Hi All, Thanks for your help with ideas on how to teach power to intro. It went really well.
I started by asking them to all stand. They all stood and stared at me. I wanted to have them stand for 2 minutes but gave up after a minute. It was good though since I used that to introduce the idea of power, ideology and authority. I then asked them to name 4 individuals and 4 groups who they think have power in society. They also had to identify one powerless group. I then asked what factors give them power, what does their power look like, what supports/legitimizes it, what are it sources? >From there I talked about influence, coercion, and authority. We then talked about obedience - asking the students again why they obeyed me at the beginning of class but also why they obey in general. And then we brainstormed on resistance - why do people resist and how? Finally, they had to answer in their workbook "we sometimes hear the phrase 'knowledge is power'. Explain what this means and provide an example of a situation in which this might be true." So thanks again! Judith ******************************************** Dr. Judith Doyle Assistant Professor Sociology Mount Allison University __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
