The role of ideology and habitus in educational media production

Abstract

The notion that embedded meanings exist within media, and are informed by particular ideologies, is far from new. Analyses of curriculum, however, rarely examine empirically the role of these ideologies or the context of production. Instead, the ideologies are attributed to a “producer” representing particular power relationships or societal hegemony. In this case study, data collected as part of a study of an educational media organization are used to examine the role of ideologies in the production of complex multimedia curriculum, and their influences on the decision-making of the production staff and organization. Using activity theory and the concept of habitus in practice, the analysis identifies the complex internal and external role of ideological influences and contradictions that occur during the production of a virtual historical field trip program. The findings provide a nuanced and complicated view of the producer and the role of ideology in the production of educational media. It also provides evidence related to how external influences, such as academic standards, economic needs of the producer, and the desire to appear cutting edge in the use of technology, are mediated as part of the production process. Methodologically, this study makes contributions through the use of activity theory as a lens for examining the role of ideology within the organization, the role of actors and external tools on the organizational community, and the prominent role of the organizations habitus as a mediating tool and how it impacts the educational media they produce and the messages these media construct.

Keywords:

• curriculum studies
• critical theory
• subjects and disciplines
• curriculum development
• socio-political conditions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful feedback and insights, and would also like to thanks the participants in the session on this study at the 2012 Oxford Ethnography in Education Conference for their feedback on an early version of this article.

Notes

1. All names and titles are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jeremy Stoddard

Jeremy Stoddard is an associate professor in the School of Education at the College of William & Mary, where he directs the secondary social studies education program and is an associated faculty in the Film & Media Studies Program. His work focuses on the role of media, such as film, games, and digital simulations, in democratic education.