Kenneth Blackemore and Brian Cooksey. A Sociology of Education   for Africa.
George Allen and Unwin. London. 1981. pp. 274
Blakarore and Cooksey have attslpted           to write a fairly old-fashioned socio-
logy of education text-book related to Africa.               '!hey provide a cx:.rcpetent
introduction     to education in pre-oolonial       and colonial Africa        before
examining the role played by education in social inequality in Africa and
the sociology of the sdlool, the tead1er and the curriculum.                  The larger
issues of socio-cultural       change, ecorx:mi.cdevelopment and the African p0-
litical   structure related to education constitute             one third of the book.
As far as it goes the book is a staid presentation                of the sociology of
education in an African context.          Unfortunately the sociology of education,
\\herever its applied to, has noved on coRSiderably in the last decade.                    It
is strange that any sociology of education text-book fails to mention
 'progressivism',    'positivism',     'phenorronology' or Bernstein's        'codes',   B
Bowles and r;intis'     Schcolinf' in Capitalist     Alrerica, Sharp and Green's
Education and SOcial Contro or Braverman's Latour and ~ly                       Capi tali.sm.
Whether the authors are unaware of the significance of Bourdien' s notion
of 'cultural    capi tal',   Grarnsci' s Selections from the Prison Notebooks, or
Mid1.el Foucault's contril:utions       is unclear although one \\OUld have to assurre
so. In their discussion of the role of the tead1.er and whether teaching is
a profession no rrention is rrade of standard works in this field.
Parts of the book make interesting          reading rot on the \\h:)le it is a flat
treatrrent of a subject which has undergone a rrajor re\Olution since M.F.D.
Young's Knowledge and Control was first published in 1971.
KENNE'lH  JOOES
Institute    of Mult Education
University of Botswana
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