Stephen Ball's work has deservedly received a good deal of attention. In this article, I detail a number of tasks in which the critical sociologist of education--as a "public intellectual"--should engage. I then place Ball's work within these tasks and evaluate his contributions to them. In the process, I show that one of the…

In the process of discussing the significant contributions that Len Barton has made to the sociology of education and to disability studies, I argue that a good deal of critical analyses of power and inequality in education are impoverished by some of their essentialist and reductive tendencies. I use an example taken from disability rights to…

In the recent debate over education reform, Japanese conservative politicians and intellectuals have selectively appropriated a particular crisis-and-success narrative of British education reform to de-territorialize contentious policy changes. They assert that Britain achieved successful education reform by transforming the very same teaching…

This book explores the issues surrounding the relationship between education and the larger society. The structures and relationships of education, economy, goverment, and culture are investigated as conditions of schooling are described. Chapters discuss: (1) "Reproduction, Contestation, and Curriculum"; (2) "Technical Knowledge, Deviance, and…

The article examines Basil Bernstein's research on power relations in education, discussing class formation, class essentialism, and changing nature. It describes new ways of approaching relationships between culture and power, noting the neo-Marxist-oriented sociology of education, and stressing the importance of keeping class relations in the…

The imminent educational crisis is at once economic, political, cultural, and ideological. Curriculum is discussed in relationship to Marxist ideology, conflict in the labor force, and political practice. (JN)

Provides an overview of the main theories, developments, and literature of critically-oriented sociology. Pays particular attention to the politics of meaning including critical discourse analysis, identity politics, racial formation, and political economy and the labor process. Concludes with a discussion of the tensions between postmodern and…