This article proposes reform of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). It considers the purpose of inspection in English schools and describes the previous system of inspection based on Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools (HMI). The question of how effective Ofsted is -- in comparison to similar countries -- is then addressed. The…

Talcott Parsons did not leave us with a global and consistent sociology of education. Instead, different aspects can be found in Parsons's oeuvre in different theoretical contexts. This paper summarises these different parts of Parsons's sociology of education -- his writings on the concepts of education and socialisation, the university, the…