In this episode we are joined by Steven Courtney from the University of Manchester. He is a critical sociologist of educational leadership and policy with a research focus on the interplay of structure, agency and power.

Our discussion takes us into the grammar of schooling and why it has been so hard to change. Looking at England and the US, we discuss the structures of schooling, including age grading and subject sorting through periods of time as products of meaning.

Additional resources:

Courtney, S. J., & Mann, B. (2021). Thinking with ‘lexical’features to reconceptualize the ‘grammar’of schooling: Shifting the focus from school to society. Journal of Educational Change, 22(3), 401-421.