Roland Meighan is a former Special Professor of Education, University of Nottingham, UK and Senior Lecturer, University of Birmingham, UK. Clive Harber is Professor of Education and Head of the School of Education, University of Birmingham, UK. Len Barton is Professor of Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK. Iram Siraj-Blatchford is Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Education, University of London, UK. Stephen Walker is a Reader in the Sociology of Education, and Visiting Professor in the Science of Education, University of Bari, Italy.

• Part One: Familiarization; 1. A Taste of Sociology; 2. Pupils as Clients?; 3. Teachers as Victims?; 4. Parents as Educators?; 5. Mass Media; Part Two: The Hidden Curriculum; 6. The Hidden Curriculum: An Overview; 7. Space Talks: The Hidden Curriculum of Educational Buildings; 8. Timetables; 9. The Official Curriculum; 10. Orginization; 11. Teacher Expectations. 12. The Hidden Curriculum of Language; 13. Assessment; Part Three: Ideologies of Educating; 14. The Concept of Ideology; 15. Ideologies of Education; 16. Authoritarian and Non-authoritarian Ideologies of Education; 17. A Case Study Ideology of Education: Autonomous Study; 18. Case Studies: Democratic Education; Part Four: Sociological Perspectives and the Study of Education; 19. Social Systems, Structures and Functions; 20. The Action Perspectives; 21. The Conflict Perspective: A Marxian Approach; 22. Doing Research in Schools and Classrooms; 23. Postmoderinism; Part Five: Educational Life Chances or Who Gets What?; 24. Labelling Theory and Life Chances; 25. Gender Identitiy; 26. Social Class; 27. 'Race' and Ethnic Identity; 28. Other Minorities: Those with 'Special Needs'; Part Six: Educating for the Next Millennium; 29. Alternatives; 30. Anatomy of Choice in Education; 31. A Catalogue of Alternatives; References; Subject index; Name index.

'...it is very useful to the PGCE student as essentail reading and for [the] background knowledge needed for essays...'