Social Realism and the Problem of the Problem of Knowledge in the Sociology of Education

Abstract

This chapter addresses a long-standing issue in the sociology of education — the problem of knowledge. It argues that the way in which the problem has been a problem for so long constitutes a problem in its own right — hence, ‘the problem of the problem’. Its persistence represents a ‘blind spot’ within the field regarding the question of knowledge (Moore and Maton, 2001). However, as questions of knowledge and curriculum return to the centre stage of educational policy and debate, the sociology of education urgently requires a powerful theory of knowledge in order to positively engage with and influence them (Beck, 2012b).

When I went up [to Oxford University], and this tutor fellow saw me about June [1927], and I was going up in October and he gave me a long list of books to read before I came up, and when I told him I had read so and so and so, he just didn’t believe me. And he said, ‘Well where would you get these books?’, because I was this sort of working class extra-mural student you know. And I said, ‘Tredegar Workmen’s Library’. Well that convinced him I couldn’t [have].… But I had read them and I was able to tell him what was in them.

(Archie Lush¹)