ABSTRACT
The sociology of education has changed considerably since the passing of the 1944 Education Act. Much of the early research of this period was designed to evaluate the success of government policies in achieving educational equality. The
research focused on the social structure, and the empirical studies produced large quantities of statistics. No attention was paid to the daily life of schools, the behaviour of pupils, or the attitudes of teachers. Sociologists adopted what has been termed the ‘black box’ approach, concentrating on the school only in terms of its relationship with the outside world. The research was concerned with the outcomes of education, such as the percentage of working-class boys who went to grammar school.
