Cultural Sociology of Education Faculty Research Group

The Monash Cultural Sociology of Education Research Group builds on the insights of the sociology of education and of cultural studies in education. It understands education broadly to include institutions such as schools and universities and also the popular and public pedagogies associated with wider cultural formations— what we call non-traditional educational sites. A central overlapping interest is the manner in which these intersect.

The group has three central foci which arise out of our shared and separate interests.

1. The cultural sociology of elite education.
   Our cultural sociology of elite education is interested in the cultural practices of such education and in the links between such education and elite social groupings on global and national scales. It is also interested in the cultural expressions and representations of such groupings and such education and the groupings it serves.
2. The cultural sociology of faith, secularism, sexuality and education.
   Our cultural sociology of faith, secularism and sexuality in education critiques mainstream sociology as reproducing discursive powers, which perpetuate certain assumptions about faith, secularism and sexuality. This cultural sociology explores and problematises social and cultural assumptions about faith, secularism and sexuality in an attempt to challenge hegemonic epistemologies that translate into particular norms.
3. The cultural sociology of university education.
   This research explores the links between universities and cultural globalisation focusing on moving ideas and people and seeks to develop decolonising methodologies, epistemologies and pedagogies. It also examines the changing cultural forms of university practices nationally and internationally.

Cross cutting these three foci is our shared interest in building the cultural sociology of education through the deployment and development of fresh theoretical resources and innovative research methodologies. This group draws together researchers within different analytic and methodological paradigms to undertake its epistemological work and will act as a meeting point for these differences.