Sociology's Education Foundations: Facing the Challenge of Ambivalence.

Sociology has been perceived with ambivalence both by its own disciples/professors, practitioners. It is also perceived with ambivalence by the public it may try to serve: students, university administrators, faculty in other disciplines, government/business leaders and the general public. Sociology's foundations lie in the historical disjunctions of the 19th century and are grounded in the writings of various sociologists. The undergraduate program in sociology has been the subject of much attention in recent years. Ambivalence recently has been at the heart of graduate education in sociology. Much of the 1980s have been spent in ambivalence about the future of sociology: enrollments have been in a steep decline at the undergraduate level; sociology as discipline lost over 650 full-time positions in the period 1978-1985. Long before most other disciplines recognized that their undergraduate programs have been in trouble and in need of reform, the American Sociological Association had received two major grants to help launch its undergraduate teaching program. To conclude, the author suggests that the challenge to educate sociology to the students must be accepted to the fact that everybody has an individual and social at the same time.