ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts a comprehensive overview of all that passes for the sociology of the curriculum, the work of three theorists is examined. In a recent commentary on his own work, Bernstein elaborated what he regards as the necessary elements of a theory of cultural reproduction or transmission. Its central focus would be the matrix of transmission: the structures and processes by which the principles which underlie social order are transmitted and realized through various institutional forms such as the family, education, work and leisure. Bernstein has described his method as one which moves from the micro to the macro levels of analysis. The cultural sociology of Bourdieu and his co-workers at the Centre de Sociologie Européenne in Paris has acquired a significant following among those seeking to establish a sociology of the curriculum. Michael Young's work differs from that of either Bernstein or Bourdieu in that it is less obviously an exercise in pure theory.
