University at Buffalo, the State University of New York
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
ELP 580
Contemporary Social Theory and Education
Fall 2004
Thursday 4:10–6:50 pm
474 Baldy Hall
Hank Bromley
466 Baldy Hall
645-2471 x1085 (office)
884-6897 (home)
hbromley@buffalo.edu
office hours: T 4–5, R 7–8 (pm)
or by appointment
Course Description
My motivation for developing this course was the observation that students in our Sociology
of Education Ph.D. program do not get to see very much literature that is specifically theoretical in its
orientation. Moreover, a number of particular innovations in thought that have been jolting
established practice across a whole range of academic disciplines had been entirely absent in our
curriculum. A small program like ours is obviously limited in the variety of topics it can cover. My
intent in offering this class has been to branch out a bit, and make available to our students some
intellectual tools they might not otherwise encounter.
More specifically, we will be surveying influential ideas from postmodernism, poststructuralism, feminist theory, racial identity, and postcolonialism, with a focus on their varied
answers to such questions as “what is power, and how does it operate?”; “what counts as knowledge,
who gets to decide, on what basis and with what consequences?”; and “what is identity (both personal
and collective), where does it come from, and how is it related to political consciousness?”. The
readings have been selected on the basis of what they offer thinkers who want to understand and help
bring about social change, and our aim will be to explore how existing critical educational theory
might be improved upon through adapting some of these tools.
The class participants typically include students from programs other than Sociology of
Education. Although the readings were selected specifically with the needs of students in my own
program in mind, others are equally welcome, and should find the readings equally valuable. The
ideas we will be discussing have influenced academic fields throughout the humanities and social
sciences. They neither originated in, nor are they limited to, either sociology or educational studies.
Requirements
Our main task will be digesting the readings: understanding what they mean, and determining
how they bear on the study of educational practice. Some of the readings are admittedly quite
difficult; with patience and a spirit of collaboration, however, I am certain that we can together find
our way through even the densest of them. Toward that end, I am asking that you each provide me
every week (via email is best, otherwise in my mailbox in 468 Baldy), by 2:00 on the day of class,
one question about something you didn’t understand in that week’s reading. It could be as detailed as
“what does this word mean?” or as general as “where is this author trying to go, and whatever for?”. I
want the questions several hours before class so that they can guide me in preparing for the
It is the policy of the University at Buffalo—as well as a legal requirement—that reasonable accommodations be
provided for any students with disabilities who may need special arrangements in order to benefit equally from university
programs. Please contact myself or the Office of Disability Services (25 Capen Hall, 645-2608) if you require such
arrangements.
ELP 580—page 2
discussion. I will not be grading your questions, or assessing how “smart” or “dumb” they are; I just
want an indication of what was troublesome for you about the readings.
The second requirement is an in-class “presentation” on the readings for one week, although
not necessarily of the usual sort. Because you may not be familiar with the sort of material we’re
dealing with, the expectation that you singlehandedly elucidate and analyze it, while the rest of us sit
back and watch, could be unnecessarily intimidating and counterproductive. So anyone who prefers
may instead engage with me in a conversation (somewhat planned in advance) about the readings
during class. That way, we can balance your asking me questions with your offering your own
interpretations, in whatever proportion seems suitable for your level of comfort with the particular
readings. In any case, the “presentation” or “conversation” should last about 20 minutes. In past
semesters, some students have been inclined, as good teachers themselves, to incorporate full class
participation into their presentations. If you want to do so, that’s fine, but let me know in advance and
I’ll allot additional time for that—it’s important that the overall package still include in it somewhere
a 20-minute block of your own presentation (or conversation with me), so that you can provide a
sustained and thorough analysis of your own.
There will be two written assignments: a short midterm paper (five pages), and a final paper
(ten pages). The first will ask you to identify some phenomenon that is poorly explained by existing
theory in sociology of education (or in your own field, if that’s not soc of ed); the second will ask you
what idea we have discussed could most profitably be brought into the practice of sociology of
education (or your own field), and what that would do for the field.
Semester grades will be based on: final paper, 30%; midterm paper, 25%; in-class
presentation, 25%; general class participation, 20%. Anyone who wishes is welcome to take the class
on an S/U (pass/no credit) basis. Simply tell me (preferably in writing or via email, to make sure I
don’t forget) anytime before I grade your first assignment. Personally, I think grades just interfere
with the learning process, so I’m quite willing to dispense with them for students who feel the same.
Readings
Nearly all the readings will be available through the UB Libraries Online Course Reserve
system, which means you can view and print them for free from any of the campus computer labs, or
from home if you’re suitably equipped. If you’re unfamiliar with the online reserve system, begin at
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/creserve/. There are links to instruction files from that page. Note
that there are two search facilities for finding the readings, one of which only works with some web
browsers. Whichever you use, enter the course number as elp580, without a space. The list may be a
little confusing because the library alphabetizes the readings by title; I’ll provide a separate handout
to help you find what you need.
A few other readings that I was able to obtain online will be available through my own course
web site. These are indicated in the schedule below with [ONLINE]. Links to those readings will be
available at http://www.gse.buffalo.edu/fas/bromley/classes/theory/.
Schedule
Sept 2
[no required reading]
Introduction to course; overview of
established practices of critical educational theory
ELP 580—page 3
supplementary:
Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America
Pierre Bourdieu, “Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction,” in Richard K. Brown, Knowledge, education, and
cultural change [reprinted in Karabel and Halsey, Power and Ideology in Education]
Basil Bernstein, “On the Classification and Framing of Educational Knowledge” and “Class and Pedagogies: Visible and
Invisible,” in Class, Codes and Control, Vol. 3 (listed in BISON under the subtitle, Towards a Theory of
Educational Transmissions)
M. F. D. Young, ed, Knowledge and Control
Paul Willis, Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs.
Michael W. Apple, Ideology and Curriculum, and Education and Power
R. W. Connell, et al, Making the Difference
Henry Giroux, Theory and Resistance in Education
Peter McLaren, Schooling as a Ritual Performance
I. A LOOK BACK AT THE SOURCES
Sept 9
The role of ideology—the Marxist legacy
Howard Zinn, Marx in Soho: A Play on History (pp. 1-47)
Louis Althusser, excerpts from “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses,” in Lenin and
Philosophy, and other essays (pp. 123-31, 136-149, 160-70)
Raymond Williams, “Base and Superstructure in Marxist Cultural Theory,” in Roger Dale, ed,
Schooling and Capitalism (pp. 202-10) [originally published in New Left Review 82, Dec 1973, pp. 3-16]
supplementary:
Antonio Gramsci, “Culture and Ideological Hegemony,” in Jeffrey C. Alexander and Steven Seidman, ed, Culture and
Society: Contemporary Debates [excerpt from Gramsci’s Selections from the Prison Notebooks]
Georg Lukács, History and Class Consciousness
[Sept 16—Rosh Hashanah, no class]
Sept 23
Structuralism and modernism
Structuralism:
Charles Lemert, ed, Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings:
Claude Lévi-Strauss, “The Structural Study of Myth” (pp. 334-39) [excerpt from Lévi-Strauss’
Structural Anthropology]
Ferdinand de Saussure, “Arbitrary Social Values and the Linguistic Sign” (pp. 160-69) [excerpt
from Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics]
supplementary:
Terry Eagleton, “Structuralism and Semiotics,” in Literary Theory: An Introduction
Mary Douglas, “Symbolic Pollution,” in Alexander and Seidman
Modernism and its critics:
David Ingram and Julia Simon-Ingram, Critical Theory: The Essential Readings:
excerpt from Introduction (pp. xxi-xxiii)
Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, “The Concept of Enlightenment” (pp. 49-56) [excerpt
from Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment]
Vaclav Havel, “The End of the Modern Era,” The New York Times, March 1, 1992 [ONLINE]
David Harvey, Justice, Nature & the Geography of Difference, “Dialectics” (pp. 46-59 only)
supplementary:
David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, chapter 2 (“Modernity and Modernism”)
ELP 580—page 4
Herbert Marcuse, “From Consensual Order to Instrumental Control,” in Alexander and Seidman
II. SOURCES FOR FUTURE WORK
Sept 30
Postmodernism/Poststructuralism: from Knowledge to Knowledges
Jean-François Lyotard, “The Postmodern Condition,” in Jeffrey C. Alexander and Steven Seidman,
ed, Culture and Society: Contemporary Debates (pp. 330-35) [excerpt from Lyotard’s The
Postmodern Condition]
Steven Best and Douglas Kellner, Postmodern Theory: Critical Interrogations, excerpt from
“Baudrillard and Postmodernity” (pp. 118-22)
Steven Best and Douglas Kellner, The Postmodern Turn, excerpts from “From the Society of the
Spectacle to the Realm of Simulation” (pp. 79-80, 99-103)
Jean Baudrillard, “Simulacra and Simulations: Disneyland,” in Charles Lemert, ed, Social Theory:
The Multicultural and Classic Readings (pp. 524-29) [excerpt from Mark Poster, ed, Jean
Baudrillard: Selected Writings] Note: if you have a hard time understanding this reading, concentrate on the
second paragraph (“Abstraction today...”) and the last section (“Hyperreal and Imaginary”). You might also
try returning to it after the next reading, from Eco.
Umberto Eco, Travels in Hyperreality, excerpt from “Travels in Hyperreality” (pp. 43-48)
Joan W. Scott, “Deconstructing Equality-versus-difference: Or, the Uses of Poststructuralist Theory
for Feminism,” in Steven Seidman, ed, The Postmodern Turn: New Perspectives on Social
Theory (pp. 282-98) [originally published in Feminist Studies 14:1 (1988), pp. 33-50]
supplementary:
David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, chapter 3 (“Postmodernism”)
Steven Best and Douglas Kellner, “The Time of the Posts,” in The Postmodern Turn
Terry Eagleton, “Post-Structuralism,” in Literary Theory: An Introduction
Anthony Giddens, “Post-Modernity or Radicalized Modernity?”, in Lemert (includes table on p. 538)
Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective,” in
Simians, Cyborgs and Women
Jürgen Habermas, “Modernity versus Postmodernity,” in Alexander and Seidman
remainder of “Simulacra and Simulations” in Poster, and Poster’s introduction
remainder of Eco’s “Travels in Hyperreality”
Oct 7
Postmodernism/Poststructuralism: from “the individual” to “the subject”
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, sections i-iv of chapter 1,
section iv of chapter 3, Conclusion (pp. 1-16, 128-49)
Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”, Preface (pp. ix-xii)
Riki Anne Wilchins, Read My Lips: Sexual Subversion and the End of Gender, “Sex! Is a Verb” (pp.
49-57)
Minnie Bruce Pratt, “Identity: Skin Blood Heart,” in Elly Bulkin, et al, Yours in Struggle: Three
Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism (pp. 11-63)
supplementary:
Teresa de Lauretis, ed, Feminist Studies/Critical Studies:
Teresa de Lauretis, “Issues, Terms, and Contexts”
Biddy Martin and Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Feminist Politics: What’s Home Got to Do with It?”
Michael Bérubé and Cary Nelson, ed, Higher Education Under Fire:
Todd Gitlin, “The Rise of ‘Identity Politics’: An Examination and a Critique”
Michael Dyson, “Contesting Racial Amnesia: From Identity Politics Toward Post-Multiculturalism”
Oct 14
Michel Foucault
ELP 580—page 5
OPTIONAL DRAFT OF MIDTERM PAPER DUE
Paul Rabinow, The Foucault Reader, Introduction (pp. 3-29)
Michel Foucault, “Sexual Discourse and Power,” in Jeffrey C. Alexander and Steven Seidman, ed,
Culture and Society: Contemporary Debates (pp. 199-204) [excerpt from Foucault’s The History of
Sexuality, Vol. 1]
Michel Foucault, “Power as Knowledge,” in Charles Lemert, ed, Social Theory: The Multicultural
and Classic Readings (pp. 517-23) [another excerpt from The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1]
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, “Panopticism” (pp. 195-228)
supplementary:
David Harvey, Justice, Nature & the Geography of Difference, chapter 4, “The Dialectics of Discourse”
David M. Jones and Stephen J. Ball, “Michel Foucault and the Discourse of Education,” in Peter L. McLaren and James
M. Giarelli, ed, Critical Theory and Educational Research
Umberto Eco, “Language, Power, Force,” in Travels in Hyperreality, pp. 239-55
Jana Sawicki, Disciplining Foucault, esp. the last chapter (pp. 95-109)
Sandra Bartky, “Foucault, Femininity, and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power,” in Irene Diamond and Lee Quinby,
ed, Feminism & Foucault: Reflections on Resistance
Patricia O’Toole, “I Sing in a Choir But I Have ‘No Voice!’,” The Quarterly Journal of Music Teaching and Learning
4:4-5:1
Oct 21
Representing the margins and the center
(difference among groups)
Edward Said, Orientalism, “Introduction” and “Knowing the Oriental” (pp. 1-49)
Patricia J. Williams, Seeing a Color-Blind Future, “The Emperor’s New Clothes” (pp. 1-14)
Molefi Kete Asante, “The Afrocentric Idea,” in Charles Lemert, ed, Social Theory: The Multicultural
and Classic Readings (pp. 554-57) [excerpt from Asante’s The Afrocentric Idea]
Helen Tiffin, “Post-colonial Literatures and Counter-discourse,” in Bill Ashcroft, et al, ed, The PostColonial Studies Reader (pp. 95-98) [originally published in Kunapipi 9:3 (1987)]
Cornel West, “The New Cultural Politics of Difference,” in Steven Seidman, ed, The Postmodern
Turn: New Perspectives on Social Theory (pp. 65-81) [originally published in October 53 (Summer
1990), pp. 93-109]
Michael W. Apple, “Foreword,” in Joe Kincheloe, et al, White Reign (pp. ix-xiii)
Martha R. Mahoney, “The Social Construction of Whiteness,” in Richard Delgado and Jean
Stefancic, ed, Critical White Studies (pp. 330-33)
View video in class: Edward Said, “On Orientalism”
supplementary:
Edward Said, “Orientalism Reconsidered,” Race & Class 27:2 (1985)
Sandra Harding, chapter 7 of The Science Question in Feminism
Dorothy Smith, “Women’s Perspective as a Radical Critique of Sociology,” Sociological Inquiry 44 (1974) [excerpt in
Lemert]
Oct 28
Occupying, and producing identity in, the margins...
MIDTERM PAPER DUE
Daily News, “Man Slain by Drug Cop,” March 17, 2000 (article on the killing of Patrick Dorismond)
[ONLINE]
Working Families Party, “Statement on Patrick Dorismond Shooting,” March 26, 2000 [ONLINE]
Peggy McIntosh, “White Privilege and Male Privilege,” in Margaret Andersen and Patricia Hill
Collins, ed, Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology (pp. 70-81) [ONLINE]
ELP 580—page 6
bell hooks, “Choosing the Margin,” in Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics (pp. 145-53)
Ann Ferguson, “Patriarchy, Sexual Identity, and the Sexual Revolution,” Signs 7:1, 1981 (pp. 158-72)
Stuart Hall, “Cultural Identity and Cinematic Representation,” Framework 36, special issue on
“Theory and the Politics of Location,” 1989 (pp. 68-81)
View video in class: Stuart Hall, “Race, the Floating Signifier”
optional extra viewing: Stuart Hall, “Representation & the Media,” and bell hooks, “Cultural
Criticism & Transformation”
supplementary:
Adrienne Rich, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence,” Signs 5:4, 1980 (pp. 631-60)
E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class
Nov 4
...and on the borders (the “split subject”)
Gloria Anzaldúa, Borderlands/La Frontera, “La conciencia de la mestiza/Towards a New
Consciousness” (pp. 77-91)
Trinh Minh-ha, “No Master Territories,” in Bill Ashcroft, et al, ed, The Post-Colonial Studies Reader
(pp. 215-18) [excerpt from Minh-ha’s When the Moon Waxes Red: Representation, Gender and Cultural
Politics]
Donna Haraway, Simians, Cyborgs and Women, first section of “A Manifesto for Cyborgs: Science,
Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century” (pp. 149-55) [originally
published in Socialist Review 80 (March-April 1985)]
(and review the Wilchins reading from Oct 7)
supplementary:
Paul Gilroy, “The Black Atlantic as a Counterculture of Modernity,” in The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double
Consciousness
Nov 11
Difference within groups
The Combahee River Collective, “A Black Feminist Statement,” in Zillah Eisenstein, ed, Capitalist
Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism, pp. 362-72
Audre Lorde, “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” in Charles Lemert, ed,
Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings, pp. 484-87 [excerpt from Lorde’s Sister
Outsider]
Patricia Hill Collins, “What’s in a Name? Womanism, Black Feminism, and Beyond,” The Black
Scholar 26:1, Winter/Spring 1996 [ONLINE]
Hazel Carby, Cultures in Babylon: Black Britain and African America, “Race and the Academy:
Feminism and the Politics of Difference” (pp. 93-99)
Nov 18(continued)
Bernice Johnson Reagon, “Coalition Politics: Turning the Century,” in Margaret Andersen and
Patricia Hill Collins, ed, Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology (pp. 503-09) [originally
published in Barbara Smith, ed, Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology]
June Jordan, On Call: Political Essays, “Report from the Bahamas” (pp. 39-49)
Lisa Tessman, “Beyond Communitarian Unity in the Politics of Identity,” Socialist Review 24:1-2,
1995 (pp. 55-83)
[Nov 25—Thanksgiving, no class]
ELP 580—page 7
III. EFFORTS TO RESOLVE THE DILEMMAS
Dec 2
A sample application of these ideas & David Harvey: back to the future?
OPTIONAL DRAFT OF FINAL PAPER DUE
Christian Parenti, The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America from Slavery to the War on Terror, “Life in
the Glass Box,” “Of Ones and Zeros,” and “The New Taylorism” (pp. 1-12, 77-89, 131-50)
David Harvey, Justice, Nature & the Geography of Difference, “Part IV Prologue” and parts of “Class
Relations, Social Justice, and the Political Geography of Difference” (pp. 329-33, 346-65)
David Harvey, Spaces of Hope, “The Insurgent Architect at Work” (pp. 233-55)
supplementary:
David Harvey, Justice, Nature & the Geography of Difference, “Historical Agency and the Loci of Social Change” (pp.
96-113)
Jennifer Gore, The Struggle for Pedagogies: Critical and Feminist Discourses as Regimes of Truth, “Regimes of Truth”
(pp. 50-66)
Dec 9
Other efforts to solve old problems...and their re-creation
Pierre Bourdieu, “Structures, Habitus, Practices,” in Charles Lemert, ed, Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings (pp. 479-84) [excerpt from Bourdieu’s The Logic of Practice]
Diana Fuss, Essentially Speaking: Feminism, Nature & Difference, “Essentialism in the Classroom”
(pp. 113-19)
bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, “Essentialism and
Experience” (pp. 77-92)
Patricia J. Williams, The Alchemy of Race and Rights, “The Death of the Profane” (pp. 44-51)
supplementary:
Anthony Giddens, Central Problems in Social Theory, chapter 2 (“Agency, Structure”)
Dec 16
FINAL PAPER DUE [no class—Dec 9 is last class]