Daris Salama Ulin Nuha; Imroatul Hasanah; Halimatus Sadiyah; Asnawan Asnawan
This study aims to examine the historical origins and development of the sociology of education, explore the biographies and ideas of key scholars from both Islamic and Western traditions, and analyze their relevance in the context of modern education. The development of education has always been closely linked to social, political, and economic dynamics, which gave rise to the sociology of education as a discipline that investigates the relationship between education and social change. Contemporary challenges such as social inequality, the impacts of globalization and technological advancement, and the growing demand for the democratization of education require a comprehensive examination of the major sociological theories that have emerged over time. This research employs a qualitative approach using a literature review method through the analysis of relevant books and scholarly journal articles. The findings indicate that the ideas of scholars such as Ibn Khaldun, Auguste Comte, Émile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Herbert Spencer, George Herbert Mead, Talcott Parsons, and Ali Shariati have made significant contributions to understanding the functions, conflicts, and interactions within education. Structural functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist theories provide complementary analytical frameworks for explaining education’s role as a means of social integration, an arena for the reproduction of inequality, and a space for the construction of meaning and identity. By adopting a comparative approach across different intellectual traditions, this study offers a holistic perspective for the development of the sociology of education in the modern era.