The Sociology Major at Institutions of Higher Education in the United States

In: Teaching sociology: TS, Band 35, Heft 1, S. 31-47

Abstract

In this article I examine how the sociology major is structured at institutions of higher education in the United States. I use content analysis of college catalogs from 100 institutions to examine the sociology major at top institutions among regional and national universities and liberal arts colleges. I first examine the basic structure of sociology programs and then evaluate implementation of the recommendations from Liberal Learning and the Sociology Major (Eberts et al. 1990). In 1990 the Council of the American Sociological Association voted to "encourage departments to consider and implement the recommendations" for the undergraduate curriculum found in Liberal Learning. These recommendations suggest a cumulative curriculum, including a four-level sequence and a capstone course. I assess the extent to which these recommendations had been adopted a decade after the report (by the year 2000), and conclude with suggestions for expanding the implementation of recommendations for study in depth in sociology.