Everyday Habits, Transformative Classrooms: Using Narrative Research to Disrupt Sociology Teaching for Social Change

Session Submission Type: Workshop

Description

This workshop explores how narrative research can help sociology instructors uncover and transform their everyday teaching habits into tools for social change. Drawing on a study of multiple undergraduate instructors, this session focuses on two exemplars, Dennis, who practices activist pedagogy, and Angela, who exemplifies adaptive disruption, to show how narrative inquiry can be used to examine the habitual practices that shape classrooms, influence student engagement, and advance equity.
Through guided reflection, storytelling exercises, and case study analysis, participants will practice narrative research methods to make their own teaching habits visible, analyzable, and actionable. By viewing everyday pedagogical routines as narratives, instructors can critically examine how their decisions, interactions, and routines either reinforce existing inequalities or create opportunities for transformative learning.
Participants will leave the workshop able to:
• Apply narrative research methods to analyze their own teaching practices.
• Identify the stories embedded in everyday classroom habits and recognize patterns that shape student learning and engagement.
• Translate narrative insights into strategies for equity-oriented, student-centered classrooms.
• Foster transformative learning environments where sociological theory, lived experience, and social action intersect.
The session combines short presentations, narrative exercises, and collaborative discussion. Using Dennis and Angela’s teaching narratives as exemplars, participants will construct personal and collective narratives of practice, explore patterns across experiences, and design actionable interventions for transformative classrooms. By the end, participants will leave with concrete tools to use narrative research to reflect on, document, and disrupt their own pedagogical practices.

Sub Unit

• Workshops / Teaching Workshop

Presenter

• Kristen Dellasala, Mount Saint Mary College

Session Organizer

• Kristen Dellasala, Mount Saint Mary College