American educational sociology – NOW!

• Ari Antikainen Joensuun yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33336/aik.96720

Abstract

American educational sociology has a long tradition. It came into being at the tum of the century with high expectations but was lacking in high quality research. A utopia turned into a tragedy which ended in educational researchers and sociologists returning to their respective mother sciences. More recent research in educational sociology breaks down into the mainstream of functionalism and various radical theories (in Europe referred to as critical theories). The former’s strong point is the use of empirical methods while that of the latter is determined endeavour to construct a theory. This article presents some of the first results obtained through the interviewing of ten researchers. The people interviewed tell of their professional identity image, give an assessment of the current state of educational sociology and the challenges confronting it, and provide us with their impression of the changes taking place in American educational sociology and education. The article ends with some thoughts on the future of educational sociology. The article contains some parallels to the situation in Finland.