The relationship between knowledge structure and curriculum: a case study in sociology

Abstract

This article aims to address a theoretical question, ‘what is the relationship between knowledge structure and curriculum structure?’, by answering an empirical, context‐specific question, ‘what drives and legitimates the curriculum in one sociology department?’, with an emphasis on surfacing the ‘recontextualising rules’ at work in this particular institutional context. These questions were explored by conducting a case study in the wake of a departmental review. The conceptual framework for the article is based on Bernstein's sociology of education and on those who have developed his work further. The findings support Bernstein's characterisation of sociology as a discipline with weak external boundaries, a horizontal segmental structure and a ‘weak grammar’, and, it is suggested, with knowledge claims that tend to be legitimated by social rather than epistemic relations. In this particular case study, the horizontal, segmental structure of the discipline was seen to be reflected in a curriculum that currently lacks coherence and cohesion.

Acknowledgment

I am indebted to Haley McEwen who worked as research assistant on this project and competently assisted me with the collection and processing of interview and questionnaire data.