Tenured, Associate Professor

Telephone: 905-525-9140, ext. 23607
E-Mail Address: daviesrs@mcmaster.ca or click on Scott Davies

Full CV

Academic Background

• Bachelor of Arts: University of Toronto 1986 (sociology and psychology)
• Masters of Arts: McMaster University 1987, Department of Sociology
• Ph.D.: University of Toronto 1992, Department of Sociology
• SSHRC postdoctoral fellow University of British Columbia, 1993-4
• Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, McMaster University, 1994 - present
• Visiting scholar, Stanford University 2000
• Visiting scholar, University of Toronto 2001
• Invited visiting professor, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2002
  
  
  Awards, Honours, and Professional Contributions:
• "International Study of the Year," International Studies SIG of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 1998, with Neil Guppy, for "Globalization and Education Reform in Anglo-American Democracies…"
• R.W.B. Jackson Award for most outstanding English language article by the Canadian Education Researchers Association, 2001, with Neil Guppy, for "Understanding Canadians' Declining Confidence in Public Education."
• Associate editor, Canadian Public Policy, 2004-present, editorial board, Sociology of Education, 1998-2000, 2003-present, editorial board, Sociological Inquiry, 2001-present, and reviewer for 20 academic journals

Research and Graduate Supervision

Over my career I have published 24 articles in refereed journals, 9 book chapters, 12 other articles, 1 co-authored book and 1 co-edited book, as well as 2 government reports and 11 book reviews. My articles can be found in journals in the United States, Canada and Britain, including American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Social Problems, Sociology of Education, British Journal of Sociology, Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology, and Canadian Journal of Sociology. I have also written for trade magazines and newspapers, including Education Canada, Our Kids Go to School, Dialogue, Hamilton Spectator, and McMaster Courier, as well as for newsletters and bulletins for the Canadian Sociology and Anthropology Association, and the Organization for Quality Education.

In recent years I have established a track record of successfully supervising graduate students, funding them through research assistantships, and co-publishing several articles and chapters with them. I am interested in conducting research and supervising students in each of the following 5 areas of sociology and education:

Areas of Research Interest:

a) Inequality and Stratification:
Most years I teach a graduate course in inequality. Much of my research has focused on classic issues of inequality by race, class, and gender. Early in my career I examined differing educational attainment and labour market rewards by gender, class and race, in some instances tested various cultural theories of inequality. More recently I have turned my attention to stratification within school systems, particularly higher education, comparing Canada to other nations.

I can work with students who are interested in inequality in education and other institutions, particularly in new forms that stratification is taking in the emerging era marked by globalization and the "knowledge economy."

b) Privatization, Markets and Culture:
One of my current interests focuses on privatization and the use of market forces to organize human services. I recently received a SSHRC INE grant to examine new forms of private education. With two doctoral students, Janice Aurini and Linda Quirke, I have investigated the emergence of new types of private schools, tutoring franchises, homeschooling, and similar innovations. We have written a series of articles, including studies of the ideology of choice in education, how choice-seeking parents differ from other parents, how franchising is transforming the private tutoring industry, the links between the demand for private education and new cultures of parenting and child-rearing, how markets affect the organization of schools, and how privatization may be changing the nature of educational professionalism.

Here I can work with students interested in issues of privatization in education and other institutions. Borrowing insights from the sociology of culture, I am particularly interested in how knowledge is being transformed and re-organized in the "new" university.

c) Youth, Deviance and Subcultures:
Early in my career I examined various notions of "cultural resistance" among youth. More recent work has investigated the impact of delinquency and labelling on various life chances. A newer interest of mine is how a variety of "school forms" are being exported from the main public school system and are being incorporated into novel institutional settings, particularly the criminal justice system. There are now a variety of diversion programs that employ educational models.

In recent years students of mine have done projects on educational diversion programs for deviant youth, drug courts, and the rise of restorative justice initiatives.

d) Work, Labour Markets and Organizations
I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on work and the professions. In past years I have written on the utility of labour process theory to understand various issues in employment, then moved to examining labour markets, focusing on transitions from school to work. Currently I am looking at the implications of privatization on teacher professionalism, and at using organizational theory in education. A particular focus is on using New Institutional Theory to understand various innovations in education, and to comprehend the impact of markets on schools.

Currently I am interested in working with students with interests in the professions, particularly the rise of human services industries. In my graduate course on professions, students have written publishable papers on a wide array of fascinating topics, including journalism, nursing, professional economics, midwifery, human resources, tutoring, weight-loss businesses, and social work.

e) Politics and Social Movements:
A final interest is on the politics of education and the impact of social movements on education. Few scholars have looked at social movements in education, but it is a growing area. In two papers I looked at the "framing" tactics of educational interest groups, highlighting how social movements strategically communicate their ideas to take advantage of emerging political opportunities. I have also looked at educational politics in global perspective.

Publications by Area of Interest

a) Inequality and Stratification
Davies, Scott. 1999, 2004. "Stubborn Disparities: Explaining Class Inequalities in Schooling." chapter 13, p138-150 in Social Inequality in Canada: Patterns, Problems, and Policies (3rd and 4th editions) edited by James Curtis, Edward Grabb, and Neil Guppy. Toronto: Prentice Hall.

Davies, S., and Neil Guppy. 1997. "Fields of Study, College Selectivity, and Student Inequalities." Social Forces 73(4):131-151.

Davies, Scott and Floyd Hammack. 2004. "Channelling Competition in Higher Education: Comparing Canada and the US". Journal of Higher Education 75(in press).

Quirke, Linda and Scott Davies. 2002. "The New Entrepreneurship in Higher Education: The Impact of Tuition Increases at an Ontario University." Canadian Journal of Higher Education 32(3):85-110.

Davies S, Mosher C., and O'Grady B. (1996) "Educating Women: Gender Inequalities Among Canadian University Graduates." Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 33(2): 125- 142.

Guppy, Neil and Scott Davies 1998. Education in Canada: Recent Trends and Future Challenges. Ottawa: Statistics Canada (203pp, xxxix); also published in French as L'Education Au Canada: Tendances Recentes et Defis a Relever. (Ottawa: Statistics Canada; 226pp, xlii)

Davies, Scott and Neil Guppy. 1998. "Race and Canadian Education." in Vic Satzewich (ed). Racism and Social Inequality in Canada: Concepts, Controversies and Strategies of Resistance.Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing Inc.

Davies Scott. (1994). "Cultural Theories of Class Inequality in Canadian Education" in L. Erwin and D. MacLennan (eds.) Sociology of Education in Canada: Critical Perspectives on Theory, Research and Practice. Toronto: Copp Clarke Longman Ltd.

b) Privatization, Markets and Culture:
Davies, Scott. 2004. "School Choice by Default? Understanding the Demand for Private Tutoring in Canada." American Journal of Education 110(3):233-255.

Davies, Scott and Linda Quirke. 2005. "Providing for the Priceless Student: Ideologies of Choice in an Emerging Private School Market." American Journal of Education (forthcoming).

Aurini, Janice and Scott Davies. 2005. "Choice Without Markets: Homeschooling in Context of Private Education." British Journal of Sociology of Education 26(4).

Davies, Scott and Janice Aurini. Forthcoming. "Home Schooling and Canadian Educational Politics: Rights, Pluralism, and Pedagogical Individualism." Evaluation and Research in Education 17(2&3).

Guppy, Neil, Scott Davies and Alison Ludditt. 1999. "A New Twist in Education Reform: Bringing the Market to Schools." chapter 14, p151-158 in Social Inequality in Canada: Patterns, Problems, and Policies (3rd edition) edited by James Curtis, Edward Grabb, and Neil Guppy. Toronto: Prentice Hall.

Davies, Scott. 2006. "School Choice." Encyclopedia of Sociology. Edited by George Ritzer. Blackwell Press.

c) Youth, Deviance and Subcultures:
Davies, Scott and Julian Tanner. 2003. "The Long Arm of the Law: A Test of Labelling Theory." Sociological Quarterly 44(3):385-404.

Tanner, Julian, Scott Davies and Bill O'Grady. 1999. "Whatever Happened to Yesterday's Rebels? Longitudinal Effects of Teenage Delinquency on Education and Occupational Outcomes." Social Problems 46(2):250-274. Reprinted in Thomas Calhoun and Constance Chappel (eds) Readings in Delinquency and Juvenile Justice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.

Davies, S. (1995). "Leaps of Faith: Shifting Currents in Critical Sociology of Education." American Journal of Sociology 100(6):1448-1478. Reprinted as "Les Miracles de la foi: la transformation des courants critiques en sociologie de l'education." Education et Societes: Revue Internationale de Sociologie de L'Education 5:93-116. 2000-1.

Davies, S. (1995). "Reproduction and Resistance in Canadian High Schools: An Empirical Examination of the Willis Thesis." British Journal of Sociology 46(4):662:687.

Davies S. (1994). "Class Dismissed? Student Opposition in Ontario" Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology 31(3):421-444.

Davies S. (1994). "In Search of Resistance and Rebellion Among High School Dropouts." Canadian Journal of Sociology 19(3):331-350.

Davies, Scott. 1999. "Subcultural Explanations and Interpretations of School Deviance." Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal. 4(2):191-202.

d) Work, Labour Markets and Organizations:
Aurini, Janice and Scott Davies. 2004 "The Transformation of Private Tutoring: Education in a Franchise Form." Canadian Journal of Sociology 29(3):419-438.

Davies, Scott, Janice Aurini, and Linda Quirke. Forthcoming. "Institutional Theory Goes To the Market: The Challenge of New Forms of Private Education." in The New Institutionalism and the Study of Education. Edited by Heinz Meyer and Brian Rowan. Albany: SUNY Press.

Davies, Scott and Linda Quirke. Forthcoming. "Do Educational Markets Promote Innovation? An Organizational Analysis of Private Schools in Toronto." In School Sector Effects on Educational Outcomes, edited by Maureen Hallinan. Notre Dame University Press.

Guppy N. and Davies S. (1996) "Labour Market Dynamics in the Teaching Profession" Education Quarterly Review 3(4):33-43.

Davies S., Mosher C., and O'Grady B. (1994). "Exploring Trends in the Transition from Education to Employment for Canadian Post Secondary Graduates 1978-88" in L. Erwin and D. MacLennan (eds.) Sociology of Education in Canada: Critical Perspectives on Theory, Research and Practice. Toronto: Copp Clarke Longman Ltd.

Tanner J., Davies S., and O'Grady B. (1992). "Immanence Changes Everything: A Critical Comment on the Labour Process and Class Consciousness" Sociology 26(3): 439-453.

Davies S. (1990) "Inserting Gender into Burawoy's Labour Process Theory." Work, Employment and Society 4 (3): 391-406.

e) Politics and Social Movements:
Davies, Scott. 1999. "From Moral Duty to Cultural Rights: A Case Study of Political Framing in Education." Sociology of Education 72(1):1-21.

Davies, Scott, and Neil Guppy. 1997. "Globalization and Educational Reforms in Anglo- American Democracies" Comparative Education Review. 41(4):435-59.

Tindall, David and Scott Davies. 2003. "Activism and Conservation Behaviour in an Environmental Movement: The Contradictory Effects of Gender." Society and Natural Resources. 16(10):909-932.

Davies, Scott. 2002. "The Paradox of Progressive Education: A Frame Analysis" Sociology of Education 75(4):269-286.

Guppy, Neil and Scott Davies. 1999. "Understanding Canadians' Declining Confidence in Public Education" Canadian Journal of Education 24(3):265-280.

Levitt, Cyril, Scott Davies and Neil McLaughlin (eds). 1999. Mistaken Identities: The Second Wave of Controversy over "Political Correctness." New York: Peter Lang.