University of the Western Cape: Division for Lifelong Learning
Abstract
It can be argued that most of the theorising around work and learning is premised on the idea that the learning is a positive process whereby actors learn socially useful (the right) things. Whilst it is and they do, as researchers it might sometimes be more relevant to focus on processes and situations where people learn the ‘wrong’ things. In this paper I offer empirical evidence to support this from my research into new programme to train police recruits. Pierre Bourdieu’s related concepts of field, capital, habitus and symbolic violence are deployed to suggest how aspects of the
programme operate to reproduce facets of police culture
