Studies on Sociology Teaching in Higher Education: A Comparative Literature Review of American, European, and Turkish Sociology

Abstract

This article is a literature review that comparatively examines publications and research conducted about the teaching of sociology in higher education. English, Turkish, and to some extent French academic journals and sources were surveyed, and articles about sociology education in different countries were compiled. Thereby, the possibilities and features of a field which can be called “studies on teaching sociology” were discussed and assessed within the context of American, European, and Turkish sociology. Through compiling the perspectives and ways sociology education are studied, the goal of this article is to draw attention to the issue of how to teach disciplines at higher education as well as to provide insights about potential future research on the topic. Teaching Sociology, the longest running academic publication devoted specifically to the teaching of sociology at higher education, was introduced and examined within the context of American higher education academic publications. Studies on the teaching of sociology in European countries such as England, France, and Germany as well as those on Türkiye were discussed in terms of the changes higher education has been going through over the last twenty years, such as the increase of the volume of the higher education, international standardization, the tension between research and teaching workload, and student focused research. While there is an increasing academic interest in the European, Turkish, and particularly American sociology concerning the topic, it is still an understudied field.