New Developments in the New Sociology of Education.

It is the argument of this article that the New Sociology of Education, and the work of Michael Young in particular, is in the processes of developing a coherent epistemology related to the ideas of critical social theory whose justification is by appeal to the criterion of human betterment, a systematic analysis of social, economic, cultural, epistemological and educational hierarchies and their interpenetration, a conception of political theory which depends upon the application of critical social theory and the analysis of procedures of hierarchy and control in the actual practice of teachers in their concrete social, educational and political situations, and a conception of political action which rejects large scale utopian visions but concentrates instead on the improvement of practice in particular situations through the processes of critical reflection and innovation, the success of which is to be judged in terms of human betterment or, more particularly, increases in the ability of individuals to control their own lives. Thus, it is asserted that the New Sociology of Education offers coherent and related theories of knowledge, control, value and action which present, individually and collectively, a radical alternative to traditional views and allow the development of new insights and practices in education.