The Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Education

This collection brings together many of the world's leading sociologists of education to explore and address key issues and concerns within the discipline. The chapters draw upon theory and research to provide new accounts of contemporary educational processes, global trends, and changing and enduring forms of social conflict and social inequality.
The research, conducted by leading international scholars in the field, indicates that two complexly interrelated agendas are discernible in the heat and noise of educational change over the past 25 years. The first rests on a clear articulation by the state of its requirements of education. The second promotes at least the appearance of greater autonomy on the part of educational institutions in the delivery of those requirements. The Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Education examines the ways in which the sociology of education has responded to these two political agendas.
The book strongly communicates the vibrancy and diversity of the sociology of education and the nature of 'sociological work' in this field. It will be a primary resource for teachers, as well as a title of major interest to practising sociologists of education.

Michael W. Apple is John Bascom Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.

Stephen J. Ball is Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK.

Luis Armando Gandin is Professor of Sociology of Education at the School of Education, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil.