ABSTRACT
If curriculum studies is committed to using theory to ‘guide action in a desirable direction’ (Lawton 1977), it might be that the reluctance to enter into serious dialogue with sociologists stems from a fear on the part of curriculum specialists that a serious confrontation with the issues raised would lead those of them committed to the pursuance of social justice or human emancipation to advocate a new and more politically radical set of actions. These might involve, if the analyses offered by sociologists have taught us anything, a shift away from narrow education-centred professional strategies towards ones linked much more directly to other modes of political action. This is clearly a threatening development for those who have generally spent their working lives within professional rather than political contexts in the wider sense. I suggested in the last chapter, however, that sociologists of education have themselves often been reluctant to take that step, since many of them do not regard their work as informing either pedagogical practice or political action. In this chapter, I want to say something more about what I regard as the unfortunate gulf between British sociology of education and issues of policy and practice and then reflect upon the value of attempts by various sociologists of education to bridge that gulf.
