ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores what form the education of professional practitioners takes. It focuses on the contribution of sociology and how this discipline can help us to make sense of ourselves as professional practitioners. The book considers the issue of 'making sense of ourselves', which emphasises the need for professional practitioners to understand and become self-aware reflectors in action. It examines how critical theory increasingly became an approach favoured by social scientists in general, and especially so by those of us engaged in the education of professional practitioners. A very common theme in sociological analysis is the inter-relation between social structure(s): the typical institutionally based factors of life, like family, schooling, locality, work and so on, and agency.
