1409 - Addressing Social Inequalities and Social Justice in the Classroom: A Workshop Sharing Ideas and Best Practices

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Description

This workshop brings together a group of sociology professors to discuss best practices in addressing issues of social inequality and social justice in the sociology classroom, particularly in our current socio-historical context. We will share our teaching experiences, and encourage conversations between presenters and participants on successes and challenges of incorporating students’ identity and life experiences into our sociology courses. Successful teaching often requires that students connect sociological concepts and theories to their life experiences, while developing empathy for experiences beyond their own. How can we best address these dynamics in ways that encourage a diversity of voices in the service of engaging with course materials and cultivating the sociological imagination? We will discuss strategies for applying these ideas, as well as the personal and professional risks, that may arise in doing so. We hope to encourage critical discussion of how issues of social inequality and social justice are reflected back in our classrooms. We will contribute ideas about curricular and pedagogical practices that facilitate the examination of how positionality, privilege, and inequality shape our sociology courses.

Sub Unit

• Workshops / Teaching Workshop

Session Organizer

• Alison S. Better, City University of New York-Kingsborough Community College

Panelists

• Alison S. Better, City University of New York-Kingsborough Community College

• Clare Forstie, State University of New York-Farmingdale

• Sarah Hoiland, Hostos Community College

• Diane Susan McMahon, Allegany College-Maryland

• Thomas Pineros Shields, University of Massachusetts-Lowell

• Ashley Rondini, Franklin and Marshall College

• Chandra Danielle Lavette Waring, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater