Helping students think about coercive labor through comedy, journaling, and comparing/contrasting

• In Event: 20461 - Teaching and Learning Symposium Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 12: Teaching Matters

Abstract

This presentation is intended to demonstrate how sociological issues like coercive labor can be taught and learned through high-impact practices. Using the case study of coercive labor (which could potentially be tied to Cohn’s (2021) idea of coercive capitalism), I will guide workshop participants through some potential classroom exercises. This presentation will be useful to audience members because I demonstrate how 1) using a brief comedy sketch about a sociological topic can capture students’ attention, 2) writing journal responses to specific short questions immediately thereafter can allow them to process the sketch, and 3) comparing and contrasting the comedy with separate, short documentary-style video can potentially elicit a change in perspective.

In this case study, I start by showing the “Fast Fashion Ad” (a Saturday Night Live) comedy sketch video skewering a Temu-like, China-based fast fashion company and then asking students (or audience members) to journal about what and/or whom the comedy sketch is satirizing and what the sketch’s strengths or weaknesses may be, sociologically. After that, the students (or audience) can think-pair-share and then open the floor for whole-group discussion.

Since the main learning objective is for students to understand that coercive labor practices do not only occur in the Majority World, but also exist in the Minority World, I will then show a brief clip of workers toiling in a U.S. Amazon factory, or a video clip of Americans recounting returning to work a couple days after giving birth because of extreme financial pressures and/or pressures from their workplace. From there, I ask students (or the audience) to work with a small group to compare and contrast what coercion and labor look like in China and the U.S.

Author

• Sarah A. Stefanos, Harvey Mudd College