Rights statement: The original publication is available at www.link.springer.com
Accepted author manuscript, 284 KB, PDF document
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - How do students’ accounts of sociology change over the course of their undergraduate degrees?
AU - Ashwin, Paul
AU - Abbas, Andrea
AU - McLean, Monica
N1 - The original publication is available at www.link.springer.com
PY - 2014/2
Y1 - 2014/2
N2 - In this article we examine how students’ accounts of the discipline of sociology change over the course of their undergraduate degrees. Based on a phenomenographic analysis of 86 interviews with 32 sociology and criminology students over the course of their undergraduate degrees, we constituted five different ways of accounting for sociology. These ranged from describing sociology as a form of personal development focused on developing the students’ opinion to describing sociology as a partial way of studying the relations between people and society. The majority of students expressed more inclusive accounts of sociology over the course of their degrees. However, some students’ accounts suggested they had become disengaged with sociology. We argue that the differences in the ways that students were disengaged were not captured by our phenomenographic categories. In conclusion, we argue that our analysis illustrates the crucial role that students’ relations to knowledge play in understanding the transformative nature of higher education
AB - In this article we examine how students’ accounts of the discipline of sociology change over the course of their undergraduate degrees. Based on a phenomenographic analysis of 86 interviews with 32 sociology and criminology students over the course of their undergraduate degrees, we constituted five different ways of accounting for sociology. These ranged from describing sociology as a form of personal development focused on developing the students’ opinion to describing sociology as a partial way of studying the relations between people and society. The majority of students expressed more inclusive accounts of sociology over the course of their degrees. However, some students’ accounts suggested they had become disengaged with sociology. We argue that the differences in the ways that students were disengaged were not captured by our phenomenographic categories. In conclusion, we argue that our analysis illustrates the crucial role that students’ relations to knowledge play in understanding the transformative nature of higher education
KW - Conceptions
KW - Knowledge
KW - Phenomenography
KW - Sociology
KW - Students
U2 - 10.1007/s10734-013-9659-z
DO - 10.1007/s10734-013-9659-z
M3 - Journal article
VL - 67
SP - 219
EP - 234
JO - Higher Education
JF - Higher Education
SN - 0018-1560
IS - 2
ER -