What Should One Expect from a Sociology of Music Education?

Based on a review of the recent publication, The Routledge Handbook to Sociology of Music Education, this article seeks to problematize what might be meant by "sociology of music education."Taking a "socio-historical" approach, the article examines the historical trajectory and legacy of sociologically oriented interests in music education.Drawing on intersections between philosophy and sociology, the author emphasizes the difference between the empirical and the normative to argue for greater sociological sensitivity to music education's relationship to the political role of schooling as a state institution.