In the last decade stratification within educational results has, in Sweden as in other countries, been framed as a matter of boys’ and young men’s under-achievement. The question of whether this is a problem, and if so, for whom and how to change the structure, has been discussed in research and educational policy. The aim of the thesis is to contribute to these fields and to enhance knowledge of young people’s gendered and classed identity processes, by analyzing how achievement and engagement were negotiated and given meaning in relation to young men. Previous research has primarily explored identity processes among “risk categories” or subordinated students. The objective here was to analyze how masculinity was accomplished via peer-group interactions within a rarely problematized category, through examining how upper middle-class young men identify themselves and are ascribed identities by others. The study’s design was inspired by ethnographic methodology and combined participant observation, semi-structured individual and group interviews and a background questionnaire. Identities, social categorizations (especially gender and class) and dominance-relations were thus analyzed from an actor-oriented perspective. The research participants were young men and women, age 15-16, in two school classes. The field work was conducted at, respectively, a Natural Science and a Vehicle Programme; educational settings with connotations to masculinity but significantly different in terms of class. The study enrolled a total of fifty-six students, but focus is upon the fifteen young men among the natural science students.  High achievement and under-achievement, high social and cognitive ability, and group loyalty are main themes in the study. Identity claims were analyzed in relation to the practices through which they were negotiated, e.g. self-hindrance. Similar to other research, the results emphasize the relationship between masculinity and “effortless achievement”. The concept “under-achievement” is developed as an analytical tool, by distinguishing between five dimensions.

Education is a neglected area within globalisation research, and, within educational research, very few studies have been devoted to transnational phenomena. In this study, transnational educational strategies are analysed as ingredients in social groups’ strategies, while the transnational investments of higher education institutions are understood primarily as resources in national educational field struggles. Three investigations are presented, two on Swedish students studying abroad – Paris and north-eastern USA – and one on transnational investments at educational establishments in Stockholm. The material consists of two surveys, interviews with Swedish students abroad and administrators at Swedish educational institutions, and analyses of statistics and documents. Central methods include those of geometrical data analysis, such as correspondence analysis and Euclidean classification, and interviews. The most significant concepts – field, capital and strategies – have been taken from Bourdieu’s sociological toolbox. The studies show that those who study in Paris constitute both a social and meritocratic elite, while the students in north-eastern USA have more social than meritocratic resources. Three types of transnational educational strategies appear. For one group of students, studies at prestigious higher education institutions constitute a complement to their main studies at leading Swedish counterparts. Another group has chosen to make nation-specific or international investments rather than invest in Swedish higher education. A third group comprises students lacking access to the Swedish system, and for whom studies abroad provide a second chance. One of the main results is that the most sought-after positions at foreign educational institutions are often attained through substantial investment in the Swedish educational system. The leading institutions have sufficient resources to ensure viability in a transnational educational market and take their place in exclusive networks. Those students who reach the top of the national hierarchies thus gain access to the most sought-after positions in a global educational market.

Since the late nineteenth century, Switzerland, a self-professed “playground” and “classroom” of the world, has successfully promoted itself as a desirable destination for international study and tourism. The historically entangled private schooling and tourism industries have steadily communicated idealised images of educational tourism in Switzerland via advertising. Concentrating on the period 1890 -1945 – when promotional ties between tourism organisations and private schools solidified – this thesis investigates the social construction of educational tourist place in two different types of promotion aimed at English-speaking markets: private international school prospectuses and education-focused tourism brochures. An analysis of early prospectuses from three long-standing private international schools and of education-focused tourism guides written by municipal organisations, travel agencies, school boards and the Swiss government revealed highly visual, ideologically-charged textual representations of locations and markets simultaneously defined, idealised and commodified international education in Switzerland. Chapters provide close interpretation of documents and aim, through thick description, to understand specific place-making examples within a wider socio-historical context. Chapter One examines the earliest prospectuses of Le Rosey and Brillantmont, two of the world’s must exclusive Swiss schools (1890-1916). An examination of photo-essay style prospectuses reveals highly selective portrayals of “Château” architecture communicated capacity to deliver a “high-class” and gender appropriate Swiss finishing. Visual cues hallmarking literary and sporting preferences indicated texts catered to the gaze of social-climbing, Anglo-centric markets desirous a continental cosmopolitan education that was not overly “foreign.” Chapter Two analyses the social construction of towns in French-speaking Switzerland as attractive educational centres (1890-1914). It explores how guides promoting Geneva, Neuchâtel and Lausanne constructed an idealised study-abroad landscape through thematic testaments to the educative capacities of local human and natural landscapes. The remaining chapters explore interwar texts. Chapter Three examines a high-altitude institute’s use of the idealising skills of high-end tourism poster artists to manufacture a pleasant, school-like image for the mountain sanatoria-like campus of Beau Soleil. Chapter Four investigates two series of education-focused tourism guidebooks which promoted education in Switzerland. An examination of a Swiss National Tourist Office series reveals discourses of nationhood racialised the Swiss as natural-born pedagogues and constructed Switzerland as a safe, moral destination populated by cooperative, multi-lingual and foreign student-friendly folk. An analysis of R. Perrin Travel Agency’s series explores guidebooks which openly classified education as a tourism commodity. The final chapter examines Le Rosey and Brillantmont’s interwar prospectuses within the context of complex, transnational schooling and school advertising practices. An analysis of images of school sports at winter holiday resorts suggests prospectuses expressed the sense of freedom which accompanies upper-class identity more so than any sense of gender-driven restriction.

Since the late nineteenth century, Switzerland, a self-professed “playground” and “classroom” of the world, has successfully promoted itself as a desirable destination for international study and tourism. The historically entangled private schooling and tourism industries have steadily communicated idealised images of educational tourism in Switzerland via advertising. Concentrating on the period 1890 -1945 – when promotional ties between tourism organisations and private schools solidified – this thesis investigates the social construction of educational tourist place in two different types of promotion aimed at English-speaking markets: private international school prospectuses and education-focused tourism brochures. An analysis of early prospectuses from three long-standing private international schools and of education-focused tourism guides written by municipal organisations, travel agencies, school boards and the Swiss government revealed highly visual, ideologically-charged textual representations of locations and markets simultaneously defined, idealised and commodified international education in Switzerland. Chapters provide close interpretation of documents and aim, through thick description, to understand specific place-making examples within a wider socio-historical context. Chapter One examines the earliest prospectuses of Le Rosey and Brillantmont, two of the world’s must exclusive Swiss schools (1890-1916). An examination of photo-essay style prospectuses reveals highly selective portrayals of “Château” architecture communicated capacity to deliver a “high-class” and gender appropriate Swiss finishing. Visual cues hallmarking literary and sporting preferences indicated texts catered to the gaze of social-climbing, Anglo-centric markets desirous a continental cosmopolitan education that was not overly “foreign.” Chapter Two analyses the social construction of towns in French-speaking Switzerland as attractive educational centres (1890-1914). It explores how guides promoting Geneva, Neuchâtel and Lausanne constructed an idealised study-abroad landscape through thematic testaments to the educative capacities of local human and natural landscapes. The remaining chapters explore interwar texts. Chapter Three examines a high-altitude institute’s use of the idealising skills of high-end tourism poster artists to manufacture a pleasant, school-like image for the mountain sanatoria-like campus of Beau Soleil. Chapter Four investigates two series of education-focused tourism guidebooks which promoted education in Switzerland. An examination of a Swiss National Tourist Office series reveals discourses of nationhood racialised the Swiss as natural-born pedagogues and constructed Switzerland as a safe, moral destination populated by cooperative, multi-lingual and foreign student-friendly folk. An analysis of R. Perrin Travel Agency’s series explores guidebooks which openly classified education as a tourism commodity. The final chapter examines Le Rosey and Brillantmont’s interwar prospectuses within the context of complex, transnational schooling and school advertising practices. An analysis of images of school sports at winter holiday resorts suggests prospectuses expressed the sense of freedom which accompanies upper-class identity more so than any sense of gender-driven restriction.

Since the mid-1990s, New Zealand has become a popular study destination for international students. In its neo-liberal knowledge economy policies including an export education policy, international education agenda, and skilled immigration policy, international students are conceptualised as ideal policy subjects: free, rational and self-interested knowledge consumers and globally available human resources. International postgraduates are expected to contribute to New Zealand’s knowledge economy with their knowledge and skills. However, both the statistics and empirical research suggest that these students’ experiences do not always coincide with the policy expectations owing to the involvement of multiple political and non-political factors and actors including international students themselves. Cultural differences in particular, generate extra challenges for these policies to recruit and serve international students and retain international graduates from non-Western cultural backgrounds including those from Mainland China. The gap between the policy intentions and these students’ experiences draws our attention to the roles of multiple regimes of government and individual students as active agencies in overseas study and raises the question of how the two aspects can converge to achieve a ‘good’ overseas study in a complicated culture-crossing policy environment. This thesis takes a post-structuralist approach and uses an adapted Foucauldian conceptual framework that develops the concept of governmentality to explore the experiences of a group of postgraduate Chinese international students studying at two New Zealand universities. It combines documentary research, an online survey and 56 in-depth interviews for data collection with culturally informed discursive, Foucauldian descriptive statistical and Foucauldian narrative analyses of data. The findings show that the convergence between New Zealand’s knowledge economy policies and Chinese students’ experiences of ‘good’ overseas study is not straightforward. This thesis argues that Chinese international students are not made and governed by a singular political power like the New Zealand Government but by multiple regimes of practices through which these students are assembled. Chinese cultural mechanisms such as filial piety, reciprocity and loyalty, play a crucial role in constituting the field of international education and assembling regimes of subjectification. Moreover, these cultural mechanisms are not only embodied in governmental technologies themselves as technical means, but also activated through the coexistence of multiple rationalities, the hybridisation of regimes of subjectification and cross-cultural applications of these technologies. This thesis helps explain both ways in which Chinese students get ‘made into’ subjects who are willing to constitute themselves as international students obliged to come to New Zealand and contribute to the knowledge economy and also the constellations of factors motivating them to move away from on-going, constant and regular engagement with New Zealand as a knowledge economy. With its findings, the thesis attempts not only to provide valuable policy recommendations but also to contribute to sociological understandings of the global governance of border-crossing population movements and comparative studies in the sociology of education.

Paging jumps from viii to xi. / National calls for equality of opportunity have not been matched by reciprocal responses by girls to participate and achieve in design and technology subjects in Zimbabwean secondary and high schools. Current levels of girls' participation and achievement are of national concern. The study found that fourth form girls' low design and technology subjects enrolment and limited success have ensured a near all-male environment resulting in personal career progression limitations for girls and a gender segregated national socioeconomic society. It is acknowledged that outside Zimbabwe, models of student subject participation and achievement have been studied in the past resulting in the implementation of various motivational and retention strategies. Whilst accepting that girls' decisions concerning participation and achievement-related choices for or against design and technology subjects are individual and complex, some complex and interrelated contributory factors are explored. These are carried out in the context of Zimbabwe in this case study research which involved eight secondary schools of four different types targeting 321 fourth form girls, 26 design and technology subject teachers, eight principals, eight families and two education officers. The eclectic data collection approach chosen for the study relied on multiple sources of information being collected using a variety of techniques such as the student questionnaire, focus group interviews, in-depth interviews, lesson observations, and document and content analysis. The effects of various overt and covert forms of home and school processes of difference, inequality and oppression were explored in the data and how these have affected fourth form girls' design and technology subjects participation and achievement-related decisions. In particular, the effects of home and school contextual and climatic factors have been found to largely militate against girls' 'fit' with design and technology subjects culture, staff and workshop environment. A model involving the student and school contextual and climatic dimensions, to explain girls' participation and achievement perspectives is suggested and explained encompassing sociological, psychological and gender perspectives. Findings in this study contribute to an understanding of girls' participation and achievement processes in design and technology subjects in the African context, a dimension that has been largely missing from mainstream debates on the subject.

This study investigates the ways that children engage with a repeatedly viewed film in domestic settings. The research questions focus on the children's language, their multimodal behaviours while viewing and the understandings they form about a film. The study aims to provide insights for educators by demonstrating the range and nature of the educationally significant understandings, about film, that children construct. An initial survey of 9 and 10 year olds produced 17 children who nominated Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Columbus, 2002) as a favourite film that they had viewed at least 10 times. A video illustrating the research procedures was used to inform and to stimulate discussion with these children, to ensure that they were able to give educated consent. Observations of pairs of children viewing the film in their homes, followed by a series of activities to elicit discussion, created a set of rich data on the children's engagement practices and understandings of the film. Framed within the interpretivist paradigm, social semiotics and a sociocultural model of learning informed the generation and analysis of the data. A viewing practices engagement framework adapted existing frameworks in literature, literacy and critical literacy to better analyse viewing behaviours, responses and understandings. The engagement practice categories (literal, connotative, aesthetic, structural and critical) enabled multimodal and transcribed verbal data to be meaningfully linked. Several analytic approaches (including multimodal analysis and discourse analysis) were used to provide a full description of viewing engagement. The findings revealed variable levels of overt behaviour during viewing which did not relate to levels of understanding about the film. The range of understandings included aspects of characters, narrative, causation in the film and special effects. Discourse analysis revealed a range of viewing positions taken and social languages used, as well as gender differences in the balance of language used to attribute the film’s emotional effects. The findings provide evidence that children construct a range of educationally relevant understandings through their repeated home viewing of favourites, although structural and critical engagement was not well developed in this group. The findings are relevant to children's learning, audience research and the culture of childhood. The study has implications for parents, for primary school teachers and for education policy.

La recherche porte sur une étude théorique des réseaux sociaux numériques dans l'état actuel des connaissances. La problématique est discutée en s’appuyant sur un large panel d’auteurs et de pensées allant des années soixante-dix jusqu’à nos jours. En effet, les réseaux sociaux qui sont passés de startup à multinationales au cours des années deux-mille ont radicalement changé le paysage des médias et de la communication entre les individus. À partir de ce constat, nous pouvons nous demander si l'utilisation des réseaux sociaux influence directement les constructions identitaires et sociales des adolescents ? En outre, cette étude démontre comment les identités fabriquées en ligne constituent par la suite, un facteur prépondérant dans la représentation sociale et identitaire des jeunes. L’élève adapte ses identités et ses datas au sein de ses espaces numériques par la réception faite, puis acquise des innovations techniques. Les données recueillies auprès des élèves et les hypothèses formulées dégagent des perspectives futures. En effet, les connaissances numériques du fait religieux circulant sur internet constituent un élément important dans la construction identitaire des élèves. C’est dans les espaces numériques que les élèves développent les datas identités. Premièrement de manière active par l’usage des réseaux sociaux numériques, puis de manière passive à travers les cookies et les recommandations par algorithme. Le rôle grandissant d’Internet dans le processus identitaire, avec l’usage massif des réseaux sociaux et des applications numériques de mieux en mieux maitrisées par les élèves, soulève un certain nombre d’enjeux éducatifs et pédagogiques. Autrement dit les enjeux et défis pour l’Éducation Nationale s’articulent autour de l’usage in situ et ex situ des espaces numériques. / Through a theoritical study of social and digital media, this reseacrh work introduces first, the knowledge produced so far, on it. This work is based on a wide range of authors and thoughts from the seventies till today’s ones, in order to discuss the main issue. Indeed, the social media that turned from startup to multinational companies throughout the years 2000’s, have dramatically changed the landscape of media and communication among individuals. Starting from this observation, one has to ask the question of whether social media, has a direct influence on teenagers’ identity and social construction. This study demonstrates in fact, how Online identities are made thereafter, a key factor of youths’ social and identity representation. The student adapts his identity and his data within his digital spaces according to the reception produced and then acquired of the devices innovations. By framing the collected data from students within the assumed assumptions frame, future prospects are made out. As a matter of a fact, digital knowledge of the religious fact circulating on Internet, is an important element in the identity construction of students. It is in digital spaces that students develop the data identities. First they do it actively through the use of social and digital media, then passively through cookies and recommendations made by algorithm. The growing role of Internet in the identity process, with the massive use of social and digital media applications better mastered by students, raises a number of educational and pedagogical issues. In other words, the challenges and what is at stake for the French National Education, revolves about the use in situ and ex situ of the digital spaces.

[pt] O presente trabalho se propôs inicialmente a investigar quais são, na visão de professores de uma escola pública de Nível Médio da cidade do Rio de Janeiro, as metas e objetivos de suas respectivas disciplinas, da escola onde lecionam, e do ensino público de modo geral. Partindo da experiência prática do autor para a configuração do objeto, e das contribuições teóricas de Bourdieu, Ball e outros autores ligados à sociologia da educação, o estudo indica a existência de uma distância entre as metas e objetivos educacionais propostos e os realizados, e que a avaliação escolar reflete as finalidades do ensino para aqueles que avaliam. O trabalho de campo consistiu em entrevistas semiestruturadas com o diretor da escola, com 16 professores representando as diferentes disciplinas do currículo, que tinham 10 ou mais anos de magistério de Nível Médio, e observações dos Conselhos de Classe de final de ano letivo. Os achados apontaram para a falta de clareza na definição dos objetivos das disciplinas, e para o desconhecimento de metas e objetivos da escola na qual trabalham e da educação pública em geral. Ficou evidenciado que há uma transfiguração das finalidades do ensino, desde os documentos oficiais ou propostas pessoais dos professores, até os momentos de avaliação, especialmente os últimos do ano letivo e, para além disto, como achado da pesquisa empírica, foi percebido que estas modificações são dadas por uma lógica escolar característica e definidora da dinâmica do ofício docente. O guia de trabalho cotidiano para os professores é dado parcialmente pelo currículo da disciplina, parte por uma elaboração pessoal de cada professor, e parte por uma cultura professoral que valoriza, sobretudo, aspectos atitudinais dos alunos em lugar dos conhecimentos disciplinares. É ressaltada a contradição entre as boas intenções dos professores em aprovar os alunos com baixo nível de aprendizagem e o resultado de suas ações na reprodução das desigualdades escolares e sociais. A estrutura social específica do Brasil é analisada e é percebida a congruência entre esta, caracterizada pela desigualdade social, autoritarismo e tutela, e a atitude manifestada pelos professores pesquisados em sua cultura professoral de valorizar sobretudo os objetivos ligados à educação, despertar do indivíduo, preparação para a cidadania (e outros relacionados a estes), amenizar os conteúdos disciplinares, reduzi-los em quantidade e em profundidade, relativizar os critérios adotados para avaliação, e disposição em dar notas aos alunos com o intuito básico de aprovação escolar. / [en] The present work initially proposed to investigate the goals and objectives of their respective disciplines, the school where they teach, and the general public education, in the view of teachers of a public secondary school in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Based on the author s practical experience in object design, and on the theoretical contributions of Bourdieu, Ball, and other authors related to the sociology of education, the study indicates the existence of a gap between the proposed educational goals and objectives and those achieved; the school evaluation reflects the purposes of teaching for those who evaluate. Fieldwork consisted of semi-structured interviews with the school principal, with 16 teachers representing different curriculum disciplines who had 10 or more years of teaching at the high-school level, and observations from the end-of-year school boards. The findings pointed to the lack of clarity in the definition of the objectives of the subjects, and to the lack of knowledge about the goals and objectives of the school in which they work and of public education in general. It was evidenced that there is a transfiguration of the purposes of teaching, from the official documents or personal proposals of the teachers to the moments of evaluation, especially the last ones of the academic year and, besides, as a finding of the empirical research, it was perceived that these modifications are given by a characteristic school logic and defining the dynamics of the teaching profession. The daily work guide for teachers is given partly by the curriculum of the course, partly by a personal elaboration of each teacher, and partly by a teacher culture that values, above all, attitudinal aspects of the students instead of the disciplinary knowledge. The contradiction between the teachers good intentions to approve students with low learning level and the result of their actions in the reproduction of school and social inequalities is highlighted. The specific social structure of Brazil is analysed and it is perceived the congruence between it, characterized by social inequality, authoritarianism, and tutelage, and the attitude manifested by the teachers researched in their professorial culture to value above all the objectives related to education, awakening of the individual, preparation for citizenship (and others related to them), softening the contents of discipline, reducing them in quantity and depth, relativizing the criteria adopted for evaluation, and willingness to give notes to students for the basic purpose of passing school.

Submitted by Antônio Lima Da Silva (antoniolima2107@yahoo.com.br) on 2016-01-19T21:04:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese de Doutorado Antonio Lima.pdf: 1510270 bytes, checksum: f2c6fc8300d2c8686e56943112b7570b (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Auxiliadora da Silva Lopes (silopes@ufba.br) on 2016-01-22T15:05:25Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese de Doutorado Antonio Lima.pdf: 1510270 bytes, checksum: f2c6fc8300d2c8686e56943112b7570b (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-22T15:05:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tese de Doutorado Antonio Lima.pdf: 1510270 bytes, checksum: f2c6fc8300d2c8686e56943112b7570b (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Buscamos, neste trabalho, realizar um estudo sobre a arquitetura teórico-conceitual de Skinner e Bourdieu destacando suas contribuições para o processo educacional contemporâneo e suas possíveis correlações. Para sua efetivação, através de levantamento bibliográfico criterioso, partimos do pressuposto de que, embora conhecido no Brasil, a pesquisa educacional brasileira tem não apenas ignorado o conjunto das obras psicológicas e sociológicas dos autores abordados como também demonstrado resistências às suas contribuições específicas no terreno da educação e suas práticas pedagógicas. De início, considerando as especificidades dos ramos disciplinares dos pensadores, apresentamos as relações da Psicologia e da Sociologia com o campo educacional levando em consideração sua gênese e desenvolvimento após seus respectivos processos de institucionalização. Neste particular, ressaltamos, entre outros, os sistemas teóricos antagônicos e os vínculos fluidos, dispersos e, muitas vezes, indeterminados daqueles ramos do saber na construção e desenvolvimento dos objetos de estudo da Psicologia da Educação e da Sociologia da Educação. Por outro lado, destacamos as contribuições próprias da Psicologia de Skinner para o campo educacional evidenciando aspectos do seu arcabouço teórico-metodológico e as especificidades de sua estrutura pedagógica na efetivação do trabalho educativo, sem desconsiderar as dúvidas, críticas e réplicas acerca da fecundidade de sua obra nos domínios da educação. Paralelamente, enfatizamos também as contribuições da Sociologia de Bourdieu para o processo educacional descrevendo os fundamentos de seus pilares sociológicos e evidenciando, entre outros, a relação “educação e sociedade” e os efeitos das desigualdades escolares na sociedade de classes, sem perder de vista a reputação dos escritos educacionais do autor e suas réplicas. Ademais, partindo de referenciais epistemológicos, defendemos a tese da possibilidade de correlacionar e/ou corresponder conceitos próprios do edifício teórico de Bourdieu (Habitus e Capital Cultural) com aspectos particulares da plataforma teórica de Skinner encontrados no seu modelo de “Seleção por Conseqüências”, sobretudo, os níveis da ontogênese e da cultura e as noções de contingências de reforçamento e repertórios comportamentais sem prejuízos à teoria do conhecimento. Concluímos, com base no recorte estabelecido, que é viável e procedente, nos projetos intelectuais dos autores estudados, a observação de notáveis interações conceituais com fortes repercussões nos campos da Sociologia, Psicologia e, sobretudo, educação. / ABSTRACT In this work we intended to carry out a study on Skinner’s and Bourdieu’s theoretical and conceptual architecture, emphasizing their contributions to the educational contemporary process and their possible correlations. In order to accomplish that, a rigorous bibliographical selection was done, and we took for granted that, even though the authors are well known in Brazil, Brazilian educational research has not only ignored the psychological and sociological work of both thinkers on the whole, but it has also demonstrated resistance to their specific contributions in the field of education and their applications in school practice. In the beginning, considering the specificity of the authors’ disciplinarian fields, we present the relationship between Psychology and Sociology and the educational field, taking into account their genesis and development after their respective processes of institutionalization. In this regard, we point out, among other aspects, the antagonistic theoretical systems and the weak, scattered links and, many times, indefinite, between those branches of knowledge towards the construction and development of the objects of study pertaining Psychology of Education and Sociology of Education. On the other hand, we highlight the particular contributions of Skinnerian Psychology to the educational field, pointing out aspects of his theoretical and methodological framework and the peculiarities of its pedagogical structure in the implementation of school activities, without disregarding doubts, critics and replies about the fruitfulness of his work in educational domain. At the same time, we also emphasize the contributions of Bourdieu’s Sociology of Education to educational process, describing the foundations of its sociological pillars, pointing out, among others, the relationship between education and society, and the effects of school inequalities inside class society, without losing sight of the reputation of the author’s writings and their replies. Moreover, from his epistemological backgrounds, we defend a thesis concerning the possibility of correlation and/or correspondence between specific concepts of Bourdieu’s theoretical building (Habitus and Cultural Capital) and some particular aspects of Skinner’s theoretical backgrounds, found mainly in his model of “Selection by Consequences”, the levels of ontogenesis and culture and the notions of reinforcement contingencies and behavioral repertory, without disregard to the theory of knowledge. We conclude, based on the established outline, that is viable and well-founded, in the intellectual projects of both authors, to observe remarkable conceptual interactions, with strong impacts in the fields of Sociology, Psychology and, above all, in Education.