This book describes the attempts that have been made to achieve an educational policy relevant to those most disadvantaged in our society; examines the different ways in which sociologists have conceptualized the related problems; and evaluates the success of the policy. He suggests that we are in need both of a more realistically defined view of what schools can do and a concerted official approach to compensatory policy.

This book describes the attempts that have been made to achieve an educational policy relevant to those most disadvantaged in our society; examines the different ways in which sociologists have conceptualized the related problems; and evaluates the success of the policy. He suggests that we are in need both of a more realistically defined view of what schools can do and a concerted official approach to compensatory policy.

The problems this book discusses are the same now as they were 25 years ago: unemployment, poor housing, inadequate facilities, poverty, racism, violence. What is the function of a school in such a situation? Although many schools hold reformist ideals, their practice is constrained by organisational demands. School organisation is based upon a coercive theory of social control which is intolerant of expressions of individuality by teachers and pupils. Needs for individuality may be mistaken for deviance, and deviance is at least in part produced by, or exacerbated by, school organisation. The author maintains that schooling is therefore largely maladjusted to the needs of individuals.

What is the most significant factor for explaining why some individuals are more successful than others – genetic inheritance, privileged background or luck? Although conventional approaches stress the prime importance of one of these, Tyler argues that such theories fail to deal adequately with the complexity of educational inequality and suggests that Boudon’s model of opportunity and mobility would provide us with a more productive explanation. By applying this model to post-war British education he shows how we might effectively think our approaches to the ‘cycle of deprivation’, comprehensive reform and educational spending.

How can new ways of thinking about education improve the lives of poor students? In Rethinking Education and Poverty, William G. Tierney brings together scholars from around the world to examine the complex relationship between poverty and education in the twenty-first century. International in scope, this book assembles the best contemporary thinking about how education can mediate class and improve the lives of marginalized individuals. In remarkably nuanced ways, this volume examines education's role as both a possible factor in perpetuating—and a tool for alleviating—entrenched poverty. Education has long been seen as a way out of poverty. Some critics, however, argue that educational systems mask inequality and perpetuate cycles of poverty and wealth; others believe that the innate resilience or intellectual ability of impoverished students is what allows those individuals to succeed. Rethinking Education and Poverty grapples in turn with the ramifications of each possibility. Throughout these compelling, far-reaching, and provocative essays, the contributors seek to better understand how local efforts to reduce poverty through education interact—or fail to interact—with international assessment efforts. They take a broad historical view, examining social, economic, and educational polices from the postWorld War II period to the end of the Cold War and beyond. Although there is no simple solution to inequality, this book makes clear that education offers numerous exciting possibilities for progress.

The sociology of education has been at the forefront of new developments in sociological theory. This book examines and criticizes a number of these new developments and discusses some empirical work on issues of current concern. One of the few books that integrates radical and critical sociology into the field of education, it deals with the resultant difficulties. The topics covered include cultural deprivation, ideologies in education, classrooms, the teaching profession and the history of women’s education.

The major theories explored are those concerned with social mobility and those which derive from a relativist position in Sociology, both of which see education as a selection mechanism for a stratified society. Social class, family, sociolinguistics and schools are among the topics discussed. In this analysis the author: defines key areas in the sociology of education gives access to important concepts of Marx and Engels strengthens sociological starting points by adding a Marxist element discriminates between radically different directions in education maps the main features of long-term working class goals This thoroughgoing Marxist critique of widely prevalent notions in the sociology of education provides a compass by which place and direction in this area of education may be found by students, teachers and parents.