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The ecology of education: A social and psychological approach to inequality

The starting point for this theoretical paper is the engagement with the issue of persistent patterned educational inequalities. Whilst taking up the issue of class this discussion argues for an opening up of the field of sociology (of education) to the interdisciplinarity of a complexity perspective approach which re-conceptualizes the school as a social ecology. Sidorenko proposes that an examination of developmental and psychological issues of learners need to inform sociological analyses in order to avoid reductivism of structuralist and post-structuralist accounts of inequality and to develop a nuanced complex approach based on both social and psychological methodologies.