Teaching Sociology through Violence? The Pedagogical Use and Misuse of Violence in Soc 101 Textbooks

Bibliographic Data

ID11061997
AuthorsErin Hatton (0000-0003-1219-356X, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, NY, USA, corresponding author), Srushti Upadhyay (0009-0008-9979-255X, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA), Saurabh Upadhyay (0000-0001-6597-7064, Purdue University West Lafayette), Logan Phlox Williams (0009-0005-4817-3060, University at Buffalo, SUNY, Buffalo, NY, USA)
Year2025
Volume53
Issue4
Pages301-316
Publication date2025-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTeaching Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0092-055X • E-ISSN: 1939-862X
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0092055x251369087
OpenAlexW4414128740
LanguageEN
References cited36

In this article, we examine violence in introductory sociology textbooks. To what extent are students exposed to violence in sociology textbooks, we ask, and how much of this violence is necessary for textbooks’ instructional content? To answer these questions, we conducted a line-by-line content analysis of 22 popular introductory sociology textbooks, identifying every case of violence and analyzing its pedagogical utility. We find that sociology textbooks contain a substantial amount of violence (a median of 252 cases per text) and that, on average, about half of that violence could be removed without affecting the texts’ instructional content. Yet we also recognize that teaching about violence is often necessary. Thus, we argue that educators should approach it with care, recognizing when violence has pedagogical value and when it does not. By analyzing the pedagogical use and misuse of violence in sociology textbooks, this article provides sociology educators with the conceptual and empirical tools for doing so

Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Innovative Teaching Methodologies in Social Sciences

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