Karl Maton is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Faculty of Arts, University of Sydney, Australia.
Rob Moore is Senior Lecturer in Sociology of Education in the Faculty of Education, Fellow of Homerton College, and College Reader in Sociology of Education at the University of Cambridge, UK.

This volume covers issues in the sociology of knowledge, the educational system and policy, professional autonomy, vocational education, educational research and teaching, as well as the nature of such disciplines as cultural studies, English, science and the arts. The chapters also directly address the nature of sociology of education itself.The realist position developed in the book challenges two major currents of thought that have for a long time been prominent and influential in sociology and education: postmodernism and progressivism/constructivism.
This well-edited collection of papers is provocative and original in that it represents a sustained, collective critique that offers a genuine alternative to these current orthodoxies.

Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Coalitions of the Mind
Chapter 1: Reconceptualizing Knowledge and the Curriculum in the Sociology of Education
Rob Moore and Michael Young
Chapter 2: Analyzing Knowledge Claims and Practices: Languages of Legitimation
Karl Maton
Chapter 3: 'Voice Discourse' and the Problem of Knowledge and Identity
Rob Moore and Johan Muller
Chapter 4: Promoting Official Pedagogic Identities: The Sacred and the Profane
John Beck
Chapter 5: Competency-based Training, Powerful Knowledge and the Working Class
Leesa Wheelahan
Chapter 6: Knowledge and Truth in the Sociology of Education
Michael Young and Johan Muller
Chapter 7: Knowledge Structures and the Canon: A Preference for Judgements
Rob Moore
Chapter 8: Canons and Progress in the Arts and Humanities: Knowers and Gazes
Karl Maton
References