Diminishing the Divisions Among Us: Reading and Writing Across Difference in Theory and Method in the Sociology of Education

Abstract

Evidenced in several now classic reviews of the field, much has been made of theoretical and methodological “difference” with regard to research in the sociology of education. Although such renditions often constitute important intellectual contributions, the authors suggest that it is increasingly important to read across theoretical and methodological divisions that are now widely understood to characterize the field. The authors fear, in fact, that the seemingly taken-for-granted assumption of staked-out theoretical and methodological “camps” (with which scholars and doctoral students are inevitably allied) implies a misunderstanding or misreading of how scholars came to be where they are today while simultaneously stunting scholarship related to the production of social inequalities both in and outside of schools. The authors intentionally traverse select taken-for-granted boundaries as they work toward productive scholarly “trespassing” that encourages the kind of theoretical and methodological struggle, debate, and difference that characterized an earlier period.