Florida Hands Down Sociology Curriculum to State Colleges

Beginning this summer, professors at Florida’s 28 public colleges must use a state curriculum framework to teach their introduction to sociology courses. Aligned with the state-sanctioned sociology textbook, the framework requires that the courses do not “include a curriculum that teaches identity politics” or one that “is based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.”

Jose Arevalo, executive vice chancellor for the Florida State College System, shared information about the framework with representatives from 26 Florida colleges during a call on Jan. 20, according to an email summary of the call provided to Inside Higher Ed. The Florida Department of Education distributed teaching materials, including an instructor’s manual and textbook, and requested that institutions submit their current introduction to sociology syllabi, “including detailed assignment schedules, topic calendars, or modules to show course coverage.”

“The framework serves as a baseline—institutions can add to it but should avoid subtracting key elements or adding content that risks violating state statutes,” Arevalo wrote in the email. “Much of the framework language can be copied directly into syllabi, with supporting exercises and textbook chapters provided.”

All state colleges received the written guidance this week, according to Robert Cassanello, an associate professor of history at the University of Central Florida and president of the United Faculty of Florida union.

“People in the union are really upset,” he said. “They see this as a threat to academic freedom. They see the revised textbook through the Board of Governors’ approval as a censored text.”

Sociology professors at the state’s public universities have received similar instructions through a game of telephone, with instructions passed verbally from the Board of Governors to provosts, deans, chairs and then to faculty, several Florida faculty members reported.

“They’re doing their best to avoid creating standing for a lawsuit,” Cassanello said. “This is why everything is verbal with the Board of Governors.”

The seven-page written framework applies only to general education sociology courses taught at state colleges—not electives. The document bans nine discussion points from course content, including discussions that “state an intent of institutions today to oppress persons of color,” “that argue most variations between men and women are learned traits and behaviors,” and “that describe when, how, or why individuals determine their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.”

The end of the document includes a “recommended course design,” written like a syllabus, that lays out seven units, suggested reading assignments and lecture topics. The guide to teaching “sociological phenomena” includes several contested theories about race and gender. For example, the framework states that while biological sex chromosomes determine different sex characteristics in men and women, they also determine “how females and males behave. This behavior is also influenced by the social relevance of these traits,” the framework says.

“So, in teaching this, one might point out that women and men with the same credentials enter different jobs such that certain jobs are occupied primarily by women (i.e., female-dominant) some are occupied primarily by men (i.e., male-dominant) and some have roughly the same number of workers who are female and male (i.e., non-gendersegregated),” the framework says.

The document also discusses limitations to personal freedoms as a historical phenomenon, not a present one. “Students will study scientific facts, including the demographic characteristics of individuals who lived during previous generations when specific freedoms were restricted” and “how things changed as those restrictions were removed over time,” the framework says.

The state education department will likely roll out similar curriculum guidance for other areas of study in the future. In his email, Arevalo said the department is working with history professors on a general education curriculum for American history courses that “satisfy civic literacy requirements.” Results of this work could be disclosed as soon as April, he said.

Unclear Enforcement

The curriculum thinly veils the social politics of state education officials, said Katie Rainwater, a visiting scholar of global and sociocultural studies at Florida International University who has taught introductory sociology courses. Many top education decision-makers in Florida come from right-wing think tanks and colleges, including Hillsdale College, where Arevalo earned his Ph.D.; the Claremont Institute; and the Heritage Foundation.

“They’re very intentionally staffing the Department of Education office with these ultraconservative ideologues,” Rainwater said. “What we’re seeing is … people affiliated with this national conservative movement taking away the ideas that they don’t want students to be exposed to.”

The framework was developed by a “work group of sociologists,” Arevalo said in his email. It’s unclear whether it was the same sociology professors that created the state-approved textbook late last year. That group convened with four Board of Governors members and four faculty members, but Phillip Wisely, a sociology professor at Florida SouthWestern State College, was kicked out of the group by state education commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas for allegedly “advocating for gender ideology” in his sociology class. Wisely remains suspended from his teaching position, Cassanello said.

Florida Department of Education spokespeople did not respond to Inside Higher Ed’s request for comment Friday.

It’s unclear how faculty members who don’t follow the written or verbal guidelines will be disciplined, but faculty say they’re certain there would be some kind of blowback for ignoring the rules.

Zachary Levenson, a sociology professor at Florida International University, said his department requested clarification from the provost on the rules and received no information.

“We wrote to the provost … and said, ‘Please tell us what we cannot teach, what we must teach, and what the sanction would be for violating this,’” he said. “She wouldn’t specify. She said … ‘There is no individual sanction that I can name’” and referred them to the guidelines in Florida state statute 1007.25, which outlines rules for general education and degree requirements.

He speculates that the punishment could be sanctions against the institution via the accreditor, or individual discipline. Levenson moved to Florida to teach only two and a half years ago, but he said he wants to stay in the state so that he can fight back.

“This is happening everywhere, but it’s first happening here,” Levenson said. “It was happening when I was teaching in Texas, in North Carolina, but not like this. So if we don’t nip it in the bud … it’s going to keep spreading around the country.”