Practice

Legitimation Code Theory: Practice

LCT is a practical theory of practice. LCT is being used in a rapidly growing range of different substantive research projects, either as the principal theoretical framework or in conjunction with other theoretical approaches.  The framework is highly flexible and capable of being used at all levels, from macro to micro, and in a variety of ways. The following provides a brief summary of some of these projects, which span formal and informal learning, school and higher education, sciences and humanities, the production of new knowledge and teaching & learning, as well as involving qualitative and qualitative methodologies and numerous forms of data. 

HIGHER EDUCATION

A range of studies are using LCT to address a diverse array of issues in higher education.  This is a sample of research, with links to papers and authors.

Maton papers

Maton, K. (2004) The wrong kind of knower: Education, expansion and the epistemic device, in Muller, J., Davies, B., & Morais, A. (Eds.) Reading Bernstein, Researching Bernstein. London, Routledge, 218-231.

Maton, K. (2005) The Field of Higher Education: A sociology of reproduction, transformation, change and the conditions of emergence for cultural studies.  Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge. (see 'Theory' page for download).
 

Internationalisation of Higher Education

Rainbow Tsai-Hung Chen, University of Wollongong, Australia
PhD: Acculturation to Online Learning: A case study of Chinese student sojourners at an Australian university

This research explores how student sojourners acculturate to constructivist pedagogies in online learning. Specifically, the study examines the convergence of constructivist-inspired pedagogies, flexible delivery mode, and learners coming from educational backgrounds underpinned by an instructivist paradigm. The study explores how these students interpret the learning context, how they cope, and the impact of their experiences.  So far, two papers have been published reporting the analysed data at different phases of the research. The first one is a refereed conference paper (Chen, Bennett & Maton, 2007), outlining the research design and presenting analysis of the pilot focus group data.  The second is a journal article (Chen, Bennett & Maton, 2008), using Berry’s acculturation model to discuss themes emerging from the analysed data of two student case studies.  The PhD research itself is drawing primarily on Bernstein’s concepts and LCT.

Chen, R., Bennett, S., & Maton, K. (2007) The online acculturation of Chinese student ‘sojourners’. In C. Montgomerie & J. Seale (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2007 (pp. 2744-2752). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.

Chen, R., Bennett, S., & Maton, K. (2008) The adaptation of Chinese international students to online flexible learning: Two case studies, Distance Education 29(3) 307-323.

Chen, R., Maton, K. & Bennett, S. (2008) Knowledge and knowers in online learning: What constructivism does to students, Disciplinarity, Knowledge & Language: An international symposium, University of Sydney, Dec.
 

Cathie Doherty (QUT, Australia) was one of the first thinkers to bring together new ideas from LCT and systemic functional linguistics.

Doherty, C. (2007) The Production of Cultural Difference and Cultural Sameness in Online Internationalised Education, PhD, Queensland University of Technology.

Doherty, C. (2008) Doing business: Performing identities and knowledges in the internationalised business curriculum, Disciplinarity, Knowledge & Language: An international symposium, University of Sydney, Dec.

Doherty, C. (2008) ‘Student subsidy of the internationalized curriculum: Knowing, voicing and producing the Other’. Pedagogy, Culture and Society 16(3), 269-288.

This paper explores cultural production in online internationalised education. The analysis samples interactions in a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) unit offered online by an Australian university to a student group including enrolments through a Malaysian institution. Part of the curricular content was a consideration of how different cultural contexts shape management practices. The analysis highlights moments where ethnic/national cultures or cultural differences were invoked in texts to enrich this curriculum by design. In this case study, such ‘student subsidy’ was actively encouraged as a vicarious asset made possible with the internationalised student group.  To this end, small mixed groups for assessable online discussion were allocated to precipitate such cultural interchange. The analysis displays who voiced what claims about whose culture, the grounds for legitimating such claims, and the kinds of cultural categories thus produced. The discussion then reflects on the degrees of insulation typically produced between cultural categories and how this failed to reflect or engage with the students’ interconnected worlds within the enterprise of online internationalised education.

Disciplinary Forms of Writing

Sue Hood (UTS, Australia) has been a key impulse in work that brings together LCT with systemic functional linguistics. Sue draws on both to explore different forms of academic writing across disciplines. 

Hood, S. (2004) Ways of writing, ways of knowing: exploring the epistemological implications of writer voice in academic research papers. Reclaiming Knowledge: registers of discourse in the community and school, Conference, University of Sydney, Dec.

Maton, K. & Hood, S. (2005) The languages of disciplinarity: knowledge, knowers and
recontextualisation. Discourses of Hope: International Systemic Functional Congress, July 2005: Sydney University

This paper, which integrates analyses from LCT and SFL, is still to be fully published.  The SFL dimension was published as:

Hood, S. (2007) Arguing in and across disciplinary boundaries: Legitimising stategies in applied linguistics and cultural studies, in McCabe, A., O’Donnell, M., & Whittaker, R. (Eds) Advances in Language and Education. London: Continuum.

Hood, S. (2008) Tracking inscriptions of knowledge and knowers in academic writing, Disciplinarity, Knowledge & Language: An international symposium, University of Sydney, Dec.

Hood, S. (2010) Evaluation in Academic Writing. London, Palgrave (especially chapter 6).
 

Autonomy and Higher Education

Catherine Burnheim
PhD candidate, Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne

Burnheim, C. (2007) External engagement and institutional autonomy in higher education, Australian Association for Research in Education Annual Conference, Fremantle, Nov.

- MORE HERE SHORTLY-
 

South Africa and Beyond

A dynamic and emerging group of scholars and students in South Africa are using LCT, sometimes in conjunction with SFL or critical realism, to address issues of critical concern to higher education in South Africa and beyond. 

Suellen Shay, University of Cape Town, is drawing on Bernstein and LCT to reconceptualise issues in curriculum change and assessment.

Shay, S. (2008) Beyond social constructivist perspectives on assessment: The centring of knowledge. Teaching in Higher Education, 13(5): 595-605.

Shay, S. (2008) Evaluative rules for the assessment of complex performances in Humanities: Work-in-progress on selected disciplinary cases,Fifth International Basil Bernstein Symposium, Cardiff University, July. 

Kathy Luckett, University of Cape Town, is exploring how to apply LCT to curriculum development work in higher education. Kathy recently conducted a case study in sociology using LCT and will in future work focus on interdisciplinary programmes using LCT to analyse whether and how disciplinary integration is achieved.

Luckett, K. & McEwan, H. (2008) Relationship between knowledge structure and curriculum structure: A case study in Sociology, Higher Education Close-Up 4, University of Cape Town, June.

Luckett, K. (2008) Operationalising Bernstein’s concept of grammaticality in the discipline of Sociology using systemic functional linguistics, Disciplinarity, Knowledge & Language: An international symposium, University of Sydney, Dec.

Luckett, K. (2009) The relationship between knowledge structure and curriculum: a case study in sociology, Studies in Higher Education, 34(4): 441-453.

Elizabeth Sayigh-Kane, University of Cape Town
PhD: Academics’ intellectual biographies: Making a case for the humanities and social sciences

Jo-Anne Vorster, University of Cape Town
Vorster, J-A. (2008) An analysis of curriculum development processes in a Journalism and Media Studies Department at a South African University, Fifth International Basil Bernstein Symposium, Cardiff University, July
 

DESIGN EDUCATION & INFORMAL LEARNING

Andy Dong (Senior Lecturer) and Lucila Carvalho (PhD student) at the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney, are exploring design education and how design can be enacted in informal learning contexts. 

Lucila Carvalho’s PhD:

Design deals with how knowledge and ideas are transformed into a product.  As a field, design encompasses many disciplines (e.g. engineering, architecture, fashion design and others) with a range of newly emergent “multi-disciplinary” areas (e.g. human-computer interaction, experience design, sustainable design and others).  This research examines how knowledge and identity are specialized within four design disciplines: engineering, architecture, digital media and fashion design.  The research also aims to define and implement ways of supporting new designers’ inquiry into legitimate design practices, through an e-learning environment. The research design involves a qualitative study and survey to explore designers’ perceptions of how knowledge and knowers are specialised within each design discipline, and which strategies designers are using in order to recognise and realise legitimate design practices.  A model of designers’ perceptions of knowledge and knowers and strategies used within the four design disciplines is proposed. The model is then used to create an e-learning environment to experience design in the Powerhouse Museum (Sydney, Australia).

Carvalho, L., & Dong, A. (2007) Knowledge and identity in the design field. In Zehner, R. & Reidsema, C. (Eds.) Proceedings of ConnectED International Conference on Design Education.Sydney, UNSW. ISBN - 978-00646-48147-0

Dong, A. (2007) The enactment of design through language, Design Studies 28(1): 5-21.

Carvalho, L. & Dong, A. (2008) Sociology of education and the design field: Operationalizing the theory, Fifth International Basil Bernstein Symposium, Cardiff University, July. 

Carvalho, L. & Dong, A. (2008) Recognising and realising legitimate disciplines of design, Disciplinarity, Knowledge & Language: An international symposium, University of Sydney, Dec

Carvalho, L., Dong, A. & Maton, K. (in press, 2009) Legitimating design: A sociology of knowledge account of the field, Design Studies 30(5): 483-502. 

Dong, A. (2008) The Language of Design. Springer.
 

SCHOOL SUBJECTS

Music

A series of studies are focusing on why school Music is an unpopular choice as a qualification, specifically focusing on the British GCSE qualification. The studies bring together documentary analysis, quantitative survey data and focus group interviews, and uses LCT(Specialisation) as a means of providing an integrating approach for the sociology of music education. These studies are an interdisciplinary collaboration between Alexandra Lamont (Keele University, UK) and Karl Maton. 

Lamont, A. & Maton, K. (2008) Choosing music: Exploratory studies into the low uptake of music GCSE,British Journal of Music Education 25(3): 267-282.

See also ‘Knowledge-knower structures in intellectual and educational fields’ on 'Theory' page.

Further publications exploring the studies are being drafted, including:
Lamont, A. & Maton, K. Unpopular music: Beliefs and behaviours towards music in education, in Wright, R. (Ed.) Sociology and Music Education. London, Ashgate. 
 

English

Bringing together LCT with systemic functional linguistics, this collaborative research with Fran Christie (University of Sydney) and Mary Macken-Horarik (University of New England) examines school English. Of particular interest is exploring how to enable cumulative learning through the English curriculum. 

Maton, K. (2009) Cumulative and segmented learning: Exploring the role of curriculum structures in knowledge-building, British Journal of Sociology of Education 30(1): 43-57. 

References to publications by Christie and Macken-Horarik can be found in the above paper. The collaborative dimension to this project has yet to be published. 
 

Disciplinarity (Biology and History)

A major interdisciplinary study is underway into how to build integrated, cumulative knowledge through a secondary school curriculum. This research brings together LCT with systemic functional linguistics and interaction analysis. The case studies are of biology and history. The project is being directed by Peter Freebody, Jim Martin and Karl Maton at the University of Sydney and funded by an ARC Discovery Project grant: ($360K, 2009-2011): Disciplinarity, Knowledge and Schooling: Analysing and improving integrated, cumulative learning in classrooms. See:

Freebody, P., Maton, K., & Martin, J. (2008) Talk, text and knowledge in cumulative, integrated learning: A response to ‘intellectual challenge’, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 31: 188-201.
 

Mathematics

Steve Thornton
Thornton, S. (2008) Speaking with different voices: Knowledge legitimation codes of mathematicians and mathematics educators, in: M. Goos, R. Brown, & K. Makar (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia.  MERGA.

See also such papers as:
Morgan, C., Tsatsaroni, A. & Lerman, S. (2002) Mathematics teachers’ positions and practices in discourses of assessment, British Journal of Sociology of Education 23(3), 445-461.

Lerman, S. & Tsatsaroni Surveying the field of mathematics education research

Lerman, S., Xu, G. & Tsatsaroni, A. (2002) Developing theories of mathematics education research: the ESM story, Educational Studies in Mathematics 51(1-2), July.
 

EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

A series of projects are exploring the issue of ‘digital natives’ or the ‘net generation’.  Several projects partly draw on LCT, though some are atheoretical and focused on empirical exploration.  The principal work with some degree of LCT input is led with Sue Bennett, University of Wollongong. 

The projects are funded by the following grants:

• Living and Learning in a Knowledge Society: The implications of young adults’ knowledge-creating practices for higher education, Bennett & Maton, ARC Discovery Project grant ($80K, 2009-2010).

In today's knowledge society, digital technologies are challenging traditional notions of knowledge creation, authority and expertise. This project is investigating knowledge creation by young Australian adults who will be the workers and leaders in tomorrow's knowledge economy. By focusing on university students creating knowledge across their everyday and academic activities, the project examines how living and learning in a knowledge society impact each other. Its outcomes will advance theoretical and professional knowledge by bringing together the sociology of knowledge and educational technology, and charting new directions for policy and programme development in higher education. LCT is central to this project, providing the means for conceptualising and analysing different forms of knowledge and different modalities of knowledge-creating practices across different social contexts.

• The Current and Future Role of ICTs at the University of Sydney: Educational implications of staff and student perspectives, Maton & Bennett, DVCE Grant, University of Sydney ($85K, 2008-2009).

A major study of experiences with and perceptions of digital technologies among staff and students in eight faculties of Sydney University.

• The ‘Digital Natives’ and Their Implications for Higher Education, Bennett & Maton, University of Wollongong Research Committee competitive grant ($10K, 2007-2008).

• ‘Digital Natives’ and Higher Education, Maton, SOPHI Strategic Development Fund, University of Sydney ($2K, 2007).

• Educating the Net Generation: Implications for Learning and Teaching in Australian Universities, Kennedy, Krause, Judd, Gray, Bennett, Dalgarno, Maton & Bishop, Carrick Institute competitive grant,  ($180K, current).

Bennett, S. & Maton, K. (in press, 2010). Beyond the digital native debate: Towards a more nuanced understanding of students' technology experiences. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning.

Bennett, S., Maton, K. & Kervin, L. (2008) The ‘digital natives’ debate: A critical review of the evidence, British Journal of Educational Technology 39(5): 775-786.

The idea that a new generation of students is entering the education system has excited recent attention among educators and education commentators. Termed ‘digital natives’ or the ‘Net generation’, these young people are said to have been immersed in technology all their lives, imbuing them with sophisticated technical skills and learning preferences for which traditional education is unprepared. Grand claims are being made about the nature of this generational change and about the urgent necessity for educational reform in response. A sense of impending crisis pervades this debate. However, the actual situation is far from clear. In this paper, the authors draw on the fields of education and sociology to analyse the digital natives debate. The paper presents and questions the main claims made about digital natives and analyses the nature of the debate itself. We argue that rather than being empirically and theoretically informed, the debate can be likened to an academic form of a ‘moral panic’. We propose that a more measured and disinterested approach is now required to investigate ‘digital natives’ and their implications for education.

- this paper has proven rather controversial in the blogosphere and the field of educational technology

Maton, K. & Bennett, S. (2007) Mythbusting digital natives: What’s really happening, and what does it really mean for education?, Learning Futures, Sept: ANU, Canberra.

Media coverage:

Mather, J. (2007) Panic over digital natives’ IT mastery ‘premature’, Campus Review 4th July 2007, p.4 

Rout, M. (2007) Research shows digital desire overrated, The Australian: University Teaching - A higher education special report, Oct 3rd, p.1

Brabazon, T. (2008) They come not to teach, Times Higher Education Supplement, 3 July 2008.

Leaver, T. (2007) A broad band of ideas: The Learning Futures Symposium, Screen Education,48: 74-77.
 

THE FRENCH CONNECTION

Several young, promising scholars at the University of Provence are using LCT to address innovative topics, under the guidance of Dr. Philippe Vitale.  These include:

Célia Poulet
Poulet, C. (2008) Disciplining knowers: Masonic recruitment and apprenticeship, Disciplinarity, Knowledge & Language: An international symposium, University of Sydney, Dec.
- MORE HERE SHORTLY -

Sophia Stavrou
- MORE HERE SHORTLY -

See also:
Vitale, P. & Frandji, D. (Eds.) (2008) Enjeux Sociaux, Savoirs, Langage, Pedagogie: Actualité et fécondité de l’oeuvre de Basil Bernstein. Rennes, University of Rennes Press.
 

SPECIAL EDUCATION

Students with Asperger's Syndrome typically achieve extremely well at such subjects as science and computing, but struggle at English and History.  These preliminary papers, a collaboration between Deslea Konza and Karl Maton, propose LCT as offering a fresh and potentially productive perspective on enabling students with Asperger's Syndrome to achieve more widely across the curriculum. 

Konza, D. & Maton, K. (2006) Increasing the capacity of students with Asperger’s Syndrome to achieve across the curriculum.  Australian Association of Special Education Annual Conference, Canberra, Sept-Oct.

Maton, K. & Konza, D. (2006) The curious incident of the Asperger’s student in the classroom: Theorising inclusion and differential subject achievement. British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Warwick University, September
 

SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS

A series of research projects into various areas of knowledge and education are bringing together LCT with systemic functional linguistics in innovative and fruitful ways, including:

• research into school English (Fran Christie, Mary Macken-Horarik, Karl Maton)
• inter-disciplinarity and academic writing (Sue Hood, UTS, and Karl Maton), see further above for publications
• higher education curriculum (see Kathy Luckett, UCT, South Africa)
• knowledge in schools; e.g. Matruglio, E. (2008) Semantic gravity meets Appraisal: What knowledge in schools?, Disciplinarity, Knowledge & Language: An international symposium, University of Sydney, Dec.
• internationalisation of higher education (Cathie Doherty, QUT)
• ARC Discovery Project grant ($360K, 2009-2011) Freebody, Martin & Maton
• Disciplinarity, Knowledge and Schooling: Analysing and improving integrated, cumulative learning in classrooms.
• Martin, J.R. (2009) Realisation, instantiation and individuation: some thoughts on identity in youth justice conferencing. DELTA - Documentação de Estudos em Linguistica Teorica e Aplicada 25. 2009. 549-583.
• Christie, F. & Maton, K. (Eds.) (2010) Disciplinarity: Systemic functional and sociological perspectives. London, Continuum. 2010

 

NURSING

McNamara, M.S. (2009) Academic leadership in nursing: Legitimating the discipline in contested spaces, Journal of Nursing Management, 17(4): 484–493.

McNamara, M.S. (in press) Nursing academics' languages of legitimation: A discourse analysis, International Journal of Nursing Studies

McNamara, M.S. (in press) What lies beneath? The underlying principles structuring the field of academic nursing in Ireland, Journal of Professional Nursing

McNamara, M.S. (in press) Lost in transition? A discursive analysis of academic nursing in Ireland, Nursing Science Quarterly.

McNamara, M.S. (in press) Where is nursing in academic nursing? Disciplinary discourses, identities and clinical practice: A critical perspective from Ireland, Journal of Clinical Nursing.
 

INDIGENOUS STUDIES

Kelly, B.L. (2009) Conflict and collaboration: a sociology of knowledge production in the field of Indigenous Studies, Australian Social Policy Conference, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW, July.
 

CULTURAL STUDIES

Maton, K. (2002) Popes, Kings and cultural studies: Placing the commitment to non-disciplinarity in historical context, in Herbrechter, S. (Ed.) Cultural Studies: Interdisciplinarity and translation. Amsterdam, Rodopi, 31-53.  

Maton, K. & Wright, H.K. (2002) Returning cultural studies to education, International Journal of Cultural Studies, 5(4): 379-392.

See also 'Theory' page for:
- Maton (2000) ‘Languages of legitimation’
- Maton (2005) The Field of Higher Education
- Maton (2009) ‘Progress and canons in the arts and humanities’
 

CRITICAL REALISM

Several scholars are bringing together critical realism with LCT and Bernstein-inspired work, including:

Gordon Brown, University of Wollongong
- MORE HERE SHORTLY -

Leesa Wheelahan, Griffith University
- MORE HERE SHORTLY -