During the past 30 years, the sociology of education has dealt with many issues. There have been social and political ‘problems’ in education, as well as new sub-fields, creating new disciplines in the study of education. Because the boundaries are loose between sociology, education, and other humanities, it can be difficult to categorize specialists in the field into one specific area of study. There are categories of the specialists areas of study: personal, which involves the reputations and status that the person initiating the study desires as he or she seeks power, identity, and patronage; vested, which includes the material rewards from career advancement and publication; and ideological, which include personal philosophy, political views, and values.
Much of the work in the sociology of education comes in the form of seeking professorial positions, being awarded grants, successful publications in key journals, and creating new journals. These struggles take place at conferences, in the journals themselves, in the offices of the editors, in college department meetings, and as a part of the silent graduate sociology department ideology.
The sociology of education has its own version, or genre, of sociology. Instead of the focus being primarily on the changes in society, the focus, instead, is on the changes of education. The focus is on how the changes affect society and how society is affecting education. Humanities, like sociology, no longer are separate from politics.
The great transformation of the sociology of education occurred in the 1970’s when society’s perception of education changed. Education became the problem rather than the solution to many of the problems in society. Teachers were viewed simultaneously as ‘transgressive intellectuals’ from the sociological left and ‘political dopes’ from the political right as they were neither fair to the sociologists or helping the nation move forward in achieving economic prosperity to the politicians. Teachers viewed this shift as an impediment of their professional knowledge and development. The sociology of education would, unknowingly, be a mediator between the teachers and the state officials where tensions had built as state policy-makers had begun to pull teachers into the arena of blame for some of the failings of society. The 1980’s brought a new push to the movement to have all students graduate, but to also have all students graduate with minimum competencies rather than being pushed through the system and receive diplomas (Ball, 2008).
Modern society has the strongest links between social structure and education. When keeping this point in mind, the critical theories of sociology in education focus on three areas of interest: the injustices of education, mapping the sources of those injustices, and finding remedies to those injustices. The injustice of education has revolved around the lower performance of the working class and minority students when compared to middle and upper class counterparts. The sources of these injustices are traced to lower funding in the schools of the working class and minority students. The remedies have been an attempt in school funding reform, which is still a hot topic for lawmakers today. Schools appear to be training their students to remain in the same class after they complete their education as they are when they are earning their education. Teacher accountability, attempts to have teachers in under-performing schools raise scores and students’ success, is an attempt to correct this wrong, but it is proving to be a failure under the current system. Students in affluent areas are likewise proving to be successful in graduating successful students.
But, money is not the only solution. There are schools which buck this trend. With certain administration and leadership in place in underperforming areas, there are schools that are creating successful students. Sociological educationalists are studying these schools to find out how these schools are successful. The attitudes of the principals and teachers are positive, different; knowing that they make a difference, and seem to make a positive change affects the beliefs and attitudes of the students, for the better. These students are not perceived as being ‘passive victims of schools,’ but rather the first generation to be a positive change in their socio economic environment (Sever, 2012).
As law makers from both parties continue to focus on education as a problem in society, trying to rip tenure from the profession, rewrite curriculum although they have no educational training, and create state-wide assessments and tie funding to performance levels, they also view the research that sociology has used to enlighten educators and advance the field of education as worthless. Instead, the politicians are trying to run school districts like businesses, often forgetting that a child does not act like an employee. A child’s learning is priceless and should not be tampered with by politicians who have never had a course in education. There are sociologists who have studies the managerialists’ aspect of education, comparing it to a business method, but most sociologists and education professionals find fault with these findings as they do not appear realistic or plausible when viewed in light of a classroom atmosphere.
In the end, it is the essential purpose of education that needs to be revisited and the sociology of education proponents are doing just that. In the past, education was to prepare students for the labor market. But, in modern times, much of that focus has changed. Today’s students need to be prepared for learning how to use their knowledge, higher level thinking skills, and communication skills to participate in a global economy. This focus, as determined by sociologists and education academics, has been abandoned by politicians as they continue to work in the archaic goal of state competencies and targets. When politicians start working with the sociologists who study education, and politicians are willing to work with educational professionals, only then will it be the students who benefit (Lauder, Brown, & Halsey, 2009).
Ball, S. J. (2008). Some sociologies of education: a history of problems and places, and segments
and gazes. Sociological Review, 56(4), 650-669. doi:10.1111/j.1467-954X.2008.00809.x
Lauder, H., Brown, P., & Halsey, A. H. (2009). Sociology of education: a critical history and
prospects for the future. Oxford Review Of Education, 35(5), 569-585.
doi:10.1080/03054980903216309
Sever, M. (2012). A critical look at the theories of sociology of education. International Journal
Of Human Sciences, 9(1), 650-671.
