The name is absent

59

Lacey

perhaps

comes nearest to this concern and in so doing

represents a strand of thinking and approach emerging within sociology

and particularly taken

up in the sociology of education at that time.

In introducing his uses of Grounded Theory (Glazer and Strauss 1968)
he says ’’For it is only through an understanding of and eventually
control of the interaction between sociology and society, or, put
differently, between sociological ideas and concerns and the concerns

of actors in the area of society in which sociologists make their

studies that sociology will come of age as a mature and distinctive

discipline" (1973 Ch7 P2).

For Lacey his account "represents one stage in the development of
a dialogue and the construction of a common language and understanding".
But it does not follow as he suggests "that if this account fails
to communicate to other sociologists or interested educationists,
then it can be deemed a failure" (1973 Ch7 P2). Such a stance is
indicative of the underlying optimism that informed areas of thinking
about the relationship of theory and practice and which underestimated
both what stood in the way of such an endeavour and of equal importance
the enormous changes in orientation and in effort that such a relation-
ship would require.

What is not recognised is the contribution that practice itself can
make here which was underlined in the Introduction to this thesis.
In a sense all practice contains within itself its own directions
and limitations and these are not necessarily revealed in the process
of critical analysis. Failures in communicating and the lack of
application of findings to practice may point to the inherent diffi-

culty of the endeavour. The concerns of interested practitioners