The following index includes all articles, conversations, notes, and reviews published in Teaching Sociology from January 2010 (volume 38, issue 1) through October 2016 (volume 44, issue 4). The purpose of this index is to provide an organized resource for instructors who are designing courses for the first time and for instructors who seek to integrate fresh ideas and approaches in their classes. By organizing the index according to topical areas (e.g., sexualities, sociology of culture, education), each publication has been categorized by subject area, enhancing the capacities of readers to locate and access recent publications in particular areas of interest.
Given that so many college students take Introduction to Sociology or Social Problems or both, we wondered about the amount of content overlap in these courses. We designed a study that used content analysis of syllabi from these courses in order to measure the amount of convergence between the two classes. In our sample, nearly 70 percent of the content was similar. More worrisome, some significant concepts, such as research methods and symbolic interactionism, were barely mentioned in either course. Given the new political economy of general education and more specifically higher education, we raise questions about the implications of such course content convergence and encourage the discipline to begin to address these issues.
Increasing college students’ exposure to global contexts and improving their intercultural competency remain challenging educational objectives, especially at the community college level. Fortunately, the recent shift in higher education from study abroad opportunities toward so-called "internationalization at home" initiatives, where students interact with people from cultures outside their own while remaining on their home campuses, offers new options. In this article, we describe a virtual exchange activity that we conducted between our sociology courses at a community college in the United States and two universities in Japan. We show through our assessment of the students’ experiences that a well-coordinated, carefully crafted, technology-enhanced internationalization at home activity has the potential to offer important global learning opportunities and intercultural competency development for sociology students who may otherwise lack the means to participate in study abroad.
Undergraduate social science research methods courses tend to have higher than average rates of failure and withdrawal. Lack of success in these courses impedes students’ progression through their degree programs and negatively impacts institutional retention and graduation rates. Grounded in adult learning theory, this mixed methods study examines the factors that influence student achievement in these courses among a sample of 724 social science students. Quantitative results indicate math self-concept, the belief that being good at math is necessary for success in the course; anxiety; attributions of course utility; learning approach; and GPA predict perceived learning. Qualitative results suggest students’ research self-concepts shape whether they take a deep learning approach (leaning in) or a surface learning approach (resistance) to the course. Course instructors also impact students’ perceptions of learning.
This article describes a study abroad experience in Norway and Sweden that was designed to explore gender equality in two of the world’s most gender-progressive countries. Course readings explored the work of feminist sociologists and asked students to think critically about gender equality from a cross-cultural perspective. Students met with leaders in Norway and Sweden who are involved in creating gender-progressive policy and culture, including members of parliament, representatives in the film industry, and social policy experts. Student pre-trip and post-trip responses to writing prompts and trip reflection journals demonstrated the development of an intersectional approach to thinking about gender equality. While some aspects of gender equality were anticipated before the trip, other issues of equality only became evident through our discussion with gender leaders in Scandinavia. This article shares major themes from student reflections and discusses teaching ideas for future study abroad trips.
In this article, we utilize national survey data to assess the professional status of full-time sociology faculty in community colleges. Traditionally, sociologists have argued that for a particular type of work to be conceptualized as a profession, it must meet certain criteria, such as: esoteric knowledge and skills, high levels of workplace autonomy, considerable authority, and a sense of altruism. More current approaches to professionalization place greater emphasis on how the social structural location and organizational features of a particular group affect their claims to professional status. We apply both the "traits" and "process models" of professions. We argue that in spite of significant structural barriers, community college sociologists do function as a professional group. This has significant implications for faculty, their students, and the discipline of sociology.
This article evaluates the reasons for career choice and job satisfaction among community college faculty who teach sociology, in relation to a social justice motivation for teaching. Using closed- and open-ended response data from a 2014 national survey of community college sociology faculty, this study finds that a preponderance of faculty do not see themselves as pushed into their careers through external factors but, rather, describe being pulled into community college instruction through a set of personally meaningful internal motivations. Those motivations include serving a diverse and underserved student body. Despite difficult working conditions, most faculty indicated that they likely will teach at a community college until retirement and would do so again if they could. Nearly half of sociology faculty discuss their motivations and satisfactions in community college careers in terms that are consistent with a social justice orientation.
Introductory sociology courses encourage students to shift from understanding social relations and inequalities through an individualistic lens toward a more sociological one. It is difficult for students to know how far they have advanced toward a sociological perspective if they do not have a good sense of where they began. This paper describes an approach intended to assess a sociological shift over the course of a semester by combining various recursive techniques that take place at the beginning and end of the semester: letters to oneself, social opinion surveys, and recorded small discussion groups. Although the shift was often not dramatic, the approach proved to be useful not only to help students keep track of their own developing sociological perspective but also as a way to improve teaching and assess student learning outcomes. Although ideal for small classes or discussion sections, I discuss ways to also adapt it for larger classes.
This article explores the use of a social science–fictional play to teach macro-structural concepts related to global capitalism and surplus labor in a small and large Introduction to Sociology course. Relying on a cross-disciplinary and critical pedagogical approach that combines theory and practice to empower students to develop a critical consciousness of the world around them, the authors develop an active learning exercise centered on an in-class reading of the dystopian play I Like Firing People written by sociologists Charles Derber and Yale Magrass. To assess the effectiveness of the exercise to increase student engagement and conceptual learning, the authors use quantitative and qualitative data and a quasi-experimental research design. Even with the mixed findings, the reading of an evocative social scientific fictional play coupled with short writing exercises and class discussions appears to assist in making macro-structural systems more visible and real to students and offers a unique role-playing opportunity that highlights multiple perspectives on the global capitalist economy.
The large majority of faculty members teaching in community colleges are employed on a part-time basis, yet little is known about their working conditions and professional engagement. This article uses data from a recent national survey of faculty members teaching sociology in community colleges to provide this information, with particular attention to the different situations of those teaching full-time, part-time by choice, and part-time involuntarily. Contrary to previous analyses that assume homogeneous motivation and working conditions for part-time faculty members, our analysis finds differences between two categories in both structural aspects of their employment and perceptions of cultural devaluation expressed interpersonally. Both aspects serve as constraints on developing faculty-student relationships, a proven factor in student learning and success. We conclude that administrators and full-time colleagues must provide stronger support for the individuals introducing students to the discipline of sociology in the community college.
This article details the principles and practices animating an "ethnographic" method of teaching social theory. As opposed to the traditional "survey" approach that aims to introduce students to the historical breadth of social thought, the primary objective of teaching ethnographically is to cultivate students as participant observers who interpret, adjudicate between, and practice social theories in their everyday lives. Three pedagogical principles are central to this approach, the first laying the groundwork for the two that follow: (1) intensive engagement with manageable portions of text, (2) conversations among theorists, and (3) dialogues between theory and lived experience. Drawing on examples from our experiences as graduate student instructors for a two-semester theory sequence, we offer practical guideposts to sociology instructors interested in integrating "living theory" into their own curricula by clarifying how each principle is put into action in course assignments, classroom discussions and activities, and evaluations of student learning. We conclude by encouraging sociology departments and instructors to consider the potential benefits and drawbacks of offering social theory courses built around in-depth readings of and conversations between social theorists and the social world.
In this article, we describe an adaptation of Nichols, Berry, and Kalogrides’s "Hop on the Bus" exercise. In addition to riding the bus, we incorporated a visual component similar to that developed by Whitley by having students conduct a sociological, photographic exercise after they disembarked. Qualitative and quantitative assessment data show that taken together, these exercises enhance students’ awareness and sociological understanding of social inequalities, especially income inequalities. Specifically, the activities make abstract concepts real to students, make more obvious inequalities that often go unnoticed, help students better understand how structural barriers affect individuals’ daily lives and contribute to broader social inequalities, and to some degree, dispel stereotypes of marginalized groups.
President Obama’s America’s College Promise proposal has brought renewed attention to community colleges’ capacity to connect the college and career aspirations of today’s undergraduates. Despite this capacity, however, community colleges have historically offered students two distinct educational pathways: a liberal education transfer-oriented program or a terminal vocational program. In the face of this long-standing and ideological divide, some community college instructors have taken to integrating students’ liberal and vocational learning in individual courses, an act that requires a willingness to define "liberal" and "vocational" learning in broad terms. Through a preliminary qualitative case study and content analysis of students’ assignments, this research explores the nature and impacts of said integration in two spring 2015 sections of Introduction to Sociology at Queensborough Community College of the City University of New York.
Common concerns in required theory courses are student disengagement when encountering difficult texts and hesitation to engage in theorizing. To address these challenges, we have developed an interactive exercise, which we call the theory forum. Students work in groups to develop questions from the perspective(s) of one or more theorists, and over two class sessions, the groups ask and respond to these questions. Here we outline procedures for conducting the theory forum, assess students’ experience of the exercise, and consider its adaptability in a variety of contexts.
This paper examines the textual coverage of the topic of work in Canadian English–language introductory sociology textbooks. Our findings are based on a content analysis of 21 Canadian texts published between 2008 and 2012. We found that only 12 of 21 textbooks included a chapter on work, suggesting that work occupies a peripheral position in Canadian sociology texts. Most chapters on work discussed economic systems, economic sectors (e.g., secondary and service), and major transitions in the world of work over the past two generations. However, topics such as service sector work were given a disproportionate share of attention, while others (e.g., work-life conflict, workplace physical injury) were given short shrift. Textbook portrayals of content such as manufacturing work were frequently characterized by a lack of nuance. These findings highlight a gap between current research in the sociology of work and the "sociology of work" in many Canadian introductory sociology textbooks.
Introductory sociology classes afford instructors an opportunity to expose students, often from a variety of backgrounds and majors, to the sociological imagination. In this article, I describe how the use of secrets from a popular website, PostSecret.com, can help teach students about the sociological imagination and incorporate biographical examples in explanations of broader social trends and sociological concepts. I present results from a survey of students in an introductory sociology class in order to gauge their response to the use of anonymous secrets. Results reveal that over 75 percent of students indicated that PostSecret helped them understand the sociological imagination and learn sociological concepts, 93 percent of students reported that it helped them understand course content through the use of examples, and 69 percent indicated that it helped them remember important concepts. Students also indicated that the discussion of secrets helped them recognize their own assumptions about the social world and provided them with a perspectives different from their own.
This study used a pretest-posttest design to measure student learning in undergraduate statistics. Data were derived from 185 students enrolled in six different sections of a social statistics course taught over a seven-year period by the same sociology instructor. The pretest-posttest instrument reveals statistically significant gains in knowledge for each course section and all sections combined. The results demonstrate that pretests can establish students’ prior knowledge at the beginning of the semester, while posttests measure learning at the end of the course. Namely, pretest-posttest knowledge gain was influenced more by the content and presentation of the social statistics course than by students’ statistical ability and/or test-taking skills prior to the class. Recommendations on the use of pretest-posttest data to inform pedagogy in social statistics are included in the discussion.
Faculty members and graduate student instructors (GSIs) spend a significant portion of their time in the classroom. Much of the literature calls for formal training for graduate students in pedagogy and teaching techniques (DeCesare 2003), and increasing attention has been paid to the benefits of informal supports for GSIs, such as peer networks. But scholars have paid far less attention to examining how formal and informal mechanisms of support might be bridged, thus strengthening support for GSIs. In this article, we explore and demonstrate the importance of bridging available support systems for GSIs, specifically through a position occupied by an advanced GSI, called the Teaching Associate. Using focus groups, semistructured interviews, and surveys, we argue that the Teaching Associate offers formal and informal forms of support for graduate student instructors and their departments and we advocate their use in teacher training.
Identifying and assessing core knowledge has been and continues to be a challenge that vexes the discipline of sociology. With the adoption of a thematic approach to courses in the core curriculum at Butler University, faculty teaching Introductory Sociology were presented with the opportunity and challenge of defining the core knowledge and skills to be taught across course sections with a variety of themes. This study of students (N = 280) enrolled in 12 sections of a thematically-focused Introductory Sociology course presents our attempt to both define and assess a core set of concepts and skills through a pretest-posttest questionnaire to measure student learning gains relative to (1) a sociological perspective, (2) sociological theory, (3) research methods, and (4) key concepts in sociology. Results show significant learning gains on all four dimensions, with the greatest gains coming in sociological theory. There were no significant differences in pretest scores by gender or by whether students had taken a sociology course in high school. Seniors scored significantly higher on both the pretest and the posttest, but after we controlled for pretest scores seniors did significantly better only on the subset of questions related to sociological theory. Students who took a sociology course in high school scored lower on the methods subscale of the posttest and had lower overall total posttest scores than their counterparts.
Given the massive volume of course-relevant videos now available on the Internet, this article outlines a pedagogy to facilitate the instructional employment of such materials. First, we describe special features of streaming media that have enabled their use in the classroom. Next, we introduce a typology comprised of six categories (conjuncture, testimony, infographic, pop fiction, propaganda, and détournement). We define properties of each video type and the strengths of each type in meeting specific learning goals common to sociology instruction. We conclude by discussing the importance of a video pedagogy for helping instructors to employ video more consciously and efficiently.
Simulation games can help overcome student resistance to thinking structurally about social class inequality, meritocracy, and mobility. Most inequality simulations focus solely on economic inequality and omit social and cultural capital, both of which contribute to social class reproduction. Using a pretest/posttest design, the current study evaluates a simulation game that incorporates economic, social, and cultural capital and is meant for introductory sociology classes containing between 15 and 70 students. Data come from a state research university and a liberal arts college. Results show that the simulation increased students’ conceptual understanding of structural explanations for restricted mobility; cultural and social capital; and conceptual connections between stratification concepts. The simulation did not lead to changes in students’ feelings about poor people. Results support the idea of using simulation games to overcome student resistance to the sociological perspective on stratification and suggest that some simulation games may be effective across institutional contexts.
The sociological imagination is a useful tool for teaching about plagiarism and academic integrity, and, in turn, academic integrity is a good case to help students learn about the sociological imagination. We present an exercise in which the class discusses reasons for and consequences of dishonest academic behavior and then examines a series of scenarios using the sociological imagination. Students and instructors consider whether each scenario is a violation of academic integrity norms and how it can be viewed as both personal and public. We demonstrate that this kind of discussion helps students learn about academic integrity and how to think of violations (including causes and a range of outcomes) sociologically. In other words, we encourage students to think of academic dishonesty (both causes and consequences) not just as "personal troubles" but also as "public issues."