ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces critical realist concepts and ideas central to the task of underlabouring Marxist Sociology of Education. For the reasons already briefly outlined in the introduction, it will principally draw upon the transcendental realist and critical naturalist stages of Bhaskar's critical realist project. As a segue to the task ahead, it will be worthwhile recalling critical realism's credentials to underlabour Marxist Sociology of Education. First, as a philosophy (i.e. a meta-theory) it is in a position to clarify theoretical concepts of the field, as well as related fields such as sociology and sociology of education. Second, as a philosophy of science, critical realism has particular underlabouring potential for scientific Marxism. Moreover, critical realism and Marxism have a resonate affinity in the commonality of their projects: their mutual commitments to human emancipation and what we will come to refer to as deep-real social transformation (explained later in this chapter).
