Abstract
Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron’s The Inheritors critically examines the French education system in the 1960s. The Inheritors is a compilation of sociological studies on university students in the Arts which the authors use a premises for their education reform citing issues in the traditional system that allow bourgeois students to have an unfair advantage due to their cultured upbringing. The main systemic problem within French education is identified by Bourdieu and Passeron as the charismatic ideology that awards cultural, theoretical knowledge over merit and effort. To resolve the bias within the traditional French education system, a revolutionary new education system is proposed which will eliminate social advantages from education by using sociological methodology and achievements will aim at rewarding pure academic knowledge and effort. Bourdieu and Passeron’s research identifies a link between academic success and privilege, while opposing the under-privileged, thus leading the authors to postulate ways to resolve this inequality; but in doing so, the authors abandon scientific research and opt instead for romanticized concepts of democracy and equality which ultimately moves the argument from educational reform into quasi-civil reform.
Recommended Citation
McCabe, Daniel
(2015)
"A Critique of Bourdieu and Passeron’s Educational Reform in The Inheritors,"
Akadimia Filosofia: Vol. 1:
Iss.
1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://research.library.fordham.edu/apps/vol1/iss1/6