Discipline, consciousness and the formation of a scholarly habitus

Sociologies of the body tend to focus on disciplinary power in generally negative terms, with embodiment conceived as an unconscious and subjectifying process. The agentic potential of disciplinary force receives little attention. Within education, emphasis is likewise given to discipline as a form of subjection as opposed to a force that can also equip students with the capacity to learn. This paper will explore the enabling dimensions of embodiment and how these can be generated through the pedagogic practices of institutionalised schooling. Its central concern is the formation of a scholarly habitus in the primary years of education. In exploring this it provides a reassessment of Bourdieu's concept of habitus; in particular, his failure to deal adequately with the role of consciousness in theorising the pedagogic.