Abstract
This article looks at the recent history of the sociology of education and draws lessons about the future from that review. Beginning with a consideration of the reorientation of sociology of education in a hostile political context, it analyses recent official attacks on sociologically-informed research in education. This paper locates this reorientation in the changing relationship between sociologists of education and policy-makers since the 1960s. In so doing, it documents briefly the shift towards neo-Marxist critiques of education as a vehicle for maintaining and sustaining inequality, and the subsequent dismissal of sociology of education by policy-makers. The ways in which theoretical debates within the main discipline have affected the direction of work in the sub-discipline are also considered. Finally, we explore the possibilities for sustaining and supporting sociology of education as a key arena for the maintenance of a narrative of modernity while accommodating more recent movement towards a recognition of complexity, contingency and subjectivity.
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