Texto de andré petitat (em inglês) "school and the production of society

School and the Production of Society

ANDRÉ PETITAT, Department of Sociology, University of Québec-Montreal
ABSTRACT Most sociological theories present school as a source and a channel of social reproduction: of a dominant group, of essential values, of bureaucracy, etc. This paper, primarily based on a study of the origins of colleges and the bourgeoisie in the sixteenth century comes to an opposite conclusion: it shows school as an agent or an active medium in the emergence of structures and social groups. Other historical situations reveal the multiple contributions school makes to the production of society. While interrelating history, pedagogy and sociology, this constructivist point of view renders an active role to the teachers.

A review of the literature in sociology of education leads to one inescapable conclusion: reproduce is the master word, the cornerstone of theories that are otherwise thoroughly contradictory. From Parsons to P. Bourdieu, from B.
Bernstein to S. Bowles, H. Gintis or M. Apple, education is above all reproductive. One viewpoint frequently encountered in education, and freely borrowed by dominant groups (regardless of their ideology) can be summed up in the key themes of consensus and integration around essential values, and the harmonization of aptitudes and complementary social functions. It limits the history of schools to the adaptation of their reproductive functions. Defended by Durkheim (1956, 1964, 1973, 1977) and later by Parsons (1959, 1971, 1974), and still present despite frequent criticism, this point of view has, it is true, become less popular in the last 15 years, for transient historical reasons that cannot be discussed at any length here.
The diametrically opposed viewpoint is based on a conflictual view of social relations. Instead of cementing and uniting society around central values, school imposes perceptions, ideologies that allow dominant groups to preserve their dominant position. According to some,