Differentiating agents, differentiated patients: the production of subjects and knowledge(s) in theorizing differentiation in education

• Published in: Journal of curriculum studies Vol. 56; no. 2; pp. 172 - 190
• Main Author: Schulte, Barbara
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Routledge 03.03.2024; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Differentiation; educational epistemology; Educational theory; Epistemology; exclusion; Feedback (Response); inclusion; Inclusive education; Individualized Instruction; Literature Reviews
• ISSN: 0022-0272; 1366-5839
• DOI: 10.1080/00220272.2024.2306506

Educational theorizing makes use of various tools and perspectives to understand how differentiation processes in education have emerged as responses to socio-historical developments. Drawing on a systematic literature review, this article finds that educational research has framed these responses in five different ways: as structural-functional response; communicative response; cultural-historical response; hegemonic response; and as a response to capability development. Scrutinizing these scholarly understandings of differentiation from a meta-theoretical perspective, the article investigates, firstly, the kinds of knowledge generated within each approach; secondly, how researchers and researched subjects-differentiating agents and differentiated patients-are positioned relative to one another; and thirdly, how these approaches contribute to thinking about inclusion and exclusion in education. Drawing on insights from the author's fieldwork in multi-ethnic Southwest China, each of these five theoretical conceptualizations are interrogated with respect to their potential to accommodate conceptions of individual or collective agency.