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A Quarterly Publication of
The American Sociological Association
ABSTRACTS--Volume 32, Number 4, October 2004
ARTICLES
- A Crack in the Door: Critical Race Theory in Practice at a Predominately White Institution ..... Reba L. Chaisson
- Only Some Are Dead Men Walking: Teaching about Race Discrimination and the Death Penalty ..... Rebecca L. Bordt
- Representing the Other in Sociology of the Family Texts ..... Charlotte Chorn Dunham, Julie Harms Cannon, and Bernadette Dietz
NOTES
- Just-in-Time Teaching in Sociology or How I Convinced My Students to Actually Read the Assignment ..... Jay R. Howard
- Developing a Sociological Perspective on Mental Illness through Reading Narratives and Active Learning: A "Book Club" Strategy ..... Michael Lewis
- Introducing Methods of Sociological Inquiry Using Living-Data Exercises ..... David E. Rohall, Catherine L. Moran, Cliff Brown, and Elizabeth Caffrey
A CRACK IN THE DOOR: CRITICAL RACE THEORY IN PRACTICE AT A PREDOMINANTLY WHITE INSTITUTION
Purdue University North Central (PNC) has a population of 3,500 students, predominantly working class and 95 percent white. The racial composition of the university suggests, and rightly so, that the students have minimal contact with Asians, Blacks, Hispanics/Latinos, Indians, Middle Easterners, and people of mixed race, even though there is a predominantly black community about two miles from the campus. Given the lack of opportunities for cross racial interaction among the student body, unless there is some intervention built into the curricula, students can complete their studies at the college with their limited ideological views on race and members of the aforementioned racial groups intact. If we have any hope of attaining a fair and just society, this cycle must be interrupted in the classroom. In this paper, I describe methods that I have used in my teaching and discuss my classroom experiences in an effort to provide some ideas for catalyzing White students to critically examine their own stance on race as well as their particular position of privilege in the racial hierarchy.
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ONLY SOME ARE DEAD MEN WALKING: TEACHING ABOUT RACE DISCRIMINATION AND THE DEATH PENALTY
This paper describes an experiential learning exercise I have used to teach race discrimination in my introductory and criminology courses. The exercise is designed to introduce students to the concept of non-conscious forms of racial bias, a form of race discrimination often difficult for students to grasp. Using a hypothetical criminal case, students imagine themselves as jurors in a capital murder trial and decide whether the defendant should receive the death penalty or life imprisonment. The results of the exercise are used as a basis for class discussion. Specifically, I consider why the students' findings either support or challenge previous research and consider social-psychological arguments about how racism manifests itself on a non-conscious level. After outlining the specifics of the exercise and describing the class discussion in detail, I offer an evaluation of the assignment based on student feedback and my own reflection.
REPRESENTING THE OTHER IN SOCIOLOGY OF THE FAMILY TEXTS
The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of otherness as it applies to the content of sociology of the family texts. We conducted a study of the content of the indexes and the body of texts on sociology of the family, examining the way in which the experiences of whites were addressed relative to families of color. We found that whites were more often presented as a comparison group to families of color rather than as groups with histories and experiences of their own. We recommend that textbooks avoid separate sections for families of color, examine whites with the same scrutiny as families of color, examine white privilege as well as minority disadvantage, and focus on the positive experiences of families of color.
JUST-IN-TIME TEACHING IN SOCIOLOGY OR HOW I CONVINCED MY STUDENTS TO ACTUALLY READ THE ASSIGNMENT
This paper discusses learning communities as pedagogy for introductory sociology courses, which are often plagued by student apathy. Most importantly, it examines the potential for learning communities to incorporate active and collaborative learning techniques as a vehicle to subvert dominant views of diversity, to see diversity as intersecting social inequalities that can be rearranged in favor of greater social equality. The effectiveness of a learning community with the theme of diversity for meeting these goals is assessed using qualitative and quantitative data. It is concluded that the pedagogic framework of the learning community did indeed push students to problematize their student role. Finally, a review of results from a pre/post-test questionnaire suggests that students entered the community as a fairly homogenous group in their views of diversity and left as a more heterogeneous group, indicating some shift in consciousness, however slight.
DEVELOPING A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON MENTAL ILLNESS THROUGH READING NARRATIVES AND ACTIVE LEARNING: A "BOOK CLUB" STRATEGY
This paper examines a pair of innovations I made to adapt a sociology of mental illness seminar to a larger class format without losing many of the benefits of the seminar. These innovations, a new reading list that includes only narratives of mental illness and the splitting of the class into three simultaneous seminars, created three groups of students that functioned more as "book clubs" than as traditional classes. After reviewing the reasons for my adopting this new format, and describing how it worked, I review its outcomes in terms of student learning and student evaluations.
INTRODUCING METHODS OF SOCIOLOGICAL INQUIRY USING LIVING-DATA EXERCISES
Instructors are increasingly applying active-learning techniques in the college classroom, including the teaching of methods. Our paper discusses the development and implementation of a particular form of active learning called, "living data exercises" to the introduction of social science methods. Living data exercises include efforts to have students play the role of the investigator or the subject while collecting data in class, thereby allowing students to reflect upon the research process from multiple perspectives. Data from several introductory-level sociology courses were collected over the course of two semesters to test for the effectiveness of the exercises. Two types of exercises were introduced. The first test showed that students generally found the living-data exercise more enjoyable but less informative than the students in the lecture format. However, student learning was comparable for both conditions. The follow-up study, introducing a different living-data technique, showed similar findings, though there was little difference in students' perceptions of learning. We conclude that this form of active learning technique can be a useful way to introduce methods but class size should be taken into account.
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