OP-ED ESSAYS AND FORUMS Disciplinary power and the school form Marie Larochelle Received: 18 September 2007 / Accepted: 18 September 2007 / Published online: 16 October 2007 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007 There can be little doubting that, in the academic world, the new structures of knowledge production referred to as ‘‘cultural studies’’ have, at times, destabilized the reigning dis- ciplinary framework. In a variety of ways, cultural studies have made their mark, throwing open to challenge the power and indeed the hegemony that disciplines have traditionally claimed to hold over the ways in which the world is put into words and by which indi- viduals are able to locate themselves within it. This they have achieved by, for example: advocating the hybridization of knowledges rather than their mutual exclusion; focusing on living objects that can be identified on the basis of their uses instead of on chilled, purified artifacts and relics; promoting analysis of an ‘‘engaged’’ variety as opposed to one imbued with Olympian detachment; and, finally, showing that actors in everyday life are also actively producing knowledge and ways of doing things (de Certeau 1990). This being said, the power associated with disciplines extends far beyond the walls of the academy. Power, as the French philosopher Michel Foucault has shown us, is— regardless of the form it assumes—whatever it comes to be because it is embodied in an array of systems and processes whose contours are more or less discernable and whose effects are not easily gauged, and because also power comes accompanied by a web of ramifications serving to disseminate and perpetuate it well beyond the places where it is officially exercised. From this perspective, then, schools as institutions of socialization are, incontestably, a vital structure in the implementation and maintenance of disciplinary The American Heritage Dictionary defines ‘‘Op-Ed’’ as ‘‘A newspaper page, usually opposite the editorial page, that features articles expressing personal viewpoints.’’ Although CSSE is not a newspaper, we do publish editorials and encourage the use of sociocultural perspectives on critical issues in our field. In line with our intention to embrace difference we encourage Op-Ed contributions that express personal views on science and science education. These can be stand-alone pieces or Forums that comprise multiple pieces and authors with and without interaction. We invite our readers to consider contributing papers within the Op- Ed genre and in so doing bring sociocultural theory to bear on pervasive and ongoing issues in science education. (Please contact one or both editors when considering to contribute to this section of our journal.) The first contributor to the Op-Ed genre is French-Canadian researcher, Marie Larochelle, who served on the Editorial Board of CSSE for the first two volumes—The Editors M. Larochelle (&) Pavillon des sciences de l’e ´ducation, local 1058, Universite ´ Laval, Quebec, Canada G1K 7P4 e-mail: marie.larochelle@fse.ulaval.ca 123 Cult Stud of Sci Educ (2007) 2:711–720 DOI 10.1007/s11422-007-9071-z