The Teaching of Sociology to Undergraduate Students in Britain, 1904–1979

Abstract

This chapter examines the academic characteristics of sociology as taught to undergraduate students throughout the twentieth century. It shows that in this period, sociology was consistently viewed as a subject whose aim was to provide a ‘general education’. This view was at odds with those recommendations of the major reports on the teaching of social science in Britain which called for high-quality training in quantitative skills. Using evidence from the annual calendars of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Peel’s (Courses Mainly Concerned with Sociological Theory and Methods in 29 Universities. British Sociological Association [mimeo], London, 1968) and Wakeford’s (Research Methods Syllabuses in Sociology Departments in the United Kingdom [Undergraduate Courses]. Department of Sociology, The University of Lancaster [mimeo], Lancaster, 1979) collections of sociology methods syllabuses, the chapter examines how sociology curricula were structured and what they contained; what the place and role of methods courses in curricula was; and what proportion of the curriculum was devoted to statistical and survey methods. The findings of the analysis are placed in a broader context in the final section which looks at the US views on the teaching of sociology in British universities.