Open Collections

Martin, Joanne Susan

University of British Columbia

In this thesis, I analyze and clarify the ideas of power and subjectification as they operate in schooling, and as discussed by Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu respectively. Often considered incompatible, I will show that the respective ideas of these two theorists share complementary aspects and overlap significantly. Further, I suggest that when considered together, the complementary ideas of power and subjectification offer educators, and others interested in schooling and its effects, greater access to an understanding of how the concepts of power, schooling and subjectification operate. I rely Foucault’s Discipline and Punish (1975/1977) and Bourdieu and Passeron’s Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture (1977/1990), as well as several secondary texts, noting areas of convergence and divergence between the authors’ works. My argument is developed through philosophical inquiry, which attempted to map this conceptual terrain, and in addition, through a relational analysis that sought to place these different ideas of power, subjectification, and schooling in relation to one another. My research examines power structures that operate through the institution and practices of schooling. My purpose for conducting this research is to show that the foundational elements of both authors’ ideas in these areas share significant convergences, which, when used together as a conceptual framework can better understand the obscure, hidden, or less overt effects of schooling. In turn, I illustrate that by thinking with both Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu, educators can shed light on how these effects relate to the formation of subjects and how subjects interact with power. More importantly, understanding of schooling, subjectification and power in these complementary ways, I suggest that educators can more deeply recognize aspects of their practice, and may enable them to approach a more critical view of the shaping and carrying out of their work.

Text

2022-07-26

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/82197

Educational Administration

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/