The Stratification Puzzle: An Active-Learning Exercise in Hard Work and Success

Wills, Jeremiah B.; Brewster, Zachary W.; Fulkerson, Gregory M.

doi:10.1177/0092055x0503300405

Cited by 13 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…This phenomenon appears to be equally true of both the UK (Ball, Maguire & Macrae, 2000) and the USA (Willis, Brewster & Fulkerson, 2005), and this, in turn, has created pedagogical challenges in the two countries. In the UK, practitioners working broadly within the field of Education Studies report student difficulties with addressing issues of class (Gazeley & Dunne, 2007;Reay, 2006) while their SFE counterparts in the USA have indicated similar issues with students in relation to class, and also to a range of other social categories such as 'race' and gender (Butin, 2005a;Doyle, 2001;Renner, Price, Keene, & Little, 2010).…”

Section: Interdisciplinarity Within Bernstein's Field Of Pedagogical mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Sociologist Teaches History: Some Epistemological and Pedagogical Reflections

Morrison

2017

Educational Studies

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This article discusses the concept of 'historical sociology' in relation to the teaching of a module on an undergraduate degree in Education Studies at a university in the United Kingdom. The module examines the history of education policy in England from 1870 until the present day. Drawing upon comparisons with Social Foundations of Education programs in the United States, I examine some key epistemological and pedagogical issues raised by the interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning followed within the module in which we combine historical and sociological perspectives as a means to understand the evolution of the English education system. In particular, using Bernstein's concept of the pedagogic device as an analytical framework, I consider the epistemological congruence of sociology and history as the contributory disciplines of the undergraduate module. From a discussion of the concept of historical sociology, I conclude that although sociology and history are distinct subjects, they share a large amount of analytical ground which thus facilitates the inter-disciplinary approach pursued within the module. Following that, I examine some pedagogical issues that have arisen in my experience of teaching upon the module and I discuss how I have addressed these. I conclude the article by making comparisons to relevant examples from pedagogical practices in Social Foundations of Education programs in the United States.

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Section: Interdisciplinarity Within Bernstein's Field Of Pedagogical mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Sociologist Teaches History: Some Epistemological and Pedagogical Reflections

Morrison

2017

Educational Studies

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“…Some groups have plenty of crayons to work with while others have few. In another exercise (Wills et al 2005), students work in groups assembling children's puzzles. One group is given a puzzle that is mostly assembled, another's is partially assembled and another is completely unassembled and has pieces missing.…”

Section: In-class Simulation Exercisesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Budgets, Board Games, and Make Believe: The Challenge of Teaching Social Class Inequality with Non-Traditional Students

Carreiro

Kapitulik

2010

Am Soc

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According to a 2002 study by the U.S. Department of Education, the percentage of "traditional students" on college campuses is declining. Students increasingly are delaying enrollment, attending college part time, working full time, financially independent, and single parents. In this paper, we explore the extent to which sociologists are adapting their teaching to address these shifting demographics. Based on a content analysis of articles published over a 20 year period in Teaching Sociology that suggest strategies for teaching social class inequality we find that most authors assume that their students are "traditional." Most often this means that students are assumed to come from a privileged, middle class background, lack direct and substantial experience in the labor market, and enter college shortly after graduating high school. Accordingly, most articles advocate classroom strategies of "looking down," whereby students pretend to be in the shoes of those less fortunate. Examples include creating household budgets based on poverty wages, playing board games, or assuming the role of the poor for a day. These strategies run the risk of being ineffective, alienating, and potentially ethically suspect when used with non-traditional students, whose real life experiences may resemble these simulations. We conclude with recommendations for pedagogical approaches to teaching social class inequality that are more appropriate for, and inclusive of, students from diverse backgrounds. Our goal in this paper is to start a discussion about pedagogy, social inequality, and the non-traditional student.

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“…Experiential and active learning exercises may be particularly beneficial in courses that focus on social inequality because they can provide an embodied experience that makes the content more meaningful and memorable (MacNevin 2004;Wills et al 2005).…”

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confidence: 99%

Everybody Eats

Harris

Fondren

2015

Teach Sociol

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Experiential and active learning exercises can benefit students in sociology courses, particularly, courses in which issues of inequality are central. In this paper, we describe using hunger banquets—an active learning exercise where participants are randomly stratified into three global classes and receive food based upon their class position—to enhance students’ knowledge of global hunger and inequality. The nonprofit Oxfam America has made hunger banquets popular, but they are usually large public events. We provide ways of simplifying these exercises so that they can be conducted in sociology classrooms and incorporate sociological concepts. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of students’ learning and engagement in three hunger banquets found that students had increases in perceived knowledge of the amount, severity, and causes of global hunger.

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The Stratification Puzzle: An Active-Learning Exercise in Hard Work and Success

Cited by 13 publications

References 15 publications

A Sociologist Teaches History: Some Epistemological and Pedagogical Reflections

A Sociologist Teaches History: Some Epistemological and Pedagogical Reflections

Budgets, Board Games, and Make Believe: The Challenge of Teaching Social Class Inequality with Non-Traditional Students

Everybody Eats

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