{"id":917,"date":"2015-03-27T17:02:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T22:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sociologytoolbox.com\/?p=917"},"modified":"2018-02-12T10:39:01","modified_gmt":"2018-02-12T16:39:01","slug":"teaching_sociology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/teaching_sociology\/","title":{"rendered":"TOOLS FOR TEACHING SOCIOLOGY: Teach well. It matters."},"content":{"rendered":"

Updated February 2018<\/p>\n

Looking for resources for teaching sociology?<\/span><\/h1>\n

Below are snippets of some of the sociology teaching tools you will find on this blog organized by topic.<\/span><\/h3>\n

CLICK ON THE TITLE TO OPEN THE FULL POST IN A NEW WINDOW<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

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RACE AND ETHNICITY:<\/strong> Teaching an introduction to sociology course? Teaching a race and ethnicity course?<\/h2>\n

POLICE KILLING OF BLACKS: Data for 2015, 2016, 2017<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Download charts that examine the race, ethnicity, age and other characteristics of people killed by police in 2015, 2016, and 2017.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBUT BLACKS COMMIT MORE CRIMES\u201d: Scholars discuss conservative logic<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Since 2014 there has been renewed interest, concern, and protest regarding the police use of deadly force against unarmed Blacks. Various conservative commentators and publications, as well as comments on other posts to this blog, have implied that the reason so many Blacks are killed by police is that Blacks are more likely to be involved in violent crime. For example, in an article in the\u00a0National Review, David French writes, \u201cMoreover, racial disparities in the use of force are largely explained by racial disparities in criminality. Different American demographics commit crimes at different rates, so it stands to reason that those who commit more crimes will confront the police more often.\u201d\u00a0This post\u00a0is the transcript of a conversation regarding this issue I had with three scholars, all of whom have studied the interaction of police and the African American community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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IMPLICIT RACIAL BIAS: where do we learn whom we should perceive negatively?<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0The problem with overt racism (other than its bigoted, undemocratic, violent and discriminatory nature) is that whites (myself included as a white heterosexual male) too often think that as long as we don\u2019t fly the Confederate flag, use the n-word, or show up to the white supremacist rally that, well\u2026we aren\u2019t racist. However, researchers at\u00a0Harvard\u00a0and the\u00a0Ohio State University\u00a0among others show that\u00a0whites, even today, continue to maintain a negative implicit\u00a0bias against non-whites. This negative bias is subconscious and is activated in split-second decisions we make\u2026judgments about others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

RACISM AND THE POLICE: The Shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>Systematic racism has been made evident again in the shooting of an unarmed young Black man, Michael Brown, by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.\u00a0Pulling stories directly\u00a0from recent\u00a0news headlines is one way to get students\u2019 attention and demonstrate the abundant relevance of the sociological perspective.\u00a0The New York Times has a\u00a0timeline\u00a0of the events that serves as a useful starting point (from the mainstream media) to share the events with students that may have not kept\u00a0up with the story.<\/p>\n

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF RACE: BLURRY DISTINCTIONS AND CHANGING CATEGORIES<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>The social construction of race is made\u00a0evident when we see how the boundaries and distinctions that supposedly distinguish one race from another are unclear. Additionally, this is made clear when \u201cofficial\u201d categories, that seem fixed, are altered. The first of two tools that I have found to clearly demonstrate the social construction of race to students is a series of photographs from\u00a0National Geographic.<\/p>\n

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MASS INCARCERATION: DATA, TRENDS, AND COMPARISON<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>Staggering rates of mass incarceration are impacting minority communities disproportionally and it is the consequence of changes in policy and the economy- changes in the social context \u2013 rather than changes in individual behavior. \u201cAn African American male born in 1975 and who didn\u2019t finish high school has a nearly 70 percent chance of serving jail time by his mid-thirties.\u201d<\/em> That should be enough to get everyone\u2019s\u00a0attention. The following draws\u00a0mostly on\u00a0resources from the\u00a0Hamilton Project\u00a0of the Brookings Institute (brought to my attention by Ezra Klein\u2019s piece on\u00a0Vox), and\u00a0Bruce Western\u2018s 2006 book,\u00a0Punishment and Inequality in America <\/em>(Russell Sage Foundation).<\/p>\n

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RACE OF POLICE DEPARTMENTS: Should they be similar to the community?<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Since a police force is designed to protect and serve a community, should the race of the police departments align closely with the racial makeup of the communities?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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RACIAL PROFILING: WHAT CAN BLACK PEOPLE AFFORD?<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Racial profiling involves making judgments\u00a0about an individual based on the erroneous assumptions about the qualities of an entire racial group. What assumptions are made in society today based on the race of another person?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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THE WAR ON DRUGS: RACE MATTERS<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0The war on drugs impacts people differently based on race. The rate of drug use among populations does not correspond to the rate of incarceration for drug use. Many students often assume that the higher rate of African American males in US prisons is simply a reflection of higher rates of crime. After all, it is called the justice system. An extensive\u00a0report by the ACLU\u00a0provides a short video, graphic presentations of the data, and a pdf of the full report on marijuana use and arrest rates among blacks and whites.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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RACE IN AMERICA: HISTORICAL CONTEXT<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Do we have enough historical context when we talk about race in America? \u00a0This past week there was a celebration of\u00a0the 50thanniversary of the\u00a0March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom<\/i>.\u00a0This larger historical event included Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s \u201cI have a dream\u2026\u201d speech. First, I think we are too quick as a society to want to talk thoughtfully about something\u00a0as it is happening<\/i>\u00a0(e.g. multiple 24-hour cable news networks, Twitter, etc). With our students, I think we need to encourage\u00a0the idea that critical thinking takes time and rigorous reflection. That doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t discuss events as they happen, but too often, in the public sphere, that has become the extent of it. As academic researchers, we know it can take\u00a0years<\/i>\u00a0to formulate, collect, analyze, and publish rigorous research. Back to the issue of race in the US\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION:<\/strong> Teaching an introduction to sociology course? This is the classic topic that begins most semesters. See numerous resources below.<\/h2>\n

SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION: COLLEGE ENROLLMENT IN CONTEXT<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>An understanding of the sociological imagination can be difficult in our very individually focused society. As a topic, the sociological imagination is usually the first or second class of every introduction to sociology course. Teaching topics by relating them to students\u2019 immediate context (especially early in the semester) is one way to help them
\nsee how the sociological imagination works.<\/p>\n

THE SOCIOLOGICAL IMAGINATION: AWAKENING IT BY VIEWING OTHER CULTURES<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>I have found that teaching students to understand and utilize the sociological imagination\u00a0–\u00a0the ability to see the relationship between one\u2019s individual life and the effects of larger social forces –\u00a0is aided by exposing them to different social structures and cultures. While study-abroad programs are ideal for experiencing this first hand, we can also bring other cultures into the classroom through film, photographs, and students\u2019 existing experiences.<\/p>\n

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NACIREMA: UPDATING A CLASSIC TO SEE YOUR OWN CULTURE AS AN OUTSIDER<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0By now, many students have read the original Nacirema in high school. Here is a more modern version written by a student.<\/p>\n

THE SUPER BOWL: A sociological view<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Break out the\u00a0guacamole, it is time for Super Bowl sociology! What does the Super Bowl mean in our society? It is far from simply a sporting event or even just the final game of a season. The Super Bowl is a sociological phenomenon. It is a great teachable moment using an event that everyone has at least heard of and many of our students will be watching\u2026 or at least at a social event where the game is playing on the television. While many of our students will be highly engaged in the event, few may have thought about it from a sociological perspective. Below are some interesting resources from sociology and other disciplines that can help reveal the sociology in the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

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SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE BODY: The nipple<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Examples of the social construction of the body are\u00a0prevalent in the media\u2019s objectification of the female body in particular. See the famous documentary\u00a0Killing US Softly 4\u00a0for numerous patterns in the media. The biological body has purposes driven by genetics and \u201chuman nature\u201d, but the meanings we as a society apply to the body are not fixed, \u201cnatural\u201d, or static. They are socially constructed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

VIOLATING SOCIAL NORMS: cellphones<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>Often we are not consciously aware of the prevailing social norms that dominate our culture until they are violated. Many faculty demonstrate the power of social norms to their students with an assignment for them to engage in norm violations \u2013 intentionally altering their behavior outside of the classroom to see how others react and how it disrupts social interaction. The risk of this assignment is that students\u00a0take the norm violation too far, harming others or getting in trouble\u00a0(try explaining to the Dean that you actually assigned them to do that). Therefore, rules and guidelines must be made clear if this is assigned.<\/p>\n

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NORM VIOLATION: PETS OR FOOD?<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Why don\u2019t we eat dogs?\u00a0That question will always get student\u2019s attention. \"ScreenThe definitions of \u201cappropriate\u201d food are socially constructed and it is often only through norm violations that we see how much stronger the sociological forces are compared to actual biological limitations of the calories available to us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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THEORY<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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MAKING CLASSIC SOCIAL THEORY RELEVANT: MAX WEBER<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0How do we best teach students in\u00a0introductory courses the classic social theory of Max Weber (and others) in a way that makes it consequential and relevant? This is an important question because it often makes sense to teach Marx, Durkheim, and Weber early in the semester, but they can be complex and the issues may seem distant and well\u2026boring. This semester I have tried to pair short pieces of original scholarship by\u00a0these thinkers with a contemporary reading that shows a clear parallel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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CLIMATE JUSTICE: tolls for teachings<\/strong><\/a>. Here you will find a collection of different tools to teach about viewing climate change through a justice lens. These resources include a short TEDx talk on climate justice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

IS THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT TOO WHITE AND MALE?:<\/strong> Original survey data and analysis from the People’s Climate March<\/a>. This post explores the issue of mainstream environmental movements being too white and often too male. Here I compile some data from Dorcetta Taylor about leadership in environmental organizations, as well as survey data I collected at the 2014 People’s Climate March in New York City.<\/p>\n

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CLIMATE JUSTICE: An analogy<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Many people and students are unfamiliar with the context that has generated calls from nations and social movements for \u201cclimate justice.\u201d Below is an analogy that makes the global context behind climate justice more evident at the individual level. I have found that this helps students from the U.S. get a better idea of how people and nations of the Global South might feel about the global negotiations to address the issue. While this is very introductory, you may find it a good place to start for those that have not been previously exposed to the topic. I use it as a primer for a more detailed discussion. The analogy is able to get students feeling the emotions of injustice and subsequently, they are more empathetic to more abstract global realities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

THE TRUST GAP: Few in African civil society think the US will deliver on climate change<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Even before the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the US, few members of civil society throughout Africa expressed a great deal of trust that the United States would fulfill\u00a0its commitments\u00a0regarding climate change. Data from a survey earlier this year (2016) of members of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) show that African organizations addressing climate change have little trust in the rest of the world regarding the reduction of emissions to maintain average global temperatures below\u00a01.5 degrees Celsius\u00a0\u2013 with the US receiving the lowest level of trust.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

CLIMATE CHANGE AND CLIMATE JUSTICE: WHO\u2019S RESPONSIBLE?<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>TEACHING ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE \"screen-shot-2016-12-07-at-1-07-00-pm\"<\/a>IN SOCIOLOGY COURSES\u00a0IS VITAL\u00a0\u00a0and should arguably include a focus on\u00a0CLIMATE JUSTICE. Teaching students about climate change should not be limited to courses in the natural sciences for many reasons.<\/p>\n

ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINTS: How many planets for our lifestyle?<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>As the consequences of highly consumptive capitalism continue to cause problems around the world, teaching about the impacts of our consumption is an increasing necessity in every classroom. One of the best ways I have found to demonstrate the structure\/agency dynamic to students is to have them calculate their ecological footprint.<\/p>\n

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GLOBALIZATION<\/strong>: Teaching introduction to sociology or globalization or economic sociology?<\/h2>\n

GLOBALIZATION: MEASURING THE GLOBAL ECONOMY<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>When most people think about \u201cglobalization\u201d\u00a0they likely think about the global economy. In the more recent era, globalization was pushed into public debate in the 1990s when NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) was being debated and the WTO, World Bank and IMF were making significant\u00a0strides in implementing the neoliberal economic model on a global scale. In a\u00a0previous post\u00a0I wrote about global commodity chains,\u00a0here I will explore some of the ways that the global economy is measured and tracked.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-12-07-at-12-53-25-pm\"GLOBALIZATION OF COMMODITY CHAINS: WHERE DID MY T-SHIRT COME FROM?<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>The globalization of commodity chains is\u00a0something that students have a general idea about, but I find it challenging to remove the abstract nature of the convoluted path that materials take before they end up in a consumer\u2019s hands. Sure, \u201ceverything is made in China\u201d blah blah blah, but the story of the global economy is MUCH more complex and filled with people occupying different social contexts.\u00a0Planet Money\u00a0has come to the rescue with an amazing new story tracing every step of something as simple as a t-shirt.<\/p>\n

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INEQUALITY<\/strong>: Basic tools for teaching sociology using some visual graphics and dynamic figures.<\/h2>\n
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A PATH TO MOBILITY? How universities maintain the class structure<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Going to college is sold as the primary pathway to upward economic mobility but is that true? In today\u2019s world, a college degree is widely understood as the ticket to success, but\u00a0do universities actually contribute to the maintenance of class structures\u2026reproducing an increasingly stratified system?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

MINIMUM WAGE: DO WE UNDERSTAND THAT REALITY?<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>What does it mean to live on minimum\u00a0wage in the US? For any student readers of this blog, you are likely very familiar with what it means to earn minimum wage, but it is also likely that fewer of you rely completely on that income for all of your living needs.\u00a0How do we convey the reality of what it is like to live on minimum wage?\u00a0Who is it that actually earns minimum wage?<\/p>\n

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INEQUALITY IN THE U.S.: IMAGINED VERSUS REALITY<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0How much\u00a0wealth<\/em>\u00a0inequality do you think there is in the\"screen-shot-2016-12-07-at-1-08-37-pm\"<\/a> US? What is the ideal distribution of wealth? What is it in reality?\u00a0This is always an active and fascinating way to begin any section on inequality\/stratification in the classroom.\u00a0This resource, a 6:23 minute video,\u00a0visually demonstrates the stratification of wealth and answers those questions. (The short answers are a lot, somewhat fair, and way more than you\u00a0think!)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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US INCOME INEQUALITY: AN INTERACTIVE WEBSITE<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0In today\u2019s complex world students often have a hard time placing themselves in the broader social context, especially in relation to other\u2019s income \u2013 something we rarely talk about and is generally considered a private matter in the US. Because of this, many students also struggle to talk about income inequality on a personal level. On top of that, a historical perspective beyond, well\u2026say last week can\u00a0be difficult for undergraduates to maintain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

.\u00a0. .<\/p>\n

CULTURE<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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CULTURAL SYMBOLS: Teaching the Confederate fla<\/a>g\u00a0<\/strong>Cultural symbols and the meanings applied to them are not fixed in time. Within sociology, there is no single agreed upon definition of culture and its processes, but most definitions include a reference to culture being dynamic \u2013 that is not static. In my Introduction to Sociology class, I have settled on the following definition for students: Culture is dynamic, shared patterns of socially transmitted, norms, values, beliefs, and symbols. I usually then spend time digging deeply into each of the elements that make up that definition answering such questions as: We use the term \u201cnorms\u201d often but what are they? What is the difference between a value and a belief?<\/p>\n

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PEDAGOGY<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Teaching race and affirmative action: a paper assignment<\/a>. Here you will find the details of a paper assignment that I use for teaching students about inequality and racial disparity in educational access and achievement.<\/p>\n

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See the key words in the right\u00a0hand column to search all posts for more sociology teaching tools.<\/p>\n

Teach well, it matters.<\/h1>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updated February 2018 Looking for resources for teaching sociology? Below are snippets of some of the sociology teaching tools you will find on this blog organized by topic. CLICK ON THE TITLE TO OPEN THE FULL POST IN A NEW WINDOW\u00a0   RACE AND ETHNICITY: Teaching an introduction to sociology course? Teaching a race and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2062,"featured_media":1931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39997,85,2223,2051,66],"tags":[2418,15,403,131,65,64,13,533,144,1179],"class_list":["post-917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-politics","category-race-and-ethnicity","category-socialization","category-theory","tag-bureaucracy","tag-culture","tag-deviance","tag-economy","tag-environment","tag-globalization","tag-inequality","tag-sociological-imagination","tag-teaching","tag-weber"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/files\/2015\/03\/Screen-Shot-2016-12-07-at-1.04.00-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2062"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2242,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917\/revisions\/2242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/toolbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}