How Do Sociologists Know What They Know? An Examination of Sociology Textbooks for Evidence of Sociological and Scientific Thinking

Abstract

The American Sociological Association recommends that instructors and departments infuse research methods instruction throughout the curriculum (i.e., beyond research methods courses). Sociology textbooks are widely used instructional components and are essential to examine how research instruction extends beyond chapters and courses on research methods. The author uses qualitative content analysis of 27 textbooks for introductory courses ( n = 19) and intermediate elective courses ( n = 8) to uncover how textbooks illuminate the process of how sociologists know what they know (i.e., do research). Overall, textbooks model asociological and unscientific thinking by using false equivalence practices, reinforcing commonsense explanations, and relying on shortcuts to scientific credibility, among other means. Textbooks describe society using basic descriptive statistical data but provide little explanation of how scholars gather or analyze data or draw conclusions about data. These results suggest that textbooks have gaps in their ability to support research methods instruction throughout the sociology curriculum.