UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA (UNISA)
College of Education
⋄
Schooling, Social Reproduction,
Resistance and Interpretivism
Assignment 03 — 2026
⋄
Module Code: HED4809
Module Name: Sociology of Education
Assignment No.: Assignment 03
Due Date: August 2026
Semester: Semester 2, 2026
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for HED4809
at the University of South Africa.
, UNISA | HED4809 Schooling, Social Reproduction, Resistance and Interpretivism
Introduction
Schools are not neutral spaces in which knowledge is transmitted in a straightforward, value-
free manner. As a social institution, schooling is deeply embedded in the wider structure of
society: it selects, sorts, and certifies learners, while also socialising them into particular
values, dispositions, and forms of behaviour. Because of this dual character, schooling can
be understood in at least two connected ways. On one hand, schools contribute to social
continuity by transmitting shared knowledge, skills, and norms across generations. On the
other hand, the same institution can also contribute to social inequality, since not all learners
enter or move through the schooling system on equal terms. Structural sociologists such
as Bowles and Gintis (1976) argue that schooling helps to reproduce existing class relations
rather than simply reflecting a neutral meritocracy, a process this essay refers to as social
reproduction. Yet learners are not passive recipients of this process. Paul Willis’s (1977) study
of working-class boys demonstrates that pupils can actively resist the values and authority
of the school, even while that resistance paradoxically contributes to the very inequalities it
opposes. Alongside these structural concerns, the interpretivist perspective directs attention
away from broad social structures and toward the everyday, small-scale interactions through
which teachers and learners construct meaning in the classroom. It is important to examine
both levels together: structural theories explain why schooling tends to reproduce patterns
of inequality across society as a whole, while interpretivist approaches explain how those
patterns are lived out, negotiated, and sometimes contested in the day-to-day meanings that
participants attach to their own and others’ actions. This essay critically discusses the rela-
tionship between schooling, social reproduction, resistance, and interpretivism. It begins by
examining how schooling contributes to the reproduction and legitimation of class inequality,
before considering the role of culture in shaping unequal educational experiences. It then
turns to Willis’s study of student resistance and the central contradiction it reveals, before dis-
cussing the interpretivist perspective and the importance of meaning, intention, and context
for understanding classroom behaviour.
Body
2.1 Schooling and Social Reproduction
Social reproduction refers to the process by which an education system helps to perpetuate
existing social and class relations from one generation to the next, rather than acting as a
Page 1 of 13
College of Education
⋄
Schooling, Social Reproduction,
Resistance and Interpretivism
Assignment 03 — 2026
⋄
Module Code: HED4809
Module Name: Sociology of Education
Assignment No.: Assignment 03
Due Date: August 2026
Semester: Semester 2, 2026
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for HED4809
at the University of South Africa.
, UNISA | HED4809 Schooling, Social Reproduction, Resistance and Interpretivism
Introduction
Schools are not neutral spaces in which knowledge is transmitted in a straightforward, value-
free manner. As a social institution, schooling is deeply embedded in the wider structure of
society: it selects, sorts, and certifies learners, while also socialising them into particular
values, dispositions, and forms of behaviour. Because of this dual character, schooling can
be understood in at least two connected ways. On one hand, schools contribute to social
continuity by transmitting shared knowledge, skills, and norms across generations. On the
other hand, the same institution can also contribute to social inequality, since not all learners
enter or move through the schooling system on equal terms. Structural sociologists such
as Bowles and Gintis (1976) argue that schooling helps to reproduce existing class relations
rather than simply reflecting a neutral meritocracy, a process this essay refers to as social
reproduction. Yet learners are not passive recipients of this process. Paul Willis’s (1977) study
of working-class boys demonstrates that pupils can actively resist the values and authority
of the school, even while that resistance paradoxically contributes to the very inequalities it
opposes. Alongside these structural concerns, the interpretivist perspective directs attention
away from broad social structures and toward the everyday, small-scale interactions through
which teachers and learners construct meaning in the classroom. It is important to examine
both levels together: structural theories explain why schooling tends to reproduce patterns
of inequality across society as a whole, while interpretivist approaches explain how those
patterns are lived out, negotiated, and sometimes contested in the day-to-day meanings that
participants attach to their own and others’ actions. This essay critically discusses the rela-
tionship between schooling, social reproduction, resistance, and interpretivism. It begins by
examining how schooling contributes to the reproduction and legitimation of class inequality,
before considering the role of culture in shaping unequal educational experiences. It then
turns to Willis’s study of student resistance and the central contradiction it reveals, before dis-
cussing the interpretivist perspective and the importance of meaning, intention, and context
for understanding classroom behaviour.
Body
2.1 Schooling and Social Reproduction
Social reproduction refers to the process by which an education system helps to perpetuate
existing social and class relations from one generation to the next, rather than acting as a
Page 1 of 13
