Education, Change & Society

by Raewyn W. Connell

Written in an engaging manner by Australia's leading sociology and education academics, Education, Change and Society is written to assist students in their understanding of how and by what mechanisms contemporary education in Australia operates. The broader issues concerning Australian
society are examined in the context of educational institutions and policies, promoting critical reflection and facilitating in-depth analysis.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Race

367 pages, Paperback

First published February 15, 2007

About the author

Raewyn Connell (also known as R.W. Connell and Robert W. Connell) is an Australian sociologist. She gained prominence as an intellectual of the Australian New Left. She is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Sydney and known for the concept of hegemonic masculinity and southern theory.

Reviews

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a particularly good book, in fact, it is a pity I didn’t know about it a while ago, as it might have saved me a bit of time locating information and ‘further readings’. Essentially, it is a textbook on educational sociology in the Australian context. It covers themes such as Indigenous issues related to education (in what is a very powerful chapter), gender, social class, rurality, youth transitions (and how they have changed) and multiculturalism. But the bits of this that I found most useful were on the topics of education policy and how this impacts on how education occurs ‘on-the-ground’ and the final chapter on teachers conducting their own research – that is, as being active teacher-researchers.

This last chapter was particularly good as it discussed in some depth various techniques teachers can use in tackling in class research to improve their pedagogical practice – it discusses the limitations and advantages of various methods and the extent to which they provide valid research that is generalisable. That is, how much you can claim from any research you might conduct.

Many of the authors here are leading scholars in the field of Australian educational research – I’ve reviewed other books by many of them on good reads: particularly Connell, Campbell and Proctor.

This book presents core issues associated with the sociology of education in clear, plain language. Really, if you wanted an overview of this subject, it would be hard to find any other single book that provides quite so much.