Abstract
After half a century, Pierre Bourdieu, and Jean-Claude Passeron’s The Reproduction: Elements for a Theory of the Educational System, published in France in 1970 and in Brazil in 1975, continues to be an essential reference for research in the sociology of education because of the issues it discusses and the theoretical and methodological categories it mobilizes for a critical reflection on educational policies. Produced in another historical moment and in another political and educational context, this work has become a fundamental reference for studies about educational systems, by putting into question the promise of democratization of education and school meritocracy. The aim of this article is to situate the place that Reproduction occupies in the circulation of educational ideas, especially between France and Brazil. It is assumed that the conceptions of domination and reproduction sustain the work. Thus, to understand this complex and controversial theory, which renewed the sociological modus operandi, it is necessary to establish a close relationship between the two conceptions, whether in relation to the election of interpretative lenses, or in relation to the mobilization of methodological resources and empirical sources. In the light of this perspective, some dimensions that lead to consider it as a classic work will be appreciated. First, the general reflections of the work will be presented; then, the political and educational indicators that marked its conception and introduction in Brazil will be highlighted; and, finally, the aspects of its reception in Brazilian lands will be discussed, with emphasis on its contribution to educational research.
Reproduction; Bourdieu and Passeron; Symbolic violence; Research in education