How Are We Teaching? An Analysis of Introductory Course Syllabi in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Introductory courses give prospective undergraduate students their first glimpse into the field of anthropology. Thus, the impression those courses make is crucial in enculturating anthropologists to disciplinary norms. This project, “Past for the Future”, surveys introductory archaeology and biological anthropology courses, examines the pedagogies apparent in syllabi, and posits ways to better equip anthropology to show its relevance to students and thus, to enhance belonging. The information collected from each course came solely from syllabi (n = 54) sampled as a cross-section of institution types in the US. Data on the multivocality (incorporation of an array of voices) and epistemology focus (how anthropologists know what they “know”) of the courses was collected. The results indicate that both fields had around the same level of multivocality, with syllabi that were equally split among readings under representative of diverse stakeholders and readings that mixed in marginalized and underrepresented voices. However, archaeology courses tended to be more epistemology-focused than their biological anthropology counterparts, especially in the first few weeks of the semester. Looking forward, this research can be expanded to explore the ways these pedagogical choices influence students to continue their anthropological studies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53456