Bourdieu Pierre - Theory as method in research: on Bourdieu, social theory and education

Cristina Costa is Lecturer in Technology Enhanced Learning in the School of Education, University of Strathclyde, UK. Her research focuses on the intersection of education and the participatory web through a sociological lens, especially Bourdieus key concepts. She is also interested in broader issues regarding the participatory web in the context of a changing society. Cristina has a research record that links social theory to emerging academic areas such as technology enhanced learning in an attempt to bridge the existing gap between theory and practice.

Scott Eacott is an educational administration theorist and Director of the Office of Educational Leadership in the School of Education at the University of New South Wales. He is widely published with research interests and contributions falling into three main areas: educational administration theory and method ology; leadership preparation and development; and strategy in education. His latest book, Educational leadership relationally (Sense, 2015) articulates and defends a relational approach to scholarship in educational leadership, management and administration.

Katie Fitzpatrick is Senior Lecturer of health education and physical education at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Having taught in diverse multicultural schools for over seven years, she joined academia with an interest in issues of social justice. Bourdieus ideas underscored her first, award winning book, which explores the place of health and physical education in the lives of urban youth: Critical pedagogy, physical education and urban schooling (Peter Lang, 2013). Her current research is focused on the perspectives of diverse youth on issues of health, physicality, ethnicity and gender/sexuality. She has published numerous articles and book chapters in these areas, as well as a recently co-edited new international collection on health education in schools Health education: Critical perspectives (Routledge, 2014).

Naomi Flynn is Associate Professor in Education at the University of Reading where she is a teacher educator. Naomis research interests centre on the teaching of English in English primary schools, with a specific focus on how policy shapes teachers practice. Her doctoral research centred on how teachers practice was impacted by the changing pupil demographic in primary schools in the south of England following Eastern European migration to Britain after 2004. She would be happy to hear from others using Bourdieu in their analysis of education, or from colleagues with an interest in the teaching of children with English as an additional language.

Bruce Kloot is Lecturer in Academic Development in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cape Town, and has a back ground in engineering and anthropology. His interests lie at the intersection of education, engineering and sociology and he is particularly interested in applying frameworks from the sociology of education to analyse higher education in postapartheid South Africa.

Stephen May is Professor of Education in Te Puna Wananga (School of Mori Education) and Deputy Dean, Research, in the Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship, University of Bristol, United Kingdom. Stephen has written widely on language rights, language policy, and language education and has had a longstanding interest in both Bourdieuian social theory and educational ethnography in relation to these areas. To date, he has published 14 books and over 90 academic articles and book chapters in these areas. His key books include Language and minority rights (2nd edn, Routledge, 2012), the first edition of which received an American Library Association Choices Outstanding Academic Title award (2008). His latest book is a significant new edited collection, The multilingual turn (Routledge, 2014). He has previously edited, with Nancy Hornberger, Language policy and political issues in education , Volume 1 of the Encyclopedia of language and education (2nd edn, Springer, 2008); and with Christine Sleeter, Critical multiculturalism: Theory and praxis (Routledge, 2010). He is General Editor of the third edition of the 10-volume Encyclopedia of language and education (Springer, 2016), a Founding Editor of the interdisciplinary journal, Ethnicities (Sage), and Associate Editor of Language Policy (Springer). His homepage is www.education.auckland.ac.nz/uoa/stephen-may

Guanglun Michael Mu is a sociologist of education. He has worked as an academic in three countries China, Australia and Canada. He currently holds the Vice-Chancellors Research Fellowship at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Dr Mu adopts methodological pluralism, with particular expertise in quantitative methods. He is engaged with research in diversity and inclusion, with a particular interest in Chineseness in diaspora. His work has been published in some prestigious journals, for example Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Language and Education, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism , and Australian Educational Researcher .

Many years ago, Dr Mu had an opportunity to have considerable contact with a group of young overseas Chinese Australian Chinese, American Chinese, Canadian Chinese, British Chinese and Southeast Asian Chinese. He travelled with these young people around China. For these young people, this was not only a trip to learn the history, language, and society of their cultural motherland China, but also a trip of anticipation, excitement, curiosity, and sometimes bewilderment. For Dr Mu, it was this very trip that prompted him to look at the subtle, multilayered identities and nuanced, interested language practices of overseas Chinese.