教育社会学中的新制度学派：基于问题史的研究

The New Institutional School in the Sociology of Education: Based on the Analysis of Problematic History

本文批判性地总结了1970年代以来美国教育社会学界兴起的新制度学派的发展轨迹，新制度学派提出三个基本的理论命题：(1)现代教育是伴随世俗个人主义而出现的一种独特的社会实体，本质上是一种制度神话和理性仪式；(2)教育组织是松散联接的系统；(3)现代教育的效果主要是对人和知识进行合法化分类。在对经典社会学家韦伯和涂尔干的继承上，新制度学派与美国当时盛行的结构功能理论和冲突论有明显的差异，认为现代教育不是维持地方国家或者特殊阶层需要的地域性事业，而是超越民族－国家和特殊群体利益的世界性制度。新制度学派对教育社会学的贡献，不只是对教育组织和教育效果的深度理论分析，而且其对教育扩张和课程内容的经验研究已经成为当代教育社会学中一个重要的学术传统，在问题意识上有其独特的价值。在借鉴新制度理论时，必须坚持中国经验本位，避免简单地套用和比附新制度理论，应解释和揭示中国教育经验内隐的深层机制，以中国经验丰富和发展新制度理论。

The paper reviews the rise and development of the New Institutional School in American sociology of education since 1970s. It provides three explanations about formation of modern education: (1) modern education practices the institutional myths and rational rituals; (2) educational organizations are considered as loosely coupled systems; (3) modern education classifies people and knowledge into legitimacy. In succession of thought of classical sociologist Weber and Durkheim, the New Institutional School has made itself distinct from the Structural Functionalism and Conflict Theory in contemporary sociology, and claimed that education as institution plays a cognitive role in national progress and the social construction of quality. The contributions are not just in the theoretical analysis of educational organization and educational effects, but also in empirical research on education expansion and curricula, which has already been an important paradigm in the contemporary sociological study. The education experience in China reveal mechanism of China's modern education to the new institutional theory.