Abstract

This paper presents an account of the development of the sociology of education in the UK, by means of an analysis of papers published in the field’s flagship journal, the British Journal of Sociology of Education and its US equivalent, Sociology of Education. In particular, we examine the representation of two contrasting traditions in addressing social inequalities: ‘political arithmetic’; and the more recent ‘cultural turn’. We find that in the UK, the cultural turn dominates; whilst in the US, it is political arithmetic which does so. In accounting for these contrasting national profiles, we argue that they are underpinned by divergent social infrastructure and organisation. We also discuss some of the implications of the dominance of the cultural turn in the UK, specifically in terms of the relationship between the fields of academic research and policy and the development of a cumulative evidence base to address social inequalities in education.

摘要

本文通过对该领域的旗舰期刊《英国社会学教育杂志》及其在美国的同等学历《教育社会学》发表的论文进行分析，从而介绍了英国教育社会学的发展情况。特别是，我们研究了在解决社会不平等方面两种截然不同的传统的表现形式：“政治算术”；以及最近的“文化转向”。我们发现，在英国，文化转向占主导地位。而在美国，是这样做的政治算法。在解释这些截然不同的国家概况时，我们认为它们的基础是不同的社会基础设施和组织。我们还讨论了英国文化转变主导地位的一些影响，