Forty years of the Coleman Report: social capital and education
Abstract
This article seeks to clarify two crucial questions in educational research: (1) In what theoretical and normative assumptions is the Coleman Report (1966) on educational effectiveness anchored? (2) What is the latent counterpoint that the concept of social capital introduces in the field of educational sociology? This paper makes an analytical reconstruction of the contrasting perspectives of the most important exponents of social capital in the field of sociology: James S. Coleman and Pierre Bourdieu. A brief analysis of Coleman’s works reveals his intellectual influence on the liberal policies of educational investment. However, a recent research (Gaviria et al., 2004) on educational effectiveness that includes data of the Brazilian Ministry of Education (MEC, 1997) makes it possible to challenge the import of the utilitarian criteria with which educational investment in developed countries is assessed.
Key words: social capital, educational effectiveness, redistribution policies.Downloads
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