교육사회학과 교육정책

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Political economy is a science of the political state concerning civil society (or “society” briefly)
in view of maximizing the economic efficiency of the latter or ensuring of justice, fairness, equality
and/or equity in the latter. Or it is a science that encompasses both the workings of the political
state and those of civil society, which is generally dubbed “economic.” As such, it provides a
perspective which is much broader than those of such “social” sciences as sociology, political
science, and scientific sub-disciplines in educational studies including sociology of education. Policy
study in education, on the other hand, is a form of scientific or quasi-scientific inquiry into what
measures or venues are leading to solving specific problems that arise from the system of education
in place in a particular country. Since it takes a position of scientific inquiry, or specifically a
position of disinterested inquiry, it tends to leave out the political dimension that might be involved
in the development or exploration of the measures or venues. In effect, any form of policy study
based on the specialized sub-disciplines in educational studies tend to leave out the possibility that
the “political” state, the owner of the policies developed and implemented with an intention of
solving educational problems, is in fact creating new problems and aggravating existing problems or
turning its back to necessary political agendas.
In this paper, we discuss what sociologists of education have to consider in order for them to
make valuable contributions to policy study in education and in developing and implementing
educational policies that can actually help improve efficiency in the educational sphere of civil
society or ensuring of justice, fairness, equality or equity in that sphere.