ABSTRACT
Much work in the sociology of education in the last few years has been characterized by an interest in the various ways in which different facets of social structure constrain educational affairs. Thus, for example, social relations in school, the ideologies of both the official and the hidden curriculum, the very definitions of ‘educating’, ‘teaching’ and ‘learning’ have all been variously portrayed as fundamentally shaped and controlled by social forces located at a higher structural level than that of the institution. The theoretical justification for concentrating upon ‘how structure related to lived experience’ is defended by Olson whilst the other writers explore the practical manifestation of this relationship through the work teachers undertake within specific educational contexts or programmes. Various aspects of the system of schooling which seem responsive to the influence of constraints emanating from outside the system are selected for investigation.
