INTRODUCING THE DISCIPLINE - THE SCHOLARLY CONTENT OF INTRODUCTORY TEXTS

This paper examines the schorlary content of four widely adopted intro ductory sociology textbooks and the scholarly activity of their respec tive authors. Although all four texts use a wide array of source mater ial to support their positions, we found substantial differences in th e sources selected as noteworthy, including a heavy reliance on nonaca demic sources such as newspapers and weekly magazines. The use of popu lar sources was associated with the author's scholarly publication rec ords: stronger records coincided with a more scientifically grounded p resentation of the discipline. Despite the limitations of the standard introductory textbook, we view it as the best way to convey the conte nt of sociology. Also, because most students probably base their perce ptions of sociology on the introductory course, the textbook plays a p ivotal role: how source materials are used to present sociology in int roductory textbooks may affect students' perceptions about the utility of the discipline.