This paper examines the current crisis in education research and how we might confront it. It begins by arguing that the 'coming crisis' facing empirical sociology identified by Savage and Burrows (2007) applies equally -- if not more so -- to empirical education research. Education researchers can no longer lay claim to specialist expertise in…

Arriving in the UK after exile from Nazi Germany, Karl Mannheim taught sociology at the London School of Economics and then also at the London Institute of Education, where he was awarded a chair just a year before his untimely death in 1947. In his later writings and teaching, Mannheim argued that the sociology of education could make a crucial…

This article looks back at several of the classic ethnographies in British sociology of education and shows that quantitative work played a significant part in many of them, and that quantitative results were part of the evidence used to support claims and arguments put forward by the authors. The article then examines some more recent…

Traditionally theorists who have written about agency and structure have eschewed empirical research. This article uses the findings of an empirical study into graduate employability to inform the sociological debate on how they relate to each other. The study examined how Dutch and British final-year students approach the labour market right…

This paper re-considers some of the evidence for low and declining social mobility in Britain, showing that one study based on a re-analysis of cohort figures appears to have had an impact on policy-makers out of all proportion to its scale and rigor. The study claimed to show that the income of parents and children were more closely related for…

Reviews the development of the sociology of education in Great Britain, its curriculum, and its value in teacher education. (AN)

The articles and reviews in three British journals--the British Journal of Sociology, Sociological Review, and Sociology--were examined to determine (1) what they published regarding educational sociology; (2) the way in which they reflected the qualitative changes of emphases in the field; and (3) the backgrounds of the authors. (RM)

The author provides a perspective on the current state of educational sociology in Great Britain and the United States. (DE)

Presents an alternative hypothetical explanation of the results obtained in Sharma and Meighan's research. The study did not control for intelligence, social class, and other relevant variables which might explain the difference between the sexes in mathematical attainment in secondary schools. (AM)

Describes the social world of childhood as told to the author by a group of primary school children, with particular reference to the classroom. Results reveal a complex knowledge of the values of social interaction. Knowing how to be competent members of the classroom was a primary concern. (Author/KC)

Presents the results of a longitudinal study that identified changes in the organization of British secondary schools from 1969-1979. There were changes in grouping practices, grading frequency, the prefectorial system, sex differentiation, and activities. The results are explained in terms of an action approach derived from Weber. (AM)

Uses a theoretical framework based on epistmological theories to compare teachers' conceptions of the curriculum in four British schools. Results of a questionnaire indicated that teachers believed the curriculum was related to not only individual students and social requirements, but also truth. (AM)

This article traces the institutionalization of educational sociology as an academic field of study in Britain, arguing in particular that an official report of 1954, an academic promotion in 1967, and the birth of a specialist journal in 1980 have constituted landmarks in the process. (Author/SJL)

Analyzes the premise that education in Great Britain should serve to meet the economic requirements of society through training people in all sectors of the educational system--the school, further education, and higher education. Stresses the complexity of further education in reproducing social and technical relations. (Author/KC)

Looks at the nature of the influence of sociology upon student teachers by considering the way in which candidates for the B. Ed. degree in one area training organization have tackled examination questions on the sociology of education. (Author)