"It's Not Rocket Science!": High School Sociology Teachers' Conceptions of Sociology

Autor/in	DeCesare, Michael
Titel	"It's Not Rocket Science!": High School Sociology Teachers' Conceptions of Sociology
Quelle	In: American Sociologist, 37 (2006) 1, S.51-67 (17 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0003-1232
DOI	10.1007/s12108-006-1014-8
Schlagwörter	High Schools; Intellectual Disciplines; Course Objectives; Sociology; Secondary School Teachers; Educational Sociology; Social Scientists; Questionnaires + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? High school; Oberschule; Geisteswissenschaften; Soziologie; Bildungssoziologie; Erziehungssoziologie; Social scientist; Sozialwissenschaftler; Fragebogen
Abstract	Since academic sociology's birth in this country, sociologists have not been shy about publicly praising and ridiculing the discipline. Though sociologists have been the primary participants in the seemingly endless debates about sociology's proper subject matter, methods, and purpose, there is another group that has also struggled over the past 95 years to formulate a conception of the discipline--high school sociology teachers. At this point, we know virtually nothing about what the thousands of high school teachers who offer sociology each year, actually think about the discipline. This paper uses questionnaire and interview data collected from high school sociology teachers to examine their thoughts on four topics: (1) sociology's strengths, (2) its weaknesses, (3) whether high school students are capable of understanding the discipline, and (4) appropriate course objectives. The results indicate that high school teachers view sociology quite differently from academic sociologists, and that their conceptions are based primarily on "textbook sociology." I conclude by discussing the far-reaching implications of teachers' current thinking about the discipline. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10