Digital Technologies of Information and Communication and the Social Hierarchy of Objects in the field of Education: empirical tests¹

ABSTRACT

This article reports an empirical investigation on scientific production in Education using bibliometric and scientometric data, which were analyzed based on concepts created by Pierre Bourdieu for the sociology of science, relying on a historical and philosophical framework. Using metadata from more than 6000 theses presented between 1996 and 2016 in graduate education programs in Brazil with scores of five and above, the Social Hierarchy of Objects in the field of Education was mapped. We also tried to test empirically the statement about research in Education that there was a loss of the object of research in this field in postmodernity and the importance in terms of scientific capital of Digital Information and Communication Technologies (DICT). The data indicated that the hierarchy of objects is very fragmented, but with a core that concentrates a lot of scientific capital and this concentration grew with the field, which can be explained by the high degree of heteronomy in the field and post-modern phenomena. However, it was possible to map that there are objects that bring more return of scientific capital to the agents of the field: the teacher and their education. Therefore, there was no loss of the object. It was also possible to observe that words related to digital technologies grew and became part of the core in the hierarchy of objects, in the field, at the beginning of the 21^st century. Digital technologies are part of the core of the Social Hierarchy of Objects in the field of Education, mainly related to Distance Education.

Keywords:
Education; Sociology of science; DTIC; History of Brazilian education