In his 'Towards the Critique of Violence', Walter Benjamin introduces the concept of 'educative violence' as a contemporary manifestation of 'divine violence'. In this paper, we aim to interpret 'educative violence' by examining other instances where the young Benjamin addresses pedagogical issues. By connecting the concept of divine violence to…

Bourdieu's critical analysis of capital (BCAC) is a useful tool for unmasking how schools legitimate class structure and identifying the institutional, societal, and cultural forces that structure class reproduction and oppression. In this paper, we examine the ways educational researchers have constrained the critical application of Bourdieu's…

Nowadays in Japan, people's social existence may become less well defined as changes are brought about by social shifting. Japan is simply shifting from a society model based on an industrial society to another model, so-called a consumer society. In terms of social structure, this means shifting from the idea of society and economy assuming the…

This paper outlines a theoretical framework intended to provide a more ecological and holistic accounting of how, why and where people learn in relation to constructs of human difference--race, class, disability designation, etc.--as learners circulate across places and associated operating value systems over multiple timescales. The framework for…

In common with a number of recent studies of religious change that have taken a gendered approach, this article takes older women as its focus and considers the role the emotions play in religious change, adopting Riis and Woodhead's new conceptual framework of religious emotion. Emotions, they argue, are not merely private, personal and…

In this article, we use our experiences to demonstrate the limits of the "studying up" metaphor to capture the complexity of the dynamics involved in doing research on groups that occupy positions of power within social hierarchies. The article focuses on different facets of the research process, alternating between our individual narratives and a…

In this essay, Yuli Tamir argues that the growing interest in public education in the developed world in general and in the United States in particular is grounded in a fear of losing global hegemony. The most rational approach to slowing down these hegemonic shifts is to empower public education and allow the neglected human capital vested in…

The employment of individuals, in all societies and all times, was the focal point of social structures. The economic theory provides the ability to understand the economic laws that are running in a society and gives us much knowledge how to significantly alter the economic structure of society or to bring about the desired changes. There is a…

A survey conducted in two provincial areas of Russia provides the basis for an examination of the relation between the self-identification and the social status affiliation of young people. Self-assessments serve as the basis for a model of the social structure and a typology of the younger generation in these regions, in accordance with their…

Because inequality is one of the central concerns of sociologists, it has been addressed, in various ways, by virtually all of the major traditions of sociological social psychology--social structure and personality, symbolic interactionism, and group processes. For those who work in the social structure and personality tradition, inequality…

The major priorities that should guide leadership education in preparing leaders for their work of leading schools in a democratic society are: (1) Teaching leaders to understand the inequities of society; (2) Teaching leaders to serve as agents for social transformation; and (3) Teaching leaders to help each and every student learn and succeed.…

A discussion of democracy is offered that includes historical reactions to the concept, a description of two types of democracy as they appear in the United States contexts. A brief discussion of the contradictions and tensions built into the very core of democracy, and evidence for the corruption of democracy is presented.

Evolving from experiences in a graduate seminar that led to new understandings of feminist pedagogy, this theory of feminist pedagogy in action rests on four phenomena that are each necessary but none sufficient. After describing the creation of a learning community as well as a search of educative research, a delineation of the four phenomena is…

Reviews the theoretical background, methodology, and preliminary results of a planned study of what teachers think about power to be conducted in three stages with kindergarten and comprehensive school teachers in Finland. Preliminary results from 22 teachers identify power most clearly as a social category. (SLD)

Louise Erdrich's "Love Medicine" presents a troubled and troubling reimagining of life on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. In analyzing the novel, critics have generally ignored its descriptions of economic structures, class stratifications, and work conditions. In this essay, the author argues that these socioeconomic conditions are central to…