Cover; Acknowledgements; About the authors; Introduction; 1 Education(al) research and education policy in an imperfect world; 2 Ideology and evidence in English teacher education; 3 The (mis)use of evidence in policy borrowing; 4 'Closing the achievement gap': Rhetoric or reality?; 5 'Knowing the ropes'? Access to higher education in England; 6 The continuing importance of the sociology of education; References; Index
Summary
This book argues that education policy is as often driven by political ideologies as by solid research evidence. It makes a plea for more discipline-based research on education, and reasserts the importance of the sociology of education as an essential resource for making sense of contemporary education policy
