The article touches upon the topical but understudied problem of stigmatization in education in modern sociology. The chronological framework of the analysis covers the period from the 1960s to the present day.The study begins with the summary of the conceptual ideas of Erving Goffman, the founder of the theory of stigmatization, taken mainly from his 1963 monograph ‘Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity’. It is emphasized that the theory of stigmatization was born at the crossroads of the three disciplines-psychology, social psychology and sociology. Goffman's interpretation of stigmatization is given with an emphasis on the negative connotations of this concept. The article states that at the end of the XX century, some authors began to put a different meaning into the concept of stigmatization, appealing towards its positive characteristics. This fact played an important role in subsequent studies of stigmatization in education. The article shows the development of E. Goffman's ideas about stigmatization up to the present day in various spheres of social sciences and humanities. Of capital significance is stigmatization in one of the core spheres of life, i.e. education. End-to-end nature of stigmatization in education (presence at all its levels) is emphasized. The authors offer their interpretation of the phenomenon of educational stigmatization and a sociological approach to its study. They pay special attention to the methodology of studying the problem of stigmatization in education, consider the causes and factors of its spread, as well as countering this process. In conclusion, it is argued that the problem of stigmatization has acquired unexpected significance in the context of the deep crisis in which Russian society has found itself recently.