A critical overview of the sociology of adult education

The central task of this paper is to explore critically the extent to which there is a sociological tradition of adult education which attempts to provide theoretical foundations to the discipline. A secondary concern is to discover the extent to which sociological interpretations of adult education are distinct from, or are influenced by, the substantive body of the sociology of initial education. The methodology used is that of a critical overview. This overview attempts a general, summative analysis of two kinds of literature: works which purport to be an introduction to the sociology of adult education; and works which are located in the liberal‐radical debate which informs much of adult education theory and practice, and which is strongly influenced by sociological ideas. The paper concludes that there is no distinct, developed sociology of adult education, but that there are explanations for this which indicate a possible way forward in developing such a sociology.