Brian Barrett
Brian Barrett
Brian Barrett is a Professor in SUNY Cortland's Foundations and Social Advocacy Department. He also serves as the Graduate Research Coordinator with Cortland's Urban Recruitment of Educators (C.U.R.E.) program. He has received the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities (2020) as well as SUNY Cortland's Excellence in Teaching (2011) and Outstanding Achievement in Research (2018) awards. He is the author of Basil Bernstein: Code Theory and Beyond (Springer, 2024) and editor (with Elizabeth Rata) of Knowledge and the Future of the Curriculum: International Studies in Social Realism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014) and (with Ursula Hoadley and John Morgan) of Knowledge, Curriculum and Equity: Social Realist Perspectives (Routledge, 2017). Prior to arriving at Cortland, he completed his Ph.D. in the sociology of education at the University of Cambridge and was a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the University of Notre Dame's Center for Research on Educational Opportunity. His work on the sociology of knowledge and education has been published in journals including Teaching and Teacher Education, the British Journal of Sociology of Education, Urban Education, the Curriculum Journal, the Journal of Curriculum Studies, and Educational Studies.
Education
Ph.D. Sociology of Education, University of Cambridge, 2006
M.Phil. Politics, Democracy and Education, University of Cambridge, 2002
B.S. English Education (Summa cum Laude), Boston University, 2000
B.A. Political Science (Magna cum Laude), Boston University, 2000
Teaching
- FSA 101: Introduction to Urban Education
- FSA 103: Gender, Race and Class Issues in Education
- FSA 400: Foundations in Education: The School in American Society
- EDU 471: Foundations of Modern Education
- FSA/SOC 505: Sociology of Education
- EDU 671: Issues in Foundations of Education
Publications
Books
Barrett, B. 2024. Basil Bernstein: Code Theory and Beyond. Springer.
Barrett, B., Hoadley, U. & Morgan, J. (Eds.). 2017. Knowledge, Curriculum and Equity: Social Realist Perspectives. London: Routledge
Barrett, B. & Rata, E. (Eds.). 2014. Knowledge and the Future of the Curriculum: International Studies in Social Realism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Book chapters
Barrett, B. 2024. Rob Moore, Social Realism, and the Sociology of Education and Knowledge. In E. Rata (Ed). Research Handbook on Curriculum and Education, pp. 79-89. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Barrett, B., Burns Thomas, A. & Timberlake, M. 2017. Flipping the Script: Teachers’ Perceptions of Tensions and Possibilities within a Scripted Curriculum. In B. Barrett, U. Hoadley & J. Morgan (Eds). Knowledge, Curriculum and Equity: Social Realist Perspectives, pp. 167-182. Routledge.
Barrett, B. & Moore, R. 2015. Changing from Within: Basil Bernstein, Teacher Education, and Social Justice. In P. Vitale & B. Exley (Eds.). Pedagogic Rights and Democratic Education: Bernsteinian Explorations of Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment, pp. 47-58. New York: Routledge.
Articles
Barrett, B. & McPhail, G. 2023. Conceptualizing a Radical Visible Pedagogy. Journal of Education, 203 (3): 726-735.
Barrett, B. & Hordern, J. 2021. Rethinking the Foundations: Towards Powerful Professional Knowledge in Teacher Education in the USA and England. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 53 (2): 153-165.
Rata, E., McPhail, G. & Barrett, B. 2019. An Engaging Pedagogy for an Academic Curriculum. The Curriculum Journal, 30 (2): 162-180.
Barrett, B. 2017. Bernstein in the Urban Classroom: A Case Study. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 38 (8): 1258-1272
Timberlake, M., Burns Thomas, A. & Barrett, B. 2017. The Allure of Simplicity: Scripted Curricula and Equity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 67: 46-52
Barrett, B. & Bound, A. 2015. A Critical Discourse Analysis of "No Promo Homo" Policies in U.S. Schools. Educational Studies, 51 (4): 267-283
Barrett, B. & Martina, C. 2012. Towards a Non-Deterministic Reading of Pierre Bourdieu: Habitus and Educational Change in Urban Schools. Policy Futures in Education, 10 (3): 249-262
Barrett, B. 2012. Is Interdisciplinarity Old News? A Disciplined Consideration of Interdisciplinarity. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 33 (1): 97-114
Barrett, B. 2010. Faith in the Inner City: The Urban Black Church and Students’ Educational Outcomes. The Journal of Negro Education, 79 (3): 249-262
Barrett, B. 2010. Religion and Habitus: Exploring the Relationship between Religious Involvement and Educational Outcomes and Orientations among Urban African American Students. Urban Education, 45 (4): 448-479
Barrett, B. 2009. No Child Left Behind and the Assault on Teachers’ Professional Practices and Identities. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25 (8): 1018-1025.
Service
- Faculty Development Committee
- Honors Program Advisory Council
- Habitat for Humanity Faculty/Staff Advisor