Abstract
Research in the sociology of education reflects the distinction between “macro” and “micro” that has dominated the field of sociology more generally (see, for example, Alexander et al. 1987; R. Collins 1981a, 1981b; Giddens 1984; Knorr-Cetina and Cicourel 1981). In studies of education, the macro includes structural forces conceptualized at the societal level, including economic constraints and capitalist demands, while the micro includes individual or group actions and responses to constraints imposed on social actors. I am not content with this distinction because it perpetuates a false dichotomy, reifies social structure, and relegates social interaction to a residual status.
Erstveröffentlichung in: Sociology of Education 1992, Vol. 65 (January): 1–20.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Alexander, J., B. Geisen, R. Munch, and N. Smelse (eds.) (1987): The Micro-Macro Link. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Allington, R. (1983): “The Reading Instruction Provided Readers of Different Reading Abilities.” Elementary School Journal 83 : 549–59.
Anyon, J. (1980): “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work.” Journal of Education 163 : 87–92.
Apple, M. (1983): “Reproduction and Contradiction in Education: An Introduction.” In Essays in Class, Ideology and the State. Boston: Routledge & Kagan Paul.
Apple, M. (1985): Education and Power. Boston: Routledge & Kagan Paul.
Atkinson, P., S. Delamont and M. Hamersley (1988): “Qualitative Research Traditions: A British Response to Jacob.” Review of Educational Research 58 : 23150.
Au, K. (1980): “Participation Structures in a Reading Lesson With Hawaiian Children.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 11 : 91–115.
Austin, J. L. (1962): How To Do Things With Words. New York: Oxford University Press.
Barnhardt, C. (1982): “‘Tuning in’: Athabaskan Teachers and Students.” In Cross-Cultural Issues in Alaskan Education (vol. 2), edited by R. Barnhardt. Fairbanks: University of Alaska, Center for Cross-Cultural Studies.
Becker, H. (1952): “Social Class Variations in the Teacher-Pupil Relationship.” Journal of Educational Sociology 25 : 451–65.
Becker, H. (1953): “The Teacher in the Authority Structure of the School.” Journal of Educational Sociology 27 : 128–41.
Bernstein, B. (1973): Class, Codes and Control: Vol. 3. Toward a Theory of Educational Transmissions. London: Routledge & Kogan Paul.
Bidwell, C. E. (1988): “Willard Waller and the Sociology of Education.” In Willard Waller on Education and Schools: A Critical Appraisal, edited by Donald J. Willower and William Lowe Boyd. Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.
Blau, P. and O. D. Duncan (1967): The American Occupational Structure. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Bourdieu, P. (1977a): “Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction.” In Power and Ideology in Education, edited by Jerome Karabel and A. H. Halsey. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bourdieu, Pi. (1977b): Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Bourdieu, P. (1989): “Social Space and Symbolic Power.” Sociological Theory 7 : 14–25.
Bourdieu, P. and J.-C. Passeron (1977): Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. London: Sage.
Bowles, S. and H. Gintis (1976): Schooling in Capitalist America. New York: Basic Books.
Bowles, S. and H. Gintis (1988): “Schooling in Capitalist America: A Reply to Our Critics.” In Bowles and Gintis Revisited, edited by Mike Cole. London: Palmer Press.
Brophy, J. and T. Good (1974): Teacher-Student Relationships. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Cazden, C. B. (1979): Peekaboo as an Instructional Strategy: Discourse Development at Home and at School (Papers and Reports on Child Language Development No. 17). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Department of Linguistics.
Cazden, C. B. (1986): “Classroom Discourse.” In Handbook of Research on Teaching, edited by M. Wittrock. New York: Macmillan.
Cazden, C. B. (1988): Classroom Discourse. New York: Heineman.
Cazden, C. B. and H. Mohan (1989): “Principles from Sociology and Anthropology: Context, Code, Classroom and Culture”. In Knowledge Base for the Beginning Teacher, edited by Maynard C. Reynolds. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Cicourel, A. V. (1973): Cognitive Sociology. New York: Free Press.
Cicourel, A. V., K. Jennings, S. H. M. Jennings, K. Leiter, R. Mackay, H. Mohan and D. Roth (1974): Language Use and School Performance. New York: Academic Press.
Cicourel, A. V. and J. L Kitsuse (1963): Educational Decision Makers. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs- Merrill.
Cicourel, A. V. and H. Mohan (1983): “Universal Development, Stratifying Practices and Status Attainment.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 4 : 3–27.
Cole, M. and P. Griffin (1987): Contextual Factors in Education. Madison: Wisconsin Center for education Research.
Cole, M. (1988): “Contradictions in the Educational Theory of Gintis and Bowles”. In Bowles and Gintis Revisited, edited by Mike Cole. London: Falmer Press.
Coleman, J., E. Campbell, C. Hobson, J. McPartland, A. Mood, F. D. Weinfeld and R. York (1966): Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
Collins, J. (1986): “Differential Instruction in Reading Groups.” In The Social Construction of Literacy, edited by J. CookGumperz. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Collins, R. (1981a): “Micro Translation as a Theory Building Activity.” In Advances in Social Theory and Methodology, edited by K. Knorr-Cetina and A. V. Cicourel. London: Routledge & Kagan Paul.
Collins, R. (1981b): “On the Microfoundations of Macrosociology.” American Journal of Sociology 86 : 984–1014.
D’Andrade, R. G. (1987): “Cultural Meaning Systems.” In Culture Theory, edited by Richard A. Shweder and Robert A. LeVine. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Delgado-Gaiton, C. (1987): “Traditions and Transitions in the Learning Process of Mexican American Children.” In Interpretive Ethnography of Education, edited by George Spindler and Louise Spindler. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
DiMaggio, P. (1982): “Cultural Capital and School Success.” American Sociological Review 47 : 189–201.
Eder, D. (1981): “Ability Grouping as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.” Sociology of Education 54 : 151–61.
Erickson, F. (1984): “An Anthropologist’s Perspective.” Review of Educational Research 54 : 63–78.
Erickson, F. (1986): “Qualitative Methods in Research on Teaching.” In: Handbook of Research on Teaching, edited by M. Wittrock. New York: Macmillan.
Erickson, F. and G. Mohatt (1982): “Participant Structures in Two Communities.” In Doing the Ethnography of Schooling, edited by G. D. Spindler. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Erickson, F. and J. Schultz (1982): The Counselor as Gatekeeper. New York Academic Press.
Foster, M. (1989): “It’s Cookin’ Now: A Performance Analysis of the Speech Events in an Urban Community College.” Language in Society 18 : 1–29.
Gage, N. L. (1989): “The Paradigm Wars and Their Aftermath.” Educational Researcher 18 : 4–10.
Garfinkel, H. (1967): Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Giddens, A. (1984): The Constitution of Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Gilmore, P. and D. M. Smith (1982) “A Retrospective Discussion of the State of the Art of Ethnography in Education.” In Ethnography and Education: Children In and Out of School, edited by P. Gilmore and A. A. Glatthorn. Washington, DC: CAL Press.
Giroux, H. (1983): Theory and Resistance in Education. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Harvey.
Gorbutt, D. (1972): “The New Sociology of Education.” Education for Teaching 1 : 3–11.
Gumperz, J. J. (1971): Language in Social Groups. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Gumperz, J. J. (1981): Discourse Strategies. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Gumperz, J. J. and E. Herasmichuk (1975): “The Conversational Analysis of Meaning: A Study of Classroom Interaction.” In Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Use, edited by M. Sanchez and B. G. Blount. New York: Academic Press.
Hallinan, M. T. (1989): “The State of the Art.” In Schools and Society (2nd ed.), edited by Jeanne H. Ballantine. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.
Haycock, K. and S. Navarro (1988): Unfinished Business. Oakland, CA: Achievement Council.
Henry, J. (1975): Culture Against Man. New York: Vintage Books.
Hollingshead, A. B. (1949): Elmstown’s Youth. New York John Wiley & Sons.
Jackson, P. (1967): Life in Classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Jacob, E. (1987): “Qualitative Research Tradition: A Review.” Review of Educational Research 57 : 1–50.
Jencks, C. S., S. Bartlett, M. Corcoran, J. Crouse, D. Eaglesfleld, G. Jackson, K. McClelland, P. Mueser, M. Olneck, J. Schwartz, S. Ward and J. Williams (1977): Who Gets Ahead ? New York Basic Books.
Jencks, C. S., M. Smith, H. Ackland, M. J. Bare, D. Cohen, H. Glatts, B. Heyns and S. Michelson (1972): Inequality. New York: Basic Books.
Kagan, S. (1988): Cooperative Lemming and Sociocultural Factors in Schooling. In Beyond Language. Los Angeles: California State University, Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center.
Karabel, J. and A. H. Halsey (eds.) (1977): Power and Ideology in Education. New York: Oxford University Press.
Knorr-Cetina, K. and A. V. Cicourel (eds.) (1981): Advances in Social Theory and Methodology: Toward an Integration of Micro- and Macro-Sociology. London: Routledge
Lamont, M. and A. Lareau (1988): “Cultural Capital: Allusions, Gaps and Glissandos in Recent Theoretical Developments.” Theoretical Sociology 6 : 153–68.
Laosa, L. M. (1973): “Reform in Educational and Psychological Assessment: Cultural and Linguistic Issues.” Journal of the Association of Mexican-American Educators 1 : 19–24.
Lareau, A. (1987): “Social Class Differences in Family-School Relationships.” Sociology of Education 60 : 73–85.
Lareau, A. (1989): Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education. New York: Falmer Press.
MacLaren, P. (1980): Cries from the Corridor. Toronto: Methuen.
MacLaren, P. (1989): Life in the Schools. New York: Longman.
MacLeod, J. (1987): Ain’t No Makin’ It. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Marlaire, C. L. and D. W. Maynard (1990): “Standardized Testing as an Interactional Phenomenon.” Sociology of Education 83 : 83–101.
Marx, K. (1976): Capital. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin (original work published 1867).
McCullum, P. (1989): “Turn-Allocation in Lessons with North American and Puerto Rican Students.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 20 : 133–56.
McDermott, R. P. and J. Aron (1978): “Pirendello in the Classroom.” In The Futures of Education, edited by M. Reynolds. Reston, VA: Council of Exceptional Children.
McDermott, R. P., S. V. Goldman, and H. Varenne (1984): “When School Goes Home: Some Problems in the Organaziation of Homework.” Teachers College Record 85 : 391–410.
McDermott, R. P., K. Godspondinoff, and J. Aron (1978): “Criteria for an Ethnographically Adequate Description of Concerted Events and Their Contexts.” Semiotica 24(3-4) : 245–75.
Mehan, H. (1978): “Structuring School Structure.” Harvard Educational Review 48 : 32–61.
Mehan, H. (1979): Learning Lessons. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Mehan, H., A. Hetweck and J. L. Meihls (1985): Handicapping the Handicapped: Decision Making in Student ? Careers. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Michaels, S. (1981): “Baring Time: Children’s Narrative Style and Differential Access to Literacy.” Language In Society 10 : 423–42.
National Center for Education Statistics. 1986. The Condition of Education: A Statistical Report. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education.
Oakes, J. (1982): “Classroom Social Relationships: Exploring the Bowles and Gintis Hypothesis.” Sociology of Education 55 : 197–212.
Oakes, J. (1985): Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Ogbu, J. U. (1985): “Cultural Discontinuities and Schooling.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 13 : 290–307.
Ogbu, J. U. and E.-M. Matute Bianchi (1988): “Understanding Sociocultural Factors: Knowledge, Identity and School Adjustment,” In Beyond Language Los Angeles: California State University, Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center.
Philips, S. (1982): The Invisible Culture: Communication in Classroom and Community on the Warmsprings Indian Reservation. New York: Longman.
Piestrup, A. (1973): Mack Dialect-Interference and Accommodation of Reading Instruction in the First Grade (Monographs of the Language Behavior Research Lab). Berkeley: University of California.
Pollner, M. (1987): Mundane Reason. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Powers, B. (1989): “Two Tracks to Nowhere: A Review of MacLeod’s Ain’t No Makin’ lt.” Socialist Review 19 : 155–65.
Rist, R. C. (1973): The Urban School: Factory for Failure. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press.
Rosenbaum, J. (1976): Malring Inequality. New York: Wiley Interscience.
Schultz, J., S. Florin and F. Erickson (1979): “Where’s the Floor ?” In Ethnography and Education: Children In and Out of School, edited by P. Gilmore and A. A. Glatthorn. Washington, DC: CAL Press.
Searle, J. (1969): Speech Acts. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Shuy, R. and P. Griffin (1978): The Study of Children’s Functional Language and Education in the Early Years. Washington, DC: CAL Press.
Sinclair, J. M. and R. M. Coulthard (1975): Toward an Analysis of Discourse. New York: Oxford University Press.
Suarez-Orosco, M. M. (1987): “Becoming Somebody: Central American Immigrants in UB, Inner- City Schools.” Anthropology and Education Quarterly 18 : 287–99.
Tharp, R. and R. Gallimore (1988): Rousing Minds to Life: Teaching, Learning and Schooling in Social Context. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Trueba, H. (1986): Success or Failure ? Learning and the Language Minority Student. New York: Newbury House.
Vendler, Z. (1972): Res Cogitans: An Essay in Rational Psychology. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Waller, W. (1932): The Sociology of Teaching. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Wexler, P. (1987): Social Analysis of Education: After the New Sociology. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Wilcox, K. (1982): “Differential Socialization in the Classroom: Implications for Equal Opportunity.” In Doing the Ethnography of Schooling, edited by G. D. Spindler. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Willis, P. E. (1977): Learning to Labor. New York: Columbia University Press.
Wittgenstein, L. (1951): The Philosophical Investigations. New York: Macmillan.
Young, M. F. K. (1971): Knowledge and Control London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Young, M. F. K. (1988): “Curriculum and Development: Some Lessons from a Critique of the ‘New Sociolagy of Education”, Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, April.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften | Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mehan, H. (2012). Understanding Inequality in Schools: The Contribution of Interpretative Studies. In: Bauer, U., Bittlingmayer, U.H., Scherr, A. (eds) Handbuch Bildungs- und Erziehungssoziologie. Bildung und Gesellschaft. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-18944-4_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-18944-4_17
Publisher Name: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden
Print ISBN: 978-3-531-17922-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-531-18944-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Science (German Language)