Extended review: Decoding Bernstein

The Structuring of Pedagogic Discourse: Class, Codes and Control (volume four) Basil Bernstein     

Basil Bernstein 1924-2000

This paper introduces the Tog coefficient, which can be used to measure the level of inequality in a cross-tabulation of two ordinal-level variables. The Gini coefficient is a standard measure of income inequality which has been adapted by other authors for use in different contexts such as the measurement of health inequalities and the quantification of occupational segregation; the Tog coefficient represents a further stage in this process of development. The paper outlines the construction of the Tog coefficient and illustrates this using a social mobility table based on data from the 1972 Oxford Mobility Study. The trend in social mobility-related inequality as measured by the Tog coefficient is compared with the findings of Goldthorpe et al. based on odds ratios. A more elaborate application of the Tog coefficient uses a variety of data relating to the similarity of spouses' class backgrounds to demonstrate the existence of a long-term decline in the level of inequality in British society.     

Basil Bernstein: Theory,models and the question of method

The purpose of this article is to address the interpretive synthesis of qualitative research. The article discusses the potential to develop a ‘meta-interpretation’ approach which attempts to maintain an interpretive epistemology congruent with the majority of primary qualitative research. The article identifies and discusses a range of issues in the synthesis of interpretive qualitative research (objectivity, evaluation of studies, sampling, context, interpretation and integrity) that emerge from a review of nine research methods involving synthesis and a broader review of the research synthesis literature. Seven fundamental features of meta-interpretation are outlined and the meta-interpretation procedure is presented. In conclu-sion, the aims of synthesis procedures in general and meta-interpretation in particular are discussed.     

The early history of the scaffolding metaphor: Bernstein,Luria, Vygotsky,and before

Given the growing interest in the scaffolding process, it is worthwhile to address competing accounts about the origin of this term. The concept was empirically introduced by Wood, Bruner, and Ross in 1976 and has often been associated with the “zone of proximal development” in the writing of L.S. Vygotsky. We trace the origins of it in instances of the term being used by Nikolai Bernstein and Alexander Luria, as well as in Vygotsky’s notebooks. Our historical search helps to highlight the theoretical connection between this metaphor and the teaching/learning versus development opposition, and its relation to motor control development.     

A critique of Bernstein��s beyond objectivism and relativism: science, hermeneutics, and praxis

This analysis comments on Bernstein’s lack of clear understanding of subjectivity, based on his book, Beyond Objectivism and Relativism: Science, Hermeneutics, and Praxis. Bernstein limits his interpretation of subjectivity to thinkers such as Gadamer and Habermas. The authors analyze the ideas of classic scholars such as Edmund Husserl and Friedrich Nietzsche. Husserl put forward his notion of transcendental subjectivity and phenomenological ramifications of the relationship between subjectivity and objectivity. Nietzsche referred to subjectivity as “perspectivism,” the inescapable fact that any and all consciousnesses exist in space and time. Consciousness is fundamentally constituted of cultural, linguistic, and historical dimensions.