Thanks for the references and amusing review (from someone who can't read
hyper-text!) I think one real strength of the volume is the connections
it makes between Bernstein's theory and its research base... with lots of
references that hadn't been compiled before.
The Australian volume to come is...
F Christie [Ed.] Pedagogy and the Shaping of Consciousness. London:
Cassell.
Jim Martin
On Fri, 4 Jul 1997, Peter Smagorinsky wrote:
> While web browsing I came across the following web site:
> http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/socresonline/1/2/delamont.html
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> It promotes a new book by Basil Bernstein, along with other info about hi=
m.
> Given the discussion of last month, I thought xmca-ers might want a look.
> Here goes:
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> Copyright Sociological Research Online, 1996
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> Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity Theory, Research, Critique
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> Basil Bernstein
> London: Taylor and Francis
> 1996
> ISBN 0803951442 (Paperback), 074840371X (Cloth)
> =A314.95 (pb), =A340.00 (Cloth)
> xiv + 216pp
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> We are in the midst of a Basil Bernstein celebration: occasioned by
> two Festschriften one
> retrospective, one prospective (and rumours of a third coming from
> Australia). The
> retrospective volume (Sadovnik, 1995) contains 19 chapters and a
> response by Bernstein;
> the prospective (Atkinson, Davies and Delamont, 1995) 12 chapters
> taking Bernstein's
> ideas outwards in multiple directions. A celebratory symposium at th=
e
> American
> Educational Research Association Conference in 1996 attracted 200
> people who sat
> spellbound as Bernstein expounded for 70 minutes: an unusual session
> in a conference
> where most papers are sound bites delivered as the doors swing
> constantly open and
> closed, while people come and go, pausing only to eat sandwiches,
> check their catalogue
> or just rest their feet. Because Bernstein rarely attends conference=
s,
> he probably did not
> realize how unusual his performance and reception were. For those of
> us on the platform,
> all AERA veterans, who had each brought along both a brief tribute a=
nd
> a twenty minute
> paper (in case Bernstein chose not to speak), the event was
> extraordinary.=20
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> The enthusiasm for Bernstein will be reinforced by the publication o=
f
> this book. Twenty
> five years after Bernstein published his first volume of papers,
> Class, Codes and Control
> Volume 1, this is effectively Volume 5, although it lacks both the
> familiar title and the
> original orange and blue Routledge colour scheme. Our comfortable
> abbreviations
> (CCC1, 2, 3, 4) have to be put aside. Once we open the book, however=
,
> we are back on
> familiar territory: lost in a labyrinth. Bernstein is, once again,
> reworking his previous ideas,
> reprinting his papers with modifications, making his ideas even more
> complicated and
> interwoven, and engaging in arcane disputes with nearly everyone who
> has dared to write
> about him. The complex re-interpretations of his own ideas are of mo=
re
> lasting importance
> than disputes with others, and will be the focus of this review, but
> they are not easy to
> follow. As Atkinson wrote:
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> Bernstein, then, is continually working the same themes into
> intricate patterns
> and motifs. Unfortunately for the general reader this work rare=
ly
> - if ever -
> quite takes on the appearance of completion. Often the fabric
> turns out to be
> the labour of a Penelope: the threads are undone only to be
> re-worked into
> ever more intricate designs. Sometimes the patterns that
> Bernstein weaves
> become so intricate that the original figures are all but lost =
to
> view like an
> ornate Saxon design, the elements are elaborated and turned bac=
k on
> themselves. It is as if the formal design takes over, and becom=
es
> almost as
> valued as the original representation. (Atkinson, 1985: p. 8)=
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> That comment applies once again to this new book, which contains ten
> chapters in three
> sections. Part Three: Critique and Response contains four chapters.
> One is a short
> discussion of Bernstein's place in sociolinguistics as he sees it, t=
he
> second a reprint of his
> debate with A.D. Edwards, the third a dialogue with Bourdieu, and th=
e
> last his response to
> a paper by Harker and May (1993). Part Two contains two papers
> intended to
> demonstrate how Bernstein has always relied on 'the very close
> relation between the
> development of the theory and empirical research' (p. 4). The second
> paper opens with an
> attack on the British ESRC's compulsory methods training for PhD
> students: redesigning
> the PhD 'as a driving licence rather than a licence to explore' (p.
> 125). Part One contains
> four chapters. The first introduces the key concepts, the third a
> major analysis of how
> social sciences construct competence. Chapter Two is a revised versi=
on
> of a paper that
> appeared in Class, Codes and Control 4; Chapter Four is the text of =
a
> lecture given in
> Greece and is only six pages long.
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> Overall the book is an essential purchase for libraries, and will be
> consulted by many
> sociologists interested in curriculum and pedagogy. However, no
> beginner should try to
> learn about Bernstein from Volume 5. The ideas are simply not
> accessible to anyone unless
> he or she has already wrestled with the four previous volumes. While
> Bernstein is an
> inspirational theorist, he has never managed to write a clear,
> straightforward introduction to
> his ideas and is fiercely resistant to everyone else's attempts to
> produce one for him. We
> all hate being misrepresented and oversimplified, but we all owe a
> duty to those outside
> our elite discourses which can only be discharged by providing
> accessible routes into our
> theories. Once again Bernstein has totally failed to provide such a
> route.
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> Sara Delamont
> University of Wales, Cardiff
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> References
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> ATKINSON, P.A. (1985) Language, Structure and Reproduction: An
> Introduction to
> the Sociology of Basil Bernstein. London: Methuen.
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> ATKINSON, P.A.; DAVIES, B. and DELAMONT, S. (1995) (eds) Discourse a=
nd
> Reproduction: Essays in Honor of Basil Bernstein. Cresskill, N.J.:
> Hampton Press.
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> BERNSTEIN, B. (1971) Class, Codes and Control Volume 1. London:
> Routledge and
> Kegan Paul.
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> BERNSTEIN, B. (1973) Class, Codes and Control Volume 2. London:
> Routledge and
> Kegan Paul.
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> BERNSTEIN, B. (1975) Class, Codes and Control Volume 3. London:
> Routledge and
> Kegan Paul.
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> BERNSTEIN, B. (1990) The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse : Class,
> Codes and
> Control Volume 4. London: Routledge.
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> HARKER, R. and MAY, S.A. (1993) 'Code and Habitus' : Comparing
> Accounts of
> Bernstein and Bourdieu' British Journal of the Sociology of Educatio=
n,
> vol. 14, no. 2,
> pp.160 - 178.
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> SADOVNIK, A.R. (1995) Knowledge and Pedagogy: The Sociology of Basil
> Bernstein. New York: Ablex.
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> Copyright Sociological Research Online, 1996
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