New Developments in the New Sociology of Education

Abstract

As the debate over the New Sociology of Education develops, four issues stand out with increasing clarity as worthy of attention. These are (i) the nature of the epistemological foundations of the New Sociology of Education, (ii) the adequacy of phenomenology as a basis for structural analysis, (iii) the stratification of knowledge and the power of elites in determining the curriculum, (iv) the nature of the political action implied by the New Sociology of Education. Each of these issues is a matter of some substance from a theoretical point of view and a matter of some importance to those whose practice is guided by the resulting analysis. Each was present in the early formulations of the New Sociology of Education, each has produced propositions which have been modified by subsequent debate and reflection. Collectively, the response to these issues forms the core of the emerging paradigm.