Sociology of Education and Sociology in India

Abstract

This chapter examines the place of the sociology of education (SoE) in Sociology and the interface between sociology and education in India. It argues that while education is critical to sociological development, it enjoys a lower status in the social sciences, and that SoE continues to be marginal issue in sociology. Considered as a softer option within the social sciences, education occupies the margins of sociology as an academic discipline. The author describes the criticality of education, the social and economic transformations due to globalization and liberalization, the shifts in the boundaries of different disciplines, and the increasing emphasis on trans-disciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches and applications in the social sciences. Besides exploring the impact of institutional spaces and disciplinary boundaries on the history of SoE in India, the author charts recent changes in approach, and how sociologists today are doing applied research in education to provide important inputs in policy formulation and programme implementation. Educationists are also looking beyond the school to understand what is happening to the student in the classroom. The author also chronicles the development of the Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies (ZHCES).