https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X18769710
Teaching Sociology
1–10
© American Sociological Association 2018
DOI: 10.1177/0092055X18769710
ts.sagepub.com
Original Article
Sociologists have long struggled to identify the
central topics, concepts, and perspectives that
should be taught within the sociology curriculum
as a whole and in the introductory sociology course
in particular (see Howard 2010). Recently, defining
a core in sociology has received renewed attention
through a variety of publications, including the
Social Science Research Council’s sociology ini-
tiative (Ferguson and Carbonaro 2016), the
National Standards for High School Sociology
(American Sociological Association 2015), and
The Sociology Major in the Changing Landscape
of Higher Education: Curriculum, Careers, and
Online Learning (Pike et al. 2017).
In this study, we utilize the Sociological
Literacy Framework (SLF), developed by Ferguson
and Carbonaro (2016) and recommended by the
American Sociological Association (see Pike et al.
2017) as a valuable tool for designing the sociology
curriculum, to analyze students’ perceptions of
learning outcomes in 12 sections of one instructor’s
introductory sociology course. Eight sections were
taught on a small, regional, commuter campus of a
state university. Four sections were taught on a
midsized, residential, private university campus.
Because the two campuses enroll distinct student
populations in terms of social class, comparing
campuses enables to us to consider whether stu-
dents’ social context influences the most salient
learning they take away from the introductory soci-
ology course.
769710TSO XX X 10.1177/0092055X18769710Teaching SociologyHoward and Butler
research-article 2018
1
Butler University, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Corresponding Author:
Jay Howard, Butler University, 4600 Sunset Avenue,
Indianapolis, IN 46208, USA.
Email: jrhoward@butler.edu
The Sociology Literacy
Framework and Students’
Views of Learning in
Introductory Sociology
Jay Howard
1
and Jess Butler
1
Abstract
Discussions of the core in sociology have focused on faculty members’ perspectives regarding what should
be taught in introductory sociology courses. Because the development of curricula is and should be a
social process, we argue that students’ perceptions of learning outcomes also should be considered when
curricula are developed. This study utilizes a content analysis of 461 student-authored, end-of-semester
reflective essays concerning the most memorable learning that occurred in an introductory sociology
course. Collected between 2006 and 2015, the assignment was utilized in each of 12 introductory sociology
course sections taught by the same instructor at two universities. We then map student essay topics
onto the Sociological Literacy Framework (SLF) to identify the themes most memorable to students,
comparing responses of online, regional campus students with residential campus students. Results suggest
the instructor placed the greatest emphasis on the SLF Sociological Eye theme and the least emphasis on
the SLF Social Change and Reproduction theme. Students found topics within the SLF Socialization theme
most memorable and rarely cited the SLF Social Change and Reproduction theme.
Keywords
sociology literacy framework, introductory sociology, sociological core, learning outcomes