Popular but peripheral: the ambivalent status of sociology education in schools in England

This article reports the largest UK study of sociology school teachers’ views of the discipline. Drawing on the sociology of the professions, we reflect on the ambivalent positioning of sociology in schools.

Despite buoyant uptake, teachers claim that sociology is perceived as dated and has lower status than other elective courses, often described as a ‘soft’ and ‘easy’ subject that anyone can teach. While many students are reported to benefit from the transformative education that sociology affords, the failure to designate the subject as facilitating entry to higher status universities serves to further marginalise the discipline.

We argue that sociology in schools is weakly bounded, poorly supported and lacks strong professional coherence. While this allows sociology to have an open, critical and reflexive character, it comes at the price of not being able to control delivery in schools and make claims for high status.