Whatever Happened to the Sociology of Education in Teacher Education?

Summary This paper reviews something of the circumstances and factors which have contributed to the development and present status of the sociology of education in teacher education in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It reports a survey which presents, through practitioners’ eyes, the discipline's present condition and their view of its future. It contrasts the resulting picture of a demise of the discipline and the pessimism of its practitioners with the condition of the sociology of education outside teacher education. It considers some of the consequences of the decline in the discipline, brought about by a decade of dramatic changes in teacher education.