Critical policy sociology and education policy studies

Education policy has always been one of the most important factors driving countries toward democratic aspirations, such as justly educational opportunities and civil rights. The policy sociology as a tradition in the analysis of educational policy has provided an unparalleled perspective for analyzing policy issues in the field of education. Despite the importance of such an approach, there is no scientific evidence for the direction of policy studies in the policy sociology in Iran. Therefore, this paper seeks to describe this research tradition, given the lack of rich scientific background in the policy sociology in Persian. Accordingly, the present paper presents the key assumptions of the policy sociology and the policy archaeology as one of the approaches proposed in this research tradition. The research method of this paper is descriptive-analytical and documentary type. This study has shown that the policy sociology is based on seven key assumptions. These assumptions are value based study, political and historical perspective, multidisciplinary study, assemblage, discourse study and qualitative research. This article also discusses how researchers should use policy archaeology to analyze educational policies.