The Teacher in New Sociologies of Education

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31430/vayj4206

Keywords:

Teachers, Role of Teachers, Social and Educational Inequality, Educational Reform, Sociology of Education

Abstract

The emergence of new sociologies in the field of education has marked a significant epistemological turning point in the historical development of approaches to the dialectical relationship between “educational” and “social” matters. Within this framework, schools are central to unpacking social and educational inequalities, particularly with regard to the organization of school knowledge and classroom interactions. A key focus within this inquiry has been on teachers, regarded as active agents in any educational reform. They have come to represent both the foundation of educational change and a primary entry point for new sociological research on schooling. This article explores how new sociologies of education have addressed the role of teachers – highlighting, on the one hand, their centrality in driving educational transformation, and on the other, the value of sociological knowledge about teachers in fostering their critical reflexivity and motivating their engagement in deconstructing, analysing and dismantling the processes through which schooling reproduces educational inequalities.

References

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  46. Ibid., pp. 49–51.
  47. Georges Felouzis, Les inégalités scolaires (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2020), p. 66.
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Published

2026-04-01

Article dates

Received: March 31, 2025 Revised: July 6, 2025 Accepted: August 26, 2025

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Vol. 14 No. 056 (2026): Issue 056

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