Key challenges for the sociology of education: theoretical, methodological, and empirical issues

Abstract

In the last 25 years, interest in the sociology of education has increased tremendously in social sciences research, but also in the politically interested public spheres. This is indicated by the flood of research projects and publications dealing with topics in sociology of education as well as the increased demand of politicians for scientific reports on education as a social question. Additionally, research institutes have been founded and professorships have been established which focus on research questions typical of modern sociology of education (Becker 2017). Furthermore, it is obvious that researchers in educational science, psychology, economics and political science are increasingly interested in research questions belonging to the domain of sociology of education. Examples are educational trajectories, individual decisions on investment in education, development of skills in an individual’s life course, policies regarding the educational system, and social inequality of educational opportunities (Solga and Becker 2012, p. 10; see in this volume: Blossfeld et al., Chapter 2; Erikson, Chapter 3; Weinert and Artelt, Chapter 7; Kriesi and Imdorf, Chapter 11; Birgit Becker, Chapter 13; Holtmann and Bernardi, Chapter 14; Dollmann, Chapter 15; Kleinert and Jacob, Chapter 16; Kogan, Chapter 18; Powell and Pfahl, Chapter 21; Lechner et al., Chapter 23; Hanushek and Woessmann, Chapter 25; and Nauck, Chapter 26). However, it has to be emphasized that sociology of education is not a novel science which analyses education (see in this volume: Hillmert, Chapter 5; Dominik Becker, Chapter 19) and educational systems from a sociological perspective (see in this volume: Skopek et al., Chapter 12; Neugebauer, Chapter 20). It has a long tradition which began around the end of the nineteenth and the early years of the twentieth century along with the establishment of sociology as an autonomous science. The establishment of the discipline also coincided with the institutionalization of the public educational system and mass education as a pivotal characteristic of the occidental project of modernization (Karabel and Halsey 1977; Arum and Beattie 2000). Therefore, one could assume that sociology of education is a sociological discipline – maybe a special field of sociology – providing a clearly defined subject and a wellestablished programmatic core of questions, theories and methods. Obviously, this is not the case. In sociology of education, we actually find a rich collection of different theoretical, methodological and empirical approaches (Solga and Becker 2012; Arum et al. 2010; Ballantine and Hammack 2008; Scott and Marshall 1998). Today, modern sociology of education is not monolithic but a broad research area with loosely defined boundaries, embedded in sociology with relations to other social sciences (Levinson et al. 2002; Hallinan 2000; Halsey et al. 1997; Richardson 1986). We find neither a coherent paradigm nor a unique research programme (Saha 1997). Like sociology itself, sociology