Knowledge and Subject : the sociology of school knowledge and poststructuralism

In a 1989 article in the Harvard Educational Review, E. Ellsworth criticized the "critical pedagogy" by problematizing her own teaching practice. She pointed out that although the intent is to empower students, educators cannot set rational solutions for students' problems, because of their differences in social positions. Instead, she proposes a "pedagogy of the unknowable." A new perspective for understanding the relationships between humans and their ways of producing knowledge. In this paper, we trace how this perspective becomes posslible by examining the theoretical developmental the sociology of school knowledge, and its recent adaptation of poststructuralist approach. We begin by examining major reproduction theories and resistance theories in terms of their treatment of the subject and knowledge. Through a review of studies written from the beginning of the 1970s until the mid-1980s, we find that human beings, in most cases, have been treated as mere receivers of knowledge, and that education is considered to be merely the transmission of knowledge. Human agency, in our view, has not been given enough attention. Recently, however, many scholars have begun to recognize the importance of employing poststructuralist approaches. We introduce several examples of educational research based on poststructuralist theories, examining how they treat subject and knowledge. It becomes clear that these poststructuralists share common interests of deconstructing and reconstructing "concepts" which have been seen as given, and that they employ semiotics to analyze text and/or discourse. We believe that these interests and semiotic analysis bring a new perspective from which human beings are recognized as creators of knowledge. Returning finally to Ellsworth's critique, we conclude the paper by exploring the implications of poststructuralist theories upon curriculum theories. It is necessary for educators to develop new curriculum theories in which students are empowered as creators of knowledge.