Bourdieu’s View over Educational Field, Beyond Confliction and Functionalism Approaches

The primary purpose of this study is to examine the theory of Bourdieu on the field of education and its differences with other common approaches to the sociology of education. So here are the main questions that this study tries to explain them: on which sociology of education approaches Bourdieu’s approach is based; on what principles is built and how much critical the concepts of capital and habitus. In order to achieve these goals, the documentary analysis as a methodology was used and where by Bourdieu's theoretical and experimental works and other theorists and researchers were examined. Results indicate that Bourdieu’s view into the field of education is a two-dimensional view, which includes conflicts of approach and functionalism. This means that Bourdieu knows the field of education that works both in maintaining the balance and order of society and to reproduce the status quo and preserve the interests of the dominant class. Another result of the research is that Bourdieu emphasizes on various instruments in his two-dimensional approach to the field of education, in proportion to each of these dimensions, so, in a functionalistic view toward educational field he focuses on culture and on the contrary he emphasizes on habitus in a confliction view of the field; that means from Bourdieu point of view, the field of education is in a direct relation with structure and agency. Therefore, Bourdieu's approach to the field of education is a double two-dimensional approach.