Sociology of Education, State Schooling and Social Class: beyond critiques of the New Right hegemony

This paper is concerned with the interrelationship between sociology of education, state schooling and social class. It is suggested that we need to move beyond critiques of the New Right hegemony and begin critically to explore social democratic alternatives. In the paper there is an examination of the ‘old sociology of education’ and inequality and its take‐up by policy‐makers. Social class was of central explanatory value in these early social democratic accounts of state schooling. This is followed by an exploration of the erasure of social class, that has emanated from such diverse sources as: the rise of the New Right, the emergence of new social movements, and more recently, the ascendancy of the school effectiveness/school improvement literatures. Of key significance here is to argue for the need to develop reconceptualised frameworks and empirical studies of class analysis.