This innovative monograph is concerned with a set of inter-related problems associated with the nature of knowledge, how it is produced within intellectual fields and the implications of those things for education and the transmission of knowledge in the classroom. It covers issues in the sociology of knowledge, the educational system and policy, social differences in educational attainment, educational research and teaching. At various points it critically engages with the ideas of major thinkers such as Durkheim, Bernstein and Bourdieu and others and draws on contributions representing an emerging new approach in the sociology of education associated with recent work by John Beck, Karl Maton, Johan Muller, Michael F.D. Young and others. This provocative and challenging book will undoubtedly stimulate debate among educationists across the world.