Post-structuralism, Realism and the Question of Knowledge in Educational Sociology: a Derridian critique of social realism in education

ABSTRACT This article engages with a current debate in the sociology of educational knowledge which seeks to dispel the alleged relativism of social constructivist influences in education. While supporting the claim that the sociology of education needs to bring knowledge ‘back in ’ to its understanding of school processes and policies, the author contends the necessary relativism that proponents of such efforts often attribute to some of the philosophies that have inspired constructivism. To support this, the article explores the compatibility of some of the realist tenets of post-empiricist philosophy with those of post-structuralism, especially as seen in the work of Jacques Derrida. It is suggested that if the latter’s thought does not necessarily shun the connection between knowledge and reality, its contributions towards an ethical understanding of knowledge can be positively incorporated in current debates about the role of knowledge in education