95 Years of Teaching Sociology in High School

Abstract

The American Sociological Association’s centennial in 2005 affords sociologists an opportunity to reflect on the teaching of sociology – anywhere and everywhere that it happens. In the spirit of contributing to the history of teaching sociology in the United States, this paper outlines the roughly 95-year history of the teaching of high school sociology. I rely upon published course descriptions written by high school sociology teachers and empirical studies conducted by academic sociologists. They demonstrate that past high school sociology courses have focused primarily on examining social problems and current events, and on promoting citizenship education.