UNDERSTANDING INEQUALITY IN SCHOOLS - THE CONTRIBUTION OF INTERPRETIVE STUDIES

Ethnographic studies in the interpretive tradition have made three interrelated contributions to theories that attempt to account for social inequality: (1) cultural elements have been introduced into highly deterministic macrotheories, (2) human agency has been interjected into theories accounting for social inequality, and (3) the black box of schooling has been opened to reveal the reflexive relations between institutional practices and students' careers. These developments provide a more robust sense of social life. Culture is not merely a pale reflection of structural forces; it is a system of meaning that mediates social structure and human action. Social actors no longer function as passive role players, shaped exclusively by structural forces beyond their control; they become active sense makers, choosing among alternatives in often contradictory circumstances. Schools are not black boxes through which students pass on their way to predetermined slots in the capitalist order; they have a vibrant life, composed of processes and practices that respond to competing demands that often unwittingly contribute to inequality.