What Can Sociology Teach Us About Becoming Better Teachers?

• In Event: Teaching and Learning Symposium Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 5: Mentorship and Research in the Classroom

Abstract

In my classes I share with my students “rules” that are based on sociological principles that can help them actualize and avow themselves as sovereign beings who are capable of not just coexisting with others, but, indeed, harmonizing alongside them. They are as follows:

1) Question everything.
To question everything means to remain curious and not accept things with the meaning they are presented to us with. By making the familiar strange we reinvigorate our curiosity.

2) Where you sit determines what you see.
You always know what you’re supposed to know in every perfect moment, and every moment IS perfect because it is the ONLY ONE. It is nobody’s fault that they know what they know about the things that they know about. Our social location plays a significant role in this. The beautiful thing about life is that we get to share with each other what we know.

3) The constant in every situation is YOU.
Act on behalf of righteous and egalitarian principles regardless of what the socially constructed situation calls for.

4) Before agreeing or disagreeing, first understand
To truly understand, one must simply understand that everyone is exactly where they are supposed to be, knowing exactly what they are supposed to know while being aware that no one is condemned to what they currently know. This is empathy.

5) I AM ME
Names are invented. “I AM ME” is a powerful statement because it means that 1) we really are unique, 2) we really are all creators/constructors, and 3) we really are family

These “rules” can encourage our students to “disrupt the status quo” after questioning it. And as teachers, these rules remind us that the purpose of seeing with the sociological lens is to help humanity heal.

Author

• Pablo Victoria Torres, University of California-Irvine