Topic
Structure and agency
About: Structure and agency is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1265 publications have been published within this topic receiving 63660 citations.
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TL;DR: This paper showed that policies are rarely implemented as written nor necessarily as intended, and that policies rarely dictate exactly what happens in districts and schools, they do shape the daily work of the actors in these organizations.
Abstract: Policy implementation is a daily event in schools and districts. Educators engage with policies in many forms and must consider how to implement their multiple ideas in a coordinated manner. Take a classroom teacher who manages the following policies for one child identified with a disability: the federal policy on disability (IDEA), state policies around curriculum standards, her district’s policy on access to assistive technology, her school’s policy on inclusion, and her individual classroom policy on homework. Ample implementation research demonstrates that policies are rarely implemented as written nor necessarily as intended (e.g., Cohen and Hill 2001; Correnti and Rowan 2007; Kennedy 2005; Rowan and Miller 2007; Rowan et al. 2004; Stein et al. 1996). Yet while the policies rarely dictate exactly what happens in districts and schools, they do shape the daily work of the actors in these organizations (Coburn 2004; Drori and Honig 2013; Sherer and Spillane 2011). Across the United States, and internationally, reforms are both delivered to schools and districts at an
50 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors briefly clarifying paradigms of essentialism and non-essentialism, and showing evolving dimensions of dominant models of culture, namely, Hofsted...
Abstract: This article, opens, briefly clarifying paradigms of essentialism and non-essentialism (also known as anti-essentialism) and shows evolving dimensions of dominant models of culture, namely, Hofsted...
50 citations
TL;DR: It is contended that poststructuralist approaches to social theory are useful for sociolinguists, especially variationists, in that they resist the false dichotomy between agency and structure and provide a comprehensive way of thinking about identity that ignores neither practice nor subjectivity.
Abstract: Poststructuralist theory has been broadly influential throughout the humanities and social sciences for two decades, yet sociolinguistic engagement with poststructuralism has been limited to select subfields. In this paper, I consider the possibilities for richer cross-disciplinary work involving sociolinguistics and poststructuralist social theory. I begin by describing the place of social theory within sociolinguistics, paying attention both to the possibilities of interdisciplinarity and the resistance to it. I then introduce the basic tenets of poststructuralism, focusing primarily on its two main constructs, ‘performativity’ and ‘discourse,’ and briefly discuss the discontentment with structuralism that resulted in ‘the linguistic turn’. I outline the sites in the literature where sociolinguists have already made use of poststructuralist approaches, and conclude by suggesting new possibilities for cross-disciplinary collaboration. Though the paper focuses primarily on variationist sociolinguistics in the U.S. academy, I also make reference to other fields that work with non-static, anti-essentialist approaches to sociality, such as critical discourse analysis. I contend that poststructuralist approaches to social theory are useful for sociolinguists, especially variationists, in that they resist the false dichotomy between agency and structure and provide a comprehensive way of thinking about identity that ignores neither practice nor subjectivity.
50 citations
TL;DR: The authors used concepts of identity, agency, and structure in the education of adults and found an identity crisis in the early stages of the education process in the United States, and used these concepts in the identification of adults.
Abstract: (2007). An identity crisis? Using concepts of ‘identity’, ‘agency’ and ‘structure’ in the education of adults. Studies in the Education of Adults: Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 121-131.
50 citations
Book•
10 Apr 1991
TL;DR: In this paper, a cross-section of the body of social theory and empirical research being produced by scholars employing class analysis is surveyed. And the contributors address continuing debates over the relationship between structure and agency, the centrality of class realism and the dynamics of class formation, class culture and class consciousness.
Abstract: In recent years, the study of class has shaped and been shaped by the flurry of "post-structuralist", "post-Marxist" and "state-centred" approaches that have emerged in historical and sociological scholarship. Yet class analysis has sustained itself as a powerful, refined working tool in helping scholars to understand the complexities of social and historical processes. This volume of original essays provides a cross-section of the body of social theory and empirical research being produced by scholars employing class analysis. The contributors address continuing debates over the relationship between structure and agency, the centrality of class realism and the dynamics of class formation, class culture and class consciousness.
49 citations