Teaching: Moving Forward

Introduction
In reflecting upon my teaching, assessing what I can do to further enhance student learning, and looking at the current state of the sociology field, there are three main things I would like to work at in relation to teaching.

Public Sociology Emphasis
With our field focused on public sociology and integrating this into our teaching, it is something I would like to incorporate more into my own courses. I have taught and been a teaching assistant for courses with a community service component. However, I would like to move beyond the traditional model of community service in which students tend to volunteer for an organization and reflect upon their experiences. There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but in a time of public sociology and increased attention to partnerships and giving back, there are some things to consider.

I must give credit to Professors Ron Aminzade and Douglas Hartmann, at the University of Minnesota, who have developed and taught Senior Project courses with a public sociology emphasis. I had the pleasure of working as Professor Aminzade’s teaching assistant for this course. Some of the ideas I have stem from this experience. Professor Aminzade had the community service students write about their experiences, but he also had the students research and address if the organizations were meeting their goals. If the organizations were not, he asked the students to discuss how they might do this based on relevant sociological literature. I enjoyed this aspect of the assignment as it moves beyond just a “helping” model of volunteerism and showcases sociological analytical and reasoning skills. Obviously, having students volunteer is not a bad thing as many organizations are in need. However, from a pedagogical stance and rooted in the human rights and feminist literatures, this can be problematic when it does not address issues of power and inequality. Furthermore, I have also witnessed numerous times when students are placed in an organization with little guidance and end up feeling frustrated with the experience.

Hence, I would like to enact more of a partnership model into a course emphasizing public sociology. I would like to see students engaged in more community based projects. By this, I mean they work in partnership with an organization or community. This does not necessarily mean that they would need to enact a full fledge research project, but the students would work in collaboration with the organization or community and have the chance to utilize their sociological background in doing so. This might be more work for the instructor, community service organizer, and organization at the forefront, but I think this could pay off for all parties involved. This also would allow students to work in groups, a valuable skill in the workforce.

Although the exact nature of the projects would vary depending upon the location of the institution and the organizations and communities that students could work with, I have a few general ideas. One is to have students work with neighborhood organizations, particularly those in lower income, minority neighborhoods that have fewer resources and volunteers. The students could work with the organization to find an ideal fit for a project. Students might be able to volunteer to develop a survey for the organization addressing neighborhood concerns and help enact the survey so that there is a representative sample of residents surveyed. Students could volunteer at neighborhood events and do surveys or interviews there to help the organization assess the event. Another idea is to have students do volunteer work at a social service organization, but before they begin to volunteer, they can discuss with an organizational representative what the organization’s concerns are about in relation to their services. At the end of the semester, students could report to the organization on what they found. Another option is to have students research an issue that is affecting a city or a neighborhood. They could then present their findings to the city council, neighborhood organization, or in a policy or impact statement. Importantly, I would like students to be able to truly listen to the voices of the disadvantaged and be able to highlight this view to sociologists, organizations, and the public in addressing issues of inequality in society.

Develop An Undergraduate Grant Writing and Funding Course
As one examines current job advertisements, many organizations seek to hire those with grant writing and funding skills. With many sociology majors having careers in non-profit work and for those going on to graduate school, this seems like an essential skill we could help them gain. Furthermore, elements of grant writing, such as tailoring a proposal to what is important to the funder, being clear and concise in the writing, and clearly stating the problem or issue are core components of writing a sociological paper. The course could cover topics such as finding foundations and funders, crafting proposals, creating budgets, and writing post-project reports. I would like to develop the course with community organizers who have experience in grant writing and funding, academics with successfully funded research, foundations and organizations who fund research, and others on campus who deal with grants. This type of course would allow students to further develop their analytical, research, and writing skills. This is a needed and timely course for those going into non-profit work or to graduate school.

Technology  
Although I am from the cohort of those taught to teach with technology, have taught online courses, and used technology in my teaching, there is always more to learn and use. Thus, I would like to incorporate more interactive technological tools in my courses, such as wikis and blogs. The exact use of them would depend on the course. From my prior employment of discussion boards in a few of my courses, I believe this kind of interactive technology enables collaborative student learning outside the classroom. Furthermore, I would also like to develop and include more visual sociology components using technology into my courses, particularly in relation to public sociology. As such, past students of mine have developed videos as part of course projects, which inspired enthusiasm among the class. I would like to develop more activities and assignments in which students could make videos (in a myriad of ways) that could reach audiences beyond the classroom, with the students’ permission.

Conclusion
Teaching is a continual process of learning and improving. Certainly there are more aspects of teaching that I would like to expand upon than are listed here, but these are three things that I have been contemplating and believe would be useful for student learning.