Dear Tina, I find your post very interesting. What do you teach about the incarceration rates? Is it primarily a critique of the current system? How does the sociological analysis you offer resonate with students? Is it as a reaction against the unfairness of the system? How do students find that this matters concretely for their own lives -- do they see themselves at risk of being incarcerated? Do they have friends and family incarcerated? If the latter, do they see the sociological analysis as revealing that the incarcerated people are more victims of social forces than inherently criminal?
Yes, I agree that people do not have to "experience" something to be interested in it. I think I can learn some very valuable things about teaching this topic from you! Sincerely, Michael -----Original Message----- From: Tina Deshotels [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 11:35 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: TEACHSOC: Re: Time-tested sociological insights A couple of thoughts: First, it depends on what kind of students you teach as to what will appeal to them. I teach at a predominately working class university with about 20% African American (more in sociology classes) and yes incarceration rates do very much resonate with them. Especially with regards to the racial make up of the prison population! But, surely people don't have to experience something for it to 'appeal' to them? I would hope not! -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Francis Johnston Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 11:51 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [email protected] Subject: TEACHSOC: Re: Time-tested sociological insights Hi, Del, Thanks for asking for the clarification. What I mean by non-trivial, time-tested sociological insights are ideas that have been produced by sociologists about the social world, were published in sociological outlets, are backed by a consensus on empirical evidence, and grab students attention (either because it directly matters for how the students live their lives or because students find that the idea helps them understand our social world in a new, interesting way). Some sociologists might argue that "the distribution of resources remains fairly constant from generation to generation" whereas others might argue that there is "growing inequality." To me, this could indicate a lack of consensus on this particular topic. I think that "growing incarceration rates" could legitimately be claimed as sociological (e.g. Bruce Western at Princeton) and there is a consensus on evidence. But does this matter to students? I think lots would think that they are not in danger of incarceration. At best, this would matter indirectly in that lots of tax money is being spent on incarceration. But students have little control over how are tax money is spent. An even less direct argument would be that the US is becoming a more authoritarian state, which I think would have the potential to make some students "tune out." Thanks for the postings so far, these have been very helpful to think through this issue! Respectfully, Michael -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Del Thomas Ph D Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 7:17 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [email protected] Subject: TEACHSOC: Re: Time-tested sociological insights Would you include science in this? What do you mean by matter to students and consensus? Del Michael Francis Johnston wrote: > Hi all, > > Could you let me know what you consider to be some non-trivial sociological > insights that matter to our students? Ideally, these would be results for > which there is consensus that, yes the evidence really does show that this > is true. > > Thanks in advance, > Michael > > > > > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Teaching Sociology" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/teachsoc -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
