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The analysis in this paper has its origins in a critical account of the sociology of education (Bernstein, 1975) where the various approaches to the study of sociology were taken as the distinguishing feature of the discourse. This matter was further developed (Bernstein, 1996), with the distinction between vertical and horizontal discourses and their various modalities introduced in the context of differentiating this mode of analysis from more 'Bourdieuan' perspectives. This present paper is concerned with filling out and extending the sketches adumbrated in earlier work in a more accessible form. The model proposed generates a language which relates the internal structure of specialised knowledges, the positional nature of their fields or arenas of practice, identity constructions and their change, and the forms of acquisition for successful performances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a response to Harker & May 1987 which rejects as inaccurate and misleading their 'exposition' of the theory, the analysis of the place of rules in the theory, the analysis of what is taken to be its structuralist base, and shows how forms of the practical sense may be realised in, and described by, the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence from a sample of 351 families reveals social class differences in mother's conceptions of the uses of toys. Both the degree of agreement in the ranking of six possible uses of toys and the differentiation of the choices follow a social class gradient. Within the lower three social class groups the score on an index of maternal-child communication relates to maternal conceptions of the uses of toys. A significant correlation exists between the rank order of two uses of toys and the measured ability of six year old children even when the effect of social class is partialed out of this relationship. Maternal conception of the uses of toys is thought to have an important bearing upon socialization into the role of infant school pupil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author holds the view that language is one of the most important intervening variables between the individual and behavior. Certainly implications of a given form of language use are continuously reinforced from the beginning of speech, perhaps even before. The child understands before it can speak. The linguistic form is a powerful conditioner of what is learnt, how it is learnt and influences future learning. In this article, the behavior which is facilitated by a public language, has been analyzed. One major implication of the view held here, which is ethical and political rather than sociological, is that the changing of a form of language use, in this case a public language, involves something more than might be thought as first sight. A public language contains its own aesthetic, a simplicity and directness of expression, emotionally virile, pithy and powerful and a metamorphic range of considerable force and appropriateness. A change in the mode of language used, involves the whole personality of the individual, the very character of his social relationships, his points of reference, emotional and logical, and his conception of himself.