Pedagogic Practices, Tacit Knowledge and Discursive Discrimination: Bernstein and post-Vygotskian research

This article is concerned with the transmission of selected criteria of communicative competence in schools. It is argued that different contexts generate different criteria of competence. The study refers to the account of the social formation of mind developed by and after L. S. Vygotsky and also the model of cultural transmission developed by B. Bernstein. The study draws on these approaches in order to examine the relationship between individual competences and social structure of schools. The focus is on the implications of the organisational structure of the school for pupil talk in specified subjects. The experimental evidence is suggestive of the role of social organisation in schooling.