This article examines the way in which sociology, as an academic teaching discipline, is worked on in teacher training college (ESPE, recently renamed INSPE). The article is based on a study carried out in four ESPEs using interviews, direct observations, and a documentary analysis. The study shows that sociology taught in ESPEs has weak autonomy, with sociological knowledge being partly produced by heteronomous logics that depend on the power relations in the institution. These power relations tend to diminish sociology’s place as an academic discipline within the courses on offer. The evolution of knowledge on offer in ESPEs reflects a more general movement in higher education, marked by the gradual separation of knowledge from the academic discipline in which it was developed, and its recomposition in courses organized around social and political goals (notably the employability of students).
- academic discipline
- knowledge
- teacher training
- institution
- higher education