Library Resources and Services for EDPS 4021, Sociology of Education

This research guide is intended as an overview of library resources and services of particular relevance for Professor Joseph Nelson’s Fall 2020 course EDPS 4021, Sociology and Education. The resources, primarily electronic but also some in print, have been selected to support the objectives of the course, i.e., to provide "a critical examination of American education from a sociological perspective, applying key concepts, perspectives, and theories within the discipline to contemporary issues and debates in education." This guide also includes a section describing research consultation and assistance services and options for document retrieval and delivery available to all members of the Teachers College community.

Resources designated (CU) are accessible online through Columbia University Libraries.

Online Catalogs

EDUCAT - The most definitive record of the holdings of the Gottesman Libraries at Teachers College, including books, e-books, journals, e-journals, dissertations, media, and other specialized collections of all kinds.

CLIO Catalog - A union catalog of Columbia University Libraries (exclusive of the libraries of Teachers College, the Columbia Law School, and Jewish Theological Seminary), providing the most definitive record of individual libraries' holdings of books, e-books, journals, e-journals, dissertations, media, and other specialized collections of all kinds.

WorldCat - A union catalog of the contents of over 10,000 libraries worldwide, providing the means to do exhaustive searching by author, title, subject, and numerous other criteria and to find locations for specific items in libraries nearby and elsewhere.  WorldCat is also freely accessible on the Web at worldcat.org.

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) are the official subject terms prescribed by the Library of Congress for the cataloging of books and are in use in essentially all academic libraries. To find works pertaining to the sociology of education and related topics, it may be useful to use some of the subject terms listed below when searching the online catalogs of libraries at Teachers College, Columbia University, and other institutions.

• Academic achievement (use for Academic underachievement; Underachievement, Academic)
• Education -- Aims and objectives [LB41 (Essays)]
• Education -- Social aspects
• Education and state [LC71-LC188] (use for Education policy; Educational policy)
• Educational equalization [LC213-LC214.53]
• Educational equalization -- Case studies
• Educational equalization -- Government policy
• Educational equalization -- Cross-cultural studies
• Educational sociology [LC189-LC214.53]
• Right to education
• Sociology [HM]
• Sociology -- Methodology [HM511-HM538]
• Sociology -- Philosophy
• Sociology -- Research

For an overview of the call number system used in our library and many other academic libraries, see the Library of Congress Classification Outline page.

Periodical Indexes

Sociology Databases

SocINDEX with Full Text (CU) - Offers comprehensive coverage of sociology, encompassing all sub-disciplines and closely related areas of study. The database contains full text for more than 860 journals dating back to 1908, more than 830 books and monographs, and over 16,800 conference papers.

Sociological Abstracts (CU) - Abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences, covering such major areas as culture and social structure, family and social welfare, history and theory of sociology, radical sociology, rural and urban sociology, and the sociology of the arts, business, and education.

Social Science Databases

Anthropology Online (CU) - "Brings together a wide range of written ethnographies, field notes, seminal texts, memoirs, and contemporary studies, covering human behavior the world over. Essential for study in the areas of politics, economics, history, psychology, environmental studies, religion, area studies, linguistics, and geography, the database will contain more than over 100,000 pages of full-text material at completion, including tens of thousands of pages of previously unpublished material from major archives."

Anthropology Plus (CU) - Provides worldwide indexing of journal articles, reports, commentaries, and edited works in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, material culture, and interdisciplinary studies.

AnthroSource (CU) - Covers current issues of the American Anthropology Association's journals and bulletins, as well as archived issues of all of the AAA' s journals, newsletters, and bulletins.

Social Sciences Full Text - Provides coverage of English-language journals across social science disciplines, with indexing from 1983, abstracting from 1984, and select access to full text from 1984 to the present.

Education Databases

ERIC - Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to provide extensive access to education-related periodical literature, ERIC (which stands for Educational Resources Information Center) provides coverage of conferences, meetings, government documents, theses, dissertations, reports, audiovisual media, bibliographies, directories, books, and monographs. In addition to this version, made available via the ProQuest platform, ERIC is also accessible via the U.S. government ERIC site and through Ebsco ERIC.

Education Full Text - Provides comprehensive coverage of an international range of English-language periodicals, monographs, and yearbooks. Indexing coverage begins June 1983; abstracts are included beginning spring 1994; full text of some journals is available beginning in January 1996.

Education Index Retrospective - Provides cover-to-cover indexing for an international range of English-language periodicals and yearbooks; coverage from 1929 through mid-1983.

Education Research Complete - Provides indexing and abstracts for more than 2,100 journals, as well as full text for more than 1,200 journals, and includes full text for nearly 500 books and monographs.

Professional Development Collection - Designed for professional educators, this database provides a highly specialized collection of nearly 520 high-quality education journals, including more than 350 peer-reviewed titles. The database also contains more than 200 educational reports.

Multidisciplinary Databases

Academic Search Premier - A multidisciplinary database providing full text for more than 4,600 journals, including nearly 3,900 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals. See also Academic Search Complete (CU), a scholarly, multidisciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887.

JSTOR (CU) - An online archive of over 1,200 leading scholarly journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work. Journals are always included from volume 1, issue 1 and include previous and related titles. The most recently published issues (the past 3-5 years) are generally not available through JSTOR, though they usually are through other e-sources.

ProQuest (CU) - Provides broad multidisciplinary coverage of scholarly journals, newspapers, dissertations, and other types of publications; for international coverage and access to full texts of dissertations only, search ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, a subset of ProQuest.

Federated Search Engines

Super Search (via Gottesman Libraries) - To search some or all of our periodical indexes and EDUCAT simultaneously for books, journal articles, reports, dissertations, etc.

Quicksearch (via Columbia University Libraries) - To search the catalog, multiple periodical indexes, and other web resources simultaneously within a variety of subjects and disciplinary subcategories.

Google Scholar - Provides the means to search for scholarly research across many disciplines and sources:  articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other web sites.

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Print Resources

Education and Sociology: An Encyclopedia (2002)

International Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Education (1997)

E-Resources

Cambridge Dictionary of Sociology (CU) - This dictionary, published in 2008, features "entries, from concise definitions to discursive essays, written by leading international academics, the Dictionary offers a truly global perspective, examining both American and European traditions and approaches. Entries cover schools, theories, theorists and debates, with substantial articles on all key topics in the field."

Encyclopedia of Education (2nd Edition) - The 2003 version of the classic resource in education and related fields.

Encyclopedia of Sociology Research (CU) - In this 2012 resource, topics discussed include "social capital, entrepreneurial capital and economic growth; disruption of social development in children with autism spectrum disorders; children's social interactions in cultural context; everyday theorizing and the construction of knowledge; participation, pedagogy and practice in design education; community participation in formulating sustainable forest policy; increasing the economic sustainability of online communities and a comparison between theoretical and naive definitions of community."

International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (CU) - This key reference work comprises 4,000 articles, commissioned by 52 Section Editors, and includes 90,000 bibliographic references as well as comprehensive name and subject indexes.

Sociology of Education: An A-to-Z Guide (CU) - This resource, published in 2013, "introduces students to the social constructions of our educational systems and their many players, including students and their peers, teachers, parents, the broader community, politicians and policy makers. The roles of schools, the social processes governing schooling, and impacts on society are all critically explored." Includes 335 signed entries by experts in the field.

E-Collections (Text, Images, Sound)

Entirely Online Materials

Alexander Street Press Databases (CU) - Themed collections of print documents, video, and recorded sound across disciplines; notable databases include Alexander Street Literature (cross-searchable collections covering the literatures of place, race, and gender), Caribbean Literature (a collection of poetry and fiction produced in the Caribbean during the 19th and 20th centuries), Alexander Street Anthropology Collections (intended to offer "comprehensive, multimedia resources for the study of anthropology, including the largest collection of ethnographic videos and previously unpublished archival field materials") , and North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories (personal views of what it meant to immigrate to the United States and Canada between 1880 and 1950).

Ebook Central - Online books across a range of subject areas; searchable, under Browse Subjects, by Education, Social Science, and various sub-topics, and by author, title, and other criteria.

Oxford Scholarship Online (CU) - Provides the full text of classic and newly published Oxford University Press books in art, education, music, and other disciplines.

Sage Knowledge (CU) - "A database of ebooks and reference books published by SAGE covering the social sciences and education, including such areas as African American Studies, Aged & Gerontology, Anthropology, Communication and Media Studies, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Economics, Education, Gender & Sexuality Studies, History, Politics, Psychology, Social Issues, Social Work & Social Policy, and Sociology."

Handbooks of Research

Print Resources

Handbook of the Sociology of Education (2000) (see also e-version below)

The Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Education (2010) (see also e-version below)

E-Resources

Handbook of the Sociology of Education (CU) - "The aim of the Handbook of Sociology of Education [published in 2000] is to present the most theoretically grounded and empirically rigorous sociological analyses of schools to date. The authors are distinguished researchers in the field. Their contributions to the Handbook offer major theoretical perspectives on the schooling process and describe significant empirical studies of schools and their effects on individuals and society."

Handbook of the Sociology of Education in the 21st Century (CU) - This work comprises 25 chapters, authored by experts in the field, divided into the following five sections: Families, Schools, and Educational Opportunities; The Changing Demographics of Social Inequality; The Social Organization of Schooling and Opportunities for Learning; Educational Opportunities and the Transition into Adulthood; and Sociological Perspectives on Accountablity and Evaluation.

The Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Education - This handbook, published in 2010, "brings together many of the world's leading sociologists of education to explore and address key issues and concerns within the discipline. The thirty-seven newly commissioned chapters draw upon theory and research to provide new accounts of contemporary educational processes, global trends, and changing and enduring forms of social conflict and social inequality."

Reviews of Research

Current Overviews of the Literature

Annual Reviews (CU) - Reviews of topics in biomedical, physical, and social sciences published as annual journals; see series for Anthropology, Psychology, Sociology, and many others.

Review of Educational Research - A publication of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the RER publishes quarterly critical, integrative reviews of research literature bearing on education, including conceptualizations, interpretations, and syntheses of scholarly work.

Review of Research in Education - A publication of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the RRE provides an annual overview and descriptive analysis of selected topics of relevant research literature through critical and synthesizing essays.

Citation Indexes

Databases for Tracing the Influence of and Responses to Authors and Writings

Google Scholar - Provides the means to search by author or publication title, and indicates and provides links to works that have cited the documents retrieved.

Scopus (CU) - Abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality web sources with smart tools to track, analyze, and visualize research.

Web of Science (CU) - Comprising the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, the Social Sciences Citation Index, and the Science Citation Index Expanded, this database supports searching by topic, author, or publication name, and is also a major means for doing cited reference searching, to find articles that cite a person's work.

Digital Archives

Online Manuscripts, Archives, Realia, and Media

Academic Commons - Columbia University's online repository, where current faculty, students, and staff can deposit the results of their scholarly work and research.

Internet Archive - A non-profit digital library offering free universal access to books, movies, and music, as well as 150 billion archived web pages.

PocketKnowledge - The social archive of Teachers College, including unpublished manuscripts and archives from the library's collections, documents from other departments and administrative offices College-wide, and the work of TC students, faculty, and researchers.

Bibliography and Citation Management Programs

Citation Management Software - An extensive description of and guide to the use of Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote, courtesy of Columbia University Libraries.

Library Services

Ask a Librarian - Explore a variety of kinds of research support: submit an email reference query to librarians; request a research consultation with a Gottesman librarian; review frequently asked questions via the library's Knowledge Database.

Course Reserves - E-Reserves provides online access to digital course readings, including e-journal articles and book chapters, as well as call numbers for physical course reserves materials (books, DVDs, videos, etc.). More information about E-Reserves and physical Course Reserves can be found on the Course Reserves page.

Paging and Pick Up - For the Fall 2020 semester, we are offering a paging service which allows students to use physical materials that are located on campus.

Requesting New Materials - Teachers College students, faculty, and staff may use the materials request form to request library materials not owned by Gottesman Libraries, or the Columbia Morningside Campus Libraries.

Workshops - The Gottesman Libraries' education program offers a calendar of workshops on citation management, research techniques, and academic writing processes. Visit the Events page on the library’s website to learn about and RSVP to upcoming workshops.