boys’ claim to computer expertise. Through the dual actions of a group of boys and the classroom teacher, a fiction about computer knowledge and competency is socially constructed in the classroom. Within the fiction of the technological patriarchy regulating classroo...

Linking Power, Knowledge, and Consciousness: Bernstein's Theory of Pedagogic Practice

Linking Power, Knowledge, and Consciousness: Bernstein's Theory of Pedagogic Practice

Latent Messages: The Acoustical Environments of Kindergartens in Israel and West Germany

This study of kindergartens in West Germany and Israel traced the ways in which educational policies and pedagogical codes are translated into kindergarten performances. As a test of the effects of different pedagogical codes, the author mapped patterns of dominance-control and patterns of action in the acoustical environments of kindergarten sessions and analyzed the overall acoustical context independently. The author concludes that the results confirm Bernstein's theory of the possible effects of different codes of pedagogy and that the acoustical environments of kindergartens may confound the explicit intentions of an educational system.

The method of creative telescoping

An algorithm for definite hypergeometric summation is given. It is based, in a non-obvious way, on Gosper's algorithm for definite hypergeometric summation, and its theoretical justification relies on Bernstein's theory of holonomic systems.

Basil Bernstein's Theory of Pedagogic Practice: A Structuralist Approach

L'A. met en evidence la contribution de Bernstein (B.) a l'evolution de la sociologie de l'education. Il presente un modele didactique recemment concu par Bernstein (B.), qui lie a sa theorie du programme d'etudes et de la didactique un projet sociologique structuraliste

Gender and Education: public policy and pedagogic practice

Abstract This paper serves two purposes. The first is an examination of a public policy, the Queensland Department of Education's Equal Opportunity Policy for Girls and Boys (1981) and the Implementation Guidelines (1988) for that policy within the context of the pedagogical practices of one secondary school. The second purpose is to answer a criticism often levelled at structural theories of education. This criticism centres around the inability of structural theories to account for the real life experiences of teachers and students. Bernstein's (1986) theory of Pedagogic Discourse and Fernandes’ (1988) work on Resistance theory are applied to three levels of educational practice; public policy, school practices and the everyday experiences of a group of female students. Through this analysis, movement towards a more satisfactory explanation of the intersection of gender and education is made.

A holonomic systems approach to special functions identities

We observe that many special functions are solutions of so-called holonomic systems. Bernstein's deep theory of holonomic systems is then invoked to show that any identity involving sums and integrals of products of these special functions can be verified in a finite number of steps. This is partially substantiated by an algorithm that proves terminating hypergeometric series identities, and that is given both in English and in MAPLE.

The vertical dimension of mental functioning

A hierarchical, six-level model of human intelligence is described. The first four levels, which correspond to those found in Bernstein's theory of motor control, are concerned with palaeokinetic regulations (A), synergies (B), the spatial field (C), and object actions (D). The two levels of the higher symbolic coordinations embody conceptual structures (E) and metacognitive coordinations (F). The model is supported by experimental results from several subfields of cognitive research: e.g., different types of learning are specifically connected with the components of this hierarchical structure. Learning by the restructuring of existing knowledge proceeds by means of the metaprocedures of level F. The incremental accumulation of factual information is connected with the conceptual base of level E. Proceduralization of this knowledge results in the build-up of perceptual automatisms of skilled action (level D), as is often case in the formation of expert knowledge. Arguments for the hierarchical architecture of perception, attention, memory, understanding, thinking, and imagination are provided, and some parallels are drawn with the organization of emotional and motivational processes. It is argued that general, interdisciplinary questions on the nature and sources of mental functioning must be approached with a kind of pluralistic methodology. These questions cannot be answered in an equally general vein, because the localization of mental processes on the vertical dimension of cognitive architecture is to be taken into account.

TESTING BASIL BERNSTEIN'S SOCIOLINGUISTIC THEORIES

The purpose of this study was to test Basil Bernstein's sociolinguistie theories. Based on an interview study of 138 kindergarten children, the data for the most part did not support Bernstein's ideas. Speech style indicators did not cluster into elaborated and restricted variants. Neither social control strategies nor school achievement scores were differentially related to elaborated and restricted variants. There was marginal evidence that some elaborated speech style indicators were related negatively to family size. Finally, children's social perceptions, a measure of elaborated codes at the psychological level, were related positively to their school achievement scores.

A Study of Teacher Epistemologies

Teachers' views of knowledge, their epistemologies, are likely to affect the way they organize and transmit information in the classroom. After ethnographic study had revealed that teachers' epistemologies varied greatly in their degree of formalization, a theory of the practical implications of teacher epistemologies was developed based on Basil Bernstein's account of visible and invisible pedagogies. Epistemology and curriculum code, assessment approach and control ideology were operationalized in four Likert scales. A survey was conducted and analysis of the data lent strong support both to the Bernstein theory and its extension to include the role played by epistemology.

Social Class and Changes in Orientation to Meaning

In continuation of studies into children's speech in different contexts undertaken within the framework of Bernstein's sociolinguistic theory, this work investigates differences in orientation to meaning by looking at classification strategies employed by eight year olds in dealing with familiar materials in the context of an extended interview. Social class differences are found in terms of the basic theoretical distinction between relatively context dependent and relatively context independent meanings. These differences are set in the context of the relationship between the child's primary contextualizing experience in the family and the recontextualizing principles of the school, and congruence is postulated between these two types of experience in the case of the middle class child. The results are seen as affording further support for Bernstein's theory of cultural reproduction.

Logic won't plug real life gaps: A remark on Gerald Gazdar's “class, ‘codes’, and conversation”

In his recent paper in Linguistics (Gazdar 1979), Gerald Gazdar tries “to plug a linguistic gap” in the body of literature that has criticized Basil Bernstein's code theory. I will attempt to unplug some of these gaps. I contend that Gazdar misinterprets Bernstein's theory as a theory of conversation (whereas it is rather an attempt to explain working class children's lower level of school achievement), and that his use of arguments from logic is misleading, especially where linguists and sociolinguists have already brought more substantial arguments, partly in the same area as Gazdar's claims.

School Problems and Family Background: A Norwegian Follow-up Study

A cohort consisting of 1,015 pupils, 508 girls and 507 boys, were followed during the first three years of primary school. Reports from all individual examinations undertaken by school psychologists were available, as well as information about different forms of special education offered the first three years at school. A clear relationship between social background and individual examination at the School Psychology Service was revealed. Recruitment both to special classes for school beginners and classes for special education in mathematics was biased towards an overrepresentation of children of workers. Only small and insignificant group differences were found in special educa tion in Norwegian. The results may go contrary to Bernstein's theory of social class and language code.

An exploratory study of adolescent speech, using measures derived from Bernstein's theories

This study is based on interviews with adolescents under conditions where the kinds of constraints which operate in more formal settings were minimised. Samples of the speech of twenty-four boys and girls aged between fourteen and a half and eighteen, from both urban and non-urban environments, were analysed, using sixteen measures derived from Bernstein's theories. Social class differences appeared on only three measures. This suggests either that forms of analysis primarily based on the structure of language are inappropriate, or that there are smaller social class differences in language use than would be expected on the basis of Bernstein's theories. This adds to the growing body of evidence that Bernstein's ‘research programme’ has moved into a degenerative phase.

Age and Social Class in Children's Use of Persuasive Communicative Appeals

PICHEi, GENE L.; RUBIN, DONALD L.; and MICHLIN, MICHAEL L. Age and Social Class in Children's Use of Persuasive Communicative Appeals. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1978, 49, 773-780. The study investigates the relationship between age, social class, and children's persuasive communication strategies. 16 fifth graders and 16 ninth graders representing combinations of high and low SES delivered a persuasive message to each of 4 hypothetical target listeners. Deriving in part from Bernstein's developmental sociolinguistic theory, messages were analyzed into 5 major categories of appeals. Results indicate that older subjects accommodated their messages to targets' varying role characteristics and produced a frequency of positional (role-oriented) appeals to a significantly greater extent than did younger subjects. No statistically significant differences beween highand low-SES subjects were detected. The ontogenetic trend revealed in this study extends the current developmental account of children's communication to include the persuasive function. The absence of significant SES differences in modal appeal types does not support Bernstein's theory of class-mediated communicative appeals. The overall lack of significant SES differences is interpreted as indicating the need for caution in assuming any very direct relationship between social class and children's communicative styles.

Social class and help‐seeking behavior

AbstractUsing Bernstein's theory of childhood socialization and Kohn's research on adult occupational experiences as the theoretical base, research was undertaken to study the relationship between social class (as measured by occupation and education) and help‐seeking behavior. Intensive interviews (n = 42) and surveys (n = 838) were used as data. No evidence of an age or race effect was found. A sex‐by‐class effect was found. It was found that the lower the social class, the more likely were high values of conformity and the use of didactic help‐seeking behavior for both males and females. The higher the respondent's social class, the more likely he or she valued autonomy and had had experiences using a negotiating help‐seeking style if the respondent was a female. Males overwhelmingly employed a didactic style regardless of class.

Bernstein and Durkheim: Two Theories of Change in Educational Systems

Emile Durkheim's The Evolution of Educational Thought and the third volume of Basil Bernstein's Class, Codes and Control2 are important contributions to the theory of social and educational change. The English translation of Durkheim's lectures on the history of French secondary education is likely to have a dramatic impact not only on future interpretations of his thought but also on the general orientation of educational research. The most recent volume in Bernstein's series is a significant addition to his studies of social class and educational codes. The aim of this essay is to draw out parallels and differences between Durkheim's and Bernstein's theories of educational systems; this comparison will highlight Bernstein's reformulation of certain features of Durkheim's thought.

Social Class Labelling in the Application of Bernstein's Theory of the Codes to the Identification of Linguistic Advantage and Disadvantage in Five‐Year‐Old Children

Abstarct Misinterpretation of Bernstein's theory of language codes has important implications for the school. The terms ‘elaborated’ and ‘restricted’ code have often been used by many teachers as labels to identify a socially determined linguistic advantage and disadvantage of pupils. This paper considers reasons why Bernstein has been misinterpreted, and describes an experiment in which undergraduate students in applying categories derived from Bernstein's lists of ‘linguistic code markers’ to representational speech of five‐year‐old children interpreted the results in accordance with expectations emanating from a simplistic understanding of the theory. It was found that the students selected from the children's language only those structures that were consistent with the social class labels they had applied. It is suggested that the labelling consequence of teachers’ misinterpretations of the theory of the codes is likely to become a self‐fulfilling prophecy affecting pupils’ performance in school.

Class differences in syntactic complexity in the Flemish town of Maaseik

AbstractThe linguistic foundation of Bernstein's code theory is tested in a bidimensional sociolinguistic investigation. Not only class, but also situation is controlled. In the Flemish town of Maaseik each of eight informants (four middle class and four working class) have been interviewed in two different situations, one formal and one informal. In the formal situation standard Netherlandic was spoken and in the informal the local dialect. Five measures of syntactic complexity constituted the linguistic variable. The results in the formal situation corroborate those of Bernstein: the middle-class subjects exhibit a greater degree of syntactic complexity than the working-class subjects. In the informal situation all subjects exhibit about the same degree of syntactic complexity, and for the middle-class subjects this degree is less than that in the formal situation (as might be expected). The striking result is that the working-class informants exhibit significantlyhighercomplexity in theinformalsituation. In the discussion these findings are compared to those of previous studies, Bernsteinian and other. In an appendix sample data for formal and informal styles from one middle- and one working-class subject are presented. (‘elaborated’ and ‘restricted’ codes, social vs. cognitive meaning, syntactic variation; Flemish cf. Maaseik, Belgium).

Code switching and sexual orientation: a test of Bernstein's sociolinguistic theory.

Bernstein's theory was tested in the homosexual's "closed" community to determine code-switching ability and its relationship to jargon. Subjects told a story based on homoerotic photographs where knowledge of sexual orientation was varied. Rather than finding the restricted code associated with in-group communication, an analysis of data trends (since all hypotheses were rejected) suggests that homosexual hemophyly encouraged elaboration, and status differentiation resulted in a more restricted code. Story length was the most significant variable across groups. Some of Bernstein's theoretical explanations require modification to account for subjects' behavior in stigmatized social groups.