Bridges to the future: The contributions of qualitative research to the sociology of education

This article considers how qualitative research, conducted from an interpre tive perspective, has enhanced knowledge of four substantive topics in the sociology of education: educational inequality, socialization and identity formation, school organization, and educational policy. In each area, quali tative studies have generated contextualized, process-sensitive knowledge a nd have introduced new voices, perspectives, and themes into traditional un derstanding. This research may enable the sociology of education to meet fo ur additional challenges: generating theoretically rich examinations of sch ools as organizations; addressing issues of culture and education; developi ng broader social analyses of schooling and society; and incorporating pers pectives on learning as situated, sociocultural activity into the study of schools as contexts for teaching and learning. Two aspects of the qualitati ve research tradition pose particular dilemmas and opportunities for sociol ogy of education. First, qualitative research brings the sociology of educa tion closer to the worlds of policy and practice, which may mute its critic al voice. Second, since the sociology of education has been informed by qua litative research conducted from interdisciplinary vantage points and by re searchers who do not identify themselves as sociologists, the boundaries of the field are permeable and fluid.