Too Close for Comfort: Teaching Social Inequality through On-Campus Research

• In Event: 3423 - Teaching and Learning Symposium Roundtable
  In Informal Discussion Roundtable: Table 2: Teaching About and Within Inequality

Abstract

Discomfort is important for learning. When students experience disequilibrium between their existing views and new information, they are more likely to make cognitive gains in understanding social division and inequality (Piaget 1975/1985; Gurin et al. 2002; Cole et al. 2011; Bowman and Brandenberger 2012). In this presentation, I will introduce an assignment used in my introductory sociology course in which students experience this disequilibrium via conducting research on how their peers’ college experiences differ by race and gender. More privileged students often enter my class with the assumption that we are living in a post-racial and/or gender equal society. Thus, doing this research brings social injustice “too close for comfort” as they hear about their peers’ experiences and makes it difficult to ignore or explain away. This assignment also achieves additional important objectives. It familiarizes students with the joys and challenges of sociological research, gives them practice in applying sociological concepts and theories, and provides an immediate context for them to engage in social justice activities.

The audience can expect to receive detailed instructions on how to implement this two-part assignment. In the first part, each student conducts an interview with a fellow undergraduate student. In the second part, students analyze this collectively-gathered data and write a paper to answer the research question: how do students at my university experience it differently by race or by gender? I will discuss procedures of the assignment that are critical to its success, including how students are assigned to interviewees, what interview questions are asked, how to compile and share this data, and how students are instructed on discourse analysis. They will also be able to learn from my mistakes as I will share pitfalls from seven years of experience with this assignment and ways to avoid them.

Author

• Stephanie Chan, Biola University