“Building Empathy and Understanding around Poverty through Scenario-Based Experiential Learning”

• In Event: Teaching and Learning Symposium Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 4: Sociology in Polarized Times

Abstract

This presentation overviews a scenario-based experiential learning project designed to allow students to explore the realties and experiences of families facing poverty on a deeper level. Through a series of guided budget exercises and reflections, students construct data-driven monthly budgets for two similar hypothetical families who differ structurally. Over the course of the semester, the budget scenarios become increasing more challenging – starting with average, comfortable families; then, those bringing in a living wage; followed by those working minimum wage; moving to those with incomes at the official poverty line; and ending with those in extreme poverty. Through the exercises, students explore real-life conditions that these families would face, researching options for financial survival and social mobility in these circumstances, and use the knowledge gained through these exercises to make policy recommendations.

The project’s expected learning outcomes include
• To construct original, data-driven monthly budgets reflecting a variety of real-world situations facing contemporary families
• To investigate resources available to contemporary families facing poverty situations and how those resources may be limited
• To recognize a range of poverty experiences
• To recognize how upward social mobility may be limited for low-income families
• To connect content knowledge from class on structural diversity in families to real-world situations and lived experiences
• To connect policy recommendations from class to students’ own thinking

Student reflections suggest this project builds empathy and structural understanding, which scholars like Matthew Demond (2023) argue may be critical in building a movement in support of poverty abolition. Used in a 3000-level Sociology of Poverty course on a regional campus, this practice could be adapted for other social inequality courses, particularly social stratification, and utilize an e-portfolio for additional impact. Audience members will gain familiarity with and appreciation of scenario-based experiential learning projects and their application in social inequality courses.

Author

• Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, The Ohio State University