In this study, first published in 1983, Robert Burgess discusses the definitions, redefinitions, strategies and bargains used in and out of classrooms by teachers and pupils in a co-educational Roman Catholic school where he spent some time as a researcher and part-time teacher. He also looks at the role of the school’s headmaster, and his conception of the school, and at the house and departmental staff. This absorbing study will be of interest to teachers and students of sociology and education, practicing and prospective school teachers, researchers, administrators, policy makers and others who are concerned with schools and schooling.

Experience and Education is the best concise statement on education ever published by John Dewey, the man acknowledged to be the pre-eminent educational theorist of the twentieth century. Written more than two decades after Democracy and Education (Dewey's most comprehensive statement of his position in educational philosophy), this book demonstrates how Dewey reformulated his ideas as a result of his intervening experience with the progressive schools and in the light of the criticisms his theories had received. Analyzing both "traditional" and "progressive" education, Dr. Dewey here insists that neither the old nor the new education is adequate and that each is miseducative because neither of them applies the principles of a carefully developed philosophy of experience. Many pages of this volume illustrate Dr. Dewey's ideas for a philosophy of experience and its relation to education. He particularly urges that all teachers and educators looking for a new movement in education should think in terms of the deeped and larger issues of education rather than in terms of some divisive "ism" about education, even such an "ism" as "progressivism." His philosophy, here expressed in its most essential, most readable form, predicates an American educational system that respects all sources of experience, on that offers a true learning situation that is both historical and social, both orderly and dynamic.

Originally published: New York: Columbia University Press,1966.

This book presents a series of research biographies based on research experiences in the study of educational settings. The main aim is to provide a set of first person accounts on doing research that combine analysis with description. The contributors have been drawn from the disciplines of sociology and educational studies and have all conducted ethnographic work or case studies in a variety of educational settings.

The purpose of the Social Research and Educational Studies series is toprovide authoritative guides to key issues in educational research. Theseries includes overviews of fields, guidance on good practice anddiscussions of the practical implications of social and educational research.In particular, the series deals with a variety of approaches to conductingsocial and educational research. Contributors to this series review recentwork, raise critical concerns that are particular to the field of education,and reflect on the implications of research for educational policy andpractice.

By neglecting the ‘human’ factor in the process of research analysis, much has been lost and researchers are now looking for new ways to broaden the social reality in their research. In this volume, originally published in 1993, the research perspective adopted shows new methods of dealing with the world of education, including ethnographic studies and action research. The ‘voices’ offer a critical insight into both the scientific rationale and the methodological application of their individual approaches. This book provides a rich source of material for students and researchers doing qualitative analysis.

Since the early 1980s, sociology of education has been the subject of serious criticism, much of it emanating from supporters of the New Right in education. The discipline has been depicted as subversive, irrelevant and offering no really useful knowledge. In this collection of original articles, the authors seek to address such criticisms through an examination of key reforms. The chapters thus provide a critical commentary on past work as well as identifying a series of agendas for future research and analysis. Overall the intention is to encourage debate and dialogue.