There has been a growing number of calls to improve theory instruction in sociology. These conversations have focused on what instructors should teach (with a renewed emphasis on racism and sexism) and whom to teach (with calls to diversify the reading list), but comparatively little attention has been placed on how social theory should be taught. Building on recent findings from the literature on reading comprehension and on a popular description of theories as maps, we suggest that teaching theory can be treated as a form of cartography, a student-centered method that advocates for radical accessibility. We describe three different ways students can use theory maps—as tourists, navigators, and mapmakers—each adapted for a different stage in the learning process. We believe that adding accessibility to current calls for critique and representation brings our conversations about how to reimagine theory courses full circle.

Current approaches to building inclusive classrooms for first-generation and working-class students tend to emphasize communicative strategies: receiving students with welcoming messages that acknowledge and value their life experience and promoting a growth mindset. These methods are important, but they do little to address structural sources of exclusion, such as academic inequities and disadvantages in resources like time. Communicative strategies alone secure inclusion without equity. Equity, however, involves teaching and learning activities that promote fair treatment and access at a structural level in order to offer students a concrete path to classroom success. In this article, we develop a framework for designing assignments and learning activities that addresses the type of structural barriers that most affect first-generation, working-class, and racially minoritized students. We identify three distinct types of structural disadvantages—academic inequities, resource disadvantages, and cultural discrimination—and propose three strategies for equitable design: deliberative interdependence, transformative translation, and proactive engagement. We illustrate each strategy with concrete teaching methods. We conclude by suggesting that only a transformative, comprehensive shift to equity mindedness is capable of doing justice to the increasing diversity of college classrooms.