Sociological Foundations Of Education

This volume introduces sociology as a foundational discipline of education. Education is a central structuring mechanism in shaping societies, making it a core focus for sociology. Sociologists study education in its broadest sense – as occurring within families, communities and provided by institutions. The purposes of formal education are contested and these contestations shape broader power relations locally, nationally and globally. Sociologists disaggregate processes within education to examine empirically and theoretically the various levels at which they operate. This allows them to describe and make sense of the ways that relations of inequality are developed, reproduced or unsettled and how these shape individual and group experiences and outcomes.

About the Educational Foundations series:

Education, as an academic field taught at universities around the world, emerged from a range of older foundational disciplines. The Educational Foundations series comprises six volumes, each covering one of the foundational disciplines of philosophy, history, sociology, policy studies, economics and law. This is the first reference work to provide an authoritative and up-to-date account of all six disciplines, showing how each field’s ideas, methods, theories and approaches can contribute to research and practice in education today. The six volumes cover the same set of key topics within education, which also form the chapter titles:

- Mapping the Field
- Purposes of Education
- Curriculum
- Schools and Education Systems
- Learning and Human Development
- Teaching and Teacher Education
- Assessment and Evaluation

This structure allows readers to study the volumes in isolation, by discipline, or laterally, by topic, and facilitates a comparative, thematic reading of chapters across the volumes. Throughout the series, attention is paid to how the disciplines comprising the educational foundations speak to social justice concerns such as gender and racial equality.

Series Editor’s Introduction, Bruce Maxwell and Lauren Bialystok
Introduction, Claire Maxwell, Miri Yemini and Laura Engel
1. Mapping the Field, Claire Maxwell, Miri Yemini and Laura Engel
2. Purposes of Education, Laura Engel, Claire Maxwell & Aaron Koh
3. Curriculum, Moosung Lee, Won-Pyo Hong, Ewan Wright
4. Schools and Education Systems, Katerina Bodovski, Soo-yong Byun, Ismael G. Munoz, and Ruxandra Apostolescu
5. Learning and Human Development, Aina Tarabini
6. Teaching and Teacher Education, Matthew A.M. Thomas and Kelsey N. Boivin
7. Assessment and Evaluation, Kerstin Martens, Dennis Niemann, and Janna Teltemann
References
Index

Claire Maxwell is Professor of Sociology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Miri Yemini is on faculty in the School of Education at Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Laura Engel is Associate Professor of International Education and International Affairs at the George Washington University, USA.