The last educational ideology which created an intense impact on educational thought due to its rebuttal of the traditional way of schooling was the radical or the reconceptualist ideology. The proponents of this ideology advocate and impose a complete overhaul of the social order for they are preoccupied with dissatisfaction with the existing society. The school as an institution, they argued, "has dangerously overstepped the limits of its capacity to benefit modern individuals or collective social life" (Reitman, 1981, p. 305-306). In this regard, Reitman (1981) listed two central idea of the radical/ reconceptualist ideology: first, education as a strategy of revolution and second, education as anarchy. Both of these key points of radicals defined the need to conduct a thorough reconceptualization of individual and social priorities through educational means. However, this suggests an entire revision of the concept and structure of schools given that schools are regulated by the capitalist bourgeoisies, as depicted by radical theorists (Hurn, 1993). In line with this argument, schooling now serves the purpose of producing "employees who would submit to the repressive demands of work in a hierarchical, capitalist society" and of concealing "the dominance of inherited power and privilege by persuading people that intelligence and effort were the sole determinants of success" (Hurn, 1993, p.270). Moreover, the most remarkable claim that radicals insist which provoked other ideological theorists as well as those educational ones, is that "schooling fostered passive conformity rather than active engagement, and unthinking obedience to the status quo rather than independent and critical thought" (Hurn, 1993, p.270).
On the other hand, critics of radical/reconceptualist ideology argued that the latter overestimated the uniformity of elite groups with regards to their exploitative stance over the proletariat. At the same time, they also underestimated "the extent to which contemporary schools increasingly mirror the real cultural diversity of the society" such that it may not necessarily follow that schools solely manifest the capitalist nature of society. In fact, reality suggests that schools are "exposed to multiple and conflicting values and ideals both in and out of school" making them critical of their educational standards. (Hurn, 1993).
At this point, radical theorists, particularly neo-Marxists, stressed that the different values and clashing stance on the view of education of various groups lead to struggles among them, and that schooling itself involves these conflicts. A relevant manifestation of this is what Bourdieu (1977) and Illich (1970) pointed out in which they related that schools, aside from teaching knowledge and culture, also impart "a particular form of knowledge or consciousness and the values and ideals of one group rather than another" to their students (Hurn, 1993, p. 271). Furthermore, they concluded that it is in this context of schooling by which ideological disputes take shape such that these "struggles between groups for control over the hearts and minds of the young, struggles in which those group who have economic and political power have considerable advantages" (Hurn, 1993, p.271).
Going beyond the notion of schooling where education epitomizes the struggles over power configurations and power relations as prevalent contradictions between cultural and ideological beliefs persist, Paulo Freire (1921) made a striking remark on the role of schools which are bounded by the superior society when he wrote, "schools represent only one important site where education takes place, where men and women both produce and are the product of specific social and pedagogical relations" (Freire, 1921, p 4). It is also necessary to mark how such power struggles change the course of the sociology of education. In the emergence of the "new" sociology of education, Freirian concept of education holds that education be "meaningful in a way that makes it critical and, hopefully, emancipatory" such that education acknowledges questions relating the relations among knowledge, power and domination. In this line, education may in some way, be politicized to serve as a springboard for self and social empowerment in the society, more than its function to "legitimize" ideologies (Freire, 1921). The potential ability of schools through profound pedagogy to embolden the oppressed groups of people belonging to an oppressive society when realized can perhaps imply far-reaching developments in the sociology of education. Reitman (1981), on the other hand, supported the idea in his context of "liberal" education in the sense that schooling and education tries to veer away from "unjustifiable convention and tradition so that they may pursue their varied objectives in life with greater intelligence and autonomy" (Reitman, 1981, p. 351). Moreover, he even posed a question which strongly suggests the importance of education to devote its efforts toward the understanding of the larger phenomena which people make and to which human existence is part of. The question is: "Is it conceivable that one of the most liberalizing educations any teacher (or lay citizen for that matter) can receive at present is an education concerned about how social life is controlled, by who, and why?" (Reitman, 1981, p. 353).
In relation to this, Paulo Freire (1921) in his book entitled "Pedagogy of the Oppressed", added equally significant considerations in viewing education as a "liberating" instrument for people. Education, as an evident witness or sometimes an indirect mechanism of power configurations and struggles for power, "has a lot to do with the reinvention of power" (Freire, 1921, p. 20). It is for the reason of the nature and scope of power that Freire posed such challenge to education. For him, "power works both on and through people" and so, schooling does possess the opportunity to define clearly how power "works" on and through these individuals (Freire, 1921, p. 19). Consciousness and awareness of this power conception, bringing with it different political perceptions and ideologies, plays a vital role on Freire's "emancipatory" character of his radical pedagogy. That is, educators must not reinforce the learner's "false consciousness" which emanates from the mere dictates and whims of the existing political structure dominant in the society, instead, "education of a liberating character is a process by which the educator invites learners to recognize and unveil reality critically" (Freire, 1921, p. 102), in which the plausibility of educators to explain "how social life is controlled, by who, and why", as Reitman recognized, is an immense evidence of liberal education.
Yet, it is still imperative to study education and schooling in its global context so as to finally complete the critical probing of the sociology of education. In this light, the far-reaching significance of education to almost every person is manifested such that pedagogical measures are in continuous process of examination for the drafting of policies and reforms which aim to improve and develop schooling. Given this observation, it has been stated that schools are regarded as an instrument that purports to serve the society. Thus, educational policies and reforms would likely strengthen its obligation to uphold the society's interest. However, the complexity of the present era where capitalism greatly dominates and describes almost all of the societies in the globe, particularly in the third word, does not entail a homogenous interest of all societies. There exist differences among these societies such that a practice of something which favors one society may not be viable to another for it may lead to possible dissolution of the fundamental norms and beliefs of the latter. This also holds true for educational methods and pedagogical practices currently in force in different countries. In the same way, educational policies and reforms that are feasible to other capitalist nations may not necessarily be practical for other countries which are not capitalist in nature. As such, the concept of a new ideology, adding to the preexisting set of political paradigms, known as neoliberalism enters the walls of classrooms.
