Session Information
Contribution
The aim of this proposal is to discuss the concept ”sense of limits” (originating from Bourdieu 1985, 724) as a key finding, both on an ontological, epistemological and methodological level, and in the contents of my ethnographic PhD-research. I understand the sense of limits as a (weak) understanding, knowing, or feeling of the cultural constrains, that is, the border lines of some particular ”habitus” (Bourdieu 1984, 1998) in a habitualized subject.
I’ve come to these concepts through investigating the (re)production of gender-division in craft education in Finland. In the current national curriculum crafts is identified as a subject, that is divided into two subject areas, textile and technical work. In concrete educational settings, however, these two subject areas are taught separately by a different teacher in two different classrooms. Moreover, in many schools after some general studies in both areas of crafts the pupils are allowed to choose between them. These choices are gender-based: girls are studying textile work with a female craft teacher and boys technical work with a male craft teacher.
I’ve been asking, what are the cultural practices which reproduce this division, and how is the hegemonic gender-divided discourse of crafts re-constructed. In this proposal I will investigate these questions by focusing on the pupils’ arguments for a (most often gender-divided) choice of the craft area. How does the cultural knowledge, that is, the sense of limits, become represented as an ”own” decision of a pupil?
In addition to Bourdieu’s theories on social space and habitus the theoretical frameworks of my research are based on feminist studies (Braidotti 1994; Butler 1990, 1993) and social constructivism (Berger & Luckmann 2000).
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Berger, Peter L. & Luckmann, Thomas 2000. Todellisuuden sosiaalinen rakentuminen. Original: The social construction of reality (1966). Helsinki: Gaudeamus. Braidotti, Rosi 1994. Nomadic Subjects. Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia University Press. Bourdieu, Pierre 1984. Distinction. Original: La distinction : critique sociale du jugement. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Bourdieu, Pierre 1985. The Social Space and tha Genesis of Groups. Theory & Society. Volume 14, N. 6, 723-744. Bourdieu, Pierre 1991. The Peculiar History of Scientific Reason. Sociological Forum; Mar1991, Vol. 6 Issue 1, 3-27. Bourdieu, Pierre 1998. Järjen käytännöllisyys: Toiminnan teorian lähtökohtia. Original: Raisons pratiques : sur la théorie de l’action. Tampere: Vastapaino. Brady, I. 2004. In Defense of the Sensual: Meaning Construction in Ethnography and Poetics. Qualitative Inquiry 2004; 10 (4); 622-644. Butler, Judith 1990. Gender Trouble. Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. Butler, Judith 1993. Bodies that Matter. On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”. New York: Routledge. Foley, Douglas E. 2002. Critical ethnography: the reflexive turn. Qualitative Studies in Education, 2002, Vol. 15 Issue 5, 469-490. Guttorm, Hanna 2006. Fe/male Crafts. Gender-based Craft Education in Finland. In Sembruch, J., Willems, K. & Shock, L. (Ed.) Multiple Marginalities: An intercultural Dialogue on Gender in Education. Königstein: Helmer Verlag, 151-161. Juhila, Kirsi 1999. Kulttuurin jatkuvasti rakentuvat kehät. In Jokinen, Juhila & Suoninen (Ed.) Diskurssianalyysi liikkeessä [Discourse Analysis in a Movement.] Tampere: Vastapaino. Pillow, Wanda 2003. Confession, catharsis, or cure? Rethinking the uses of reflexivity as methodological power in qualitative research. Qualitative Studies in Education, 2003, Vol. 16, No. 2, 175-196. Pierre, Elisabeth A. 2000. Poststructural feminism in education: An overview. Qualitative Studies in Education, 2000, Vol 13, No. 5, 477-515. Richardson, Laurel & St. Pierre, Elisabeth A. 2005. Writing. A Method of Inquiry. In Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. Third Edition. Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
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