I began college never having heard of Sociology; by the end of my first year, I had declared it as my major. Part of what drew me to Sociology as an undergraduate was the way it helped me describe and understand the social world. It introduced me to a wealth of ideas that directly connected to my own lived experiences. As an instructor, I aim to help my students build connections: between their own experiences and the world around them, between themselves and others, and between what they already know and what they learn in my class. With that end in mind, I have three other primary objectives for my students’ learning: (1) that they begin to step outside of their own stories to see how they fit into a broader social and historical context; (2) that they learn to recognize (and finetune) their own unique voice, and to respect the voices of their peers; and (3) that they are challenged to think beyond the simple black-white binaries and “one-right-answer” assumptions that may have guided their education until college, to understand the world in a more sophisticated and nuanced way. Below, I will explain more specifically what I mean by these objectives, what techniques I use to reach them, and how I assess the results. But first, I will discuss how this relates to my efforts to create an inclusive learning environment.
Students learn best when the content of their learning is linked to what they already know. People are also more open to learning new things when they are in a safe (even if sometimes uncomfortable) environment. I always begin the term with a survey of my students, to learn more about their backgrounds, interests and experiences. Regardless of their age, I treat my students as autonomous adults; I want them to see my classroom as a place where they can build on the knowledge and experiences they already have. I strive to engage multiple learning strategies, and to be attentive to the diverse range of experiences my students bring to the classroom. I also invest a great deal of time at the beginning of the term in fostering a sense of community amongst my students, so as to build a safe space where they can begin to let down their guards and open themselves to higher-level learning. I have repeatedly heard my classes likened to a close-knit family; my students tell me that they look forward to coming to class, and that they find my classroom to be a reprieve from their daily lives. This sense of community not only makes them more receptive to new ideas; it is also a way to push them to take responsibility for their learning. As one student wrote in a midterm evaluation, “Charity is very motherly and excels at getting me to work hard because I don’t want to disappoint her.”
I believe that feelings of safety and camaraderie is a necessary foundation for the kind of self-reflection and critical thinking I want to encourage in my students. I cultivate a classroom where there is lively and engaging dialogue, and where learning happens not just from teacher to student but from peer to peer (and even student to teacher). I give my students opportunities to bring in relevant outside material and to help tailor the content of our meetings to their interests. I integrate individual reflection time with small group and larger-group activities. Rather than hand my students the “right” answer, I try to facilitate conversations that help them to reach their own conclusions, drawing on sociological evidence. I frequently find myself using the Socratic method to turn their questions back to them. For example, when a student in a service learning course I facilitated was struggling with a difficult peer, I invited the rest of the class to brainstorm solutions together; the student left empowered to try an approach that worked for her, and her classmates felt rewarded by the support they could offer their colleague.
I try to present course material in conjunction with reflections on my students’ own lived experiences. I want them to recognize that they are not merely two-dimensional cardboard cutouts, but are active participants in a world where their social identities shape their opportunities and outcomes. For a lesson on class inequality, I asked my students to participate in an online interactive poverty simulation called Spent. For a class on quantitative methodology, I brought in recent data from a survey of 5,000 users of an online dating site, and asked my students to interpret the findings. For a lesson on socialism and a Marxist critique of capitalism, I invited a guest speaker who had lived at one of our nation’s longest enduring communes to describe how an alternate socio-economy worked. Through interactive in-class activities and simulations, I push students to think about how they are both impacted by and may have an impact on the social systems around them. I also help them to understand how the skills they develop in my class (collaboration, leadership, presentation, conflict-resolution) may be useful in their future careers.
I want my students to learn to value their own and their colleagues voices. I provide opportunities for them to express themselves in a variety of ways, including written and oral assignments, midterm and final assessments, and office hours. Rather than mask divergent opinions, I try to create a space where conflicting perspectives can be examined. We talk a lot about the difference between dialogue and debate– that in our conversations, there need not be winners and losers, but that we can all come to greater understanding together, through the inclusion of a wide variety of perspectives. Some of my students enter my class feeling like they don’t really have anything worthwhile to contribute; others might be a little too self-important. I strive to create a space where the under-heard voices are invited to speak up, and the overheard voices are encouraged to self-monitor. I often find that when I model this behavior– gently but persistently drawing out and pushing back– my students eventually start to pick it up and will encourage and silence one another without much prompting from me.
Finally, it is also important to me that students move beyond simple black and white thinking to understand the world with greater complexity. One way I do this is by pushing my students to have conversations about the personal and political implications of the theoretical issues we discuss in class. We also acknowledge the discomfort that comes from a lack of easy answers: sometimes proposed solutions actually do more harm than good, and our best intentions are not enough to save the world. For example, a discussion on teacher tenure prompted students to bring in articles about Teach for America (TFA), and to critically analyze both the merits and challenges of such a program, in which a number of my students had considered participating. In another class, I invited a friend who had participated in TFA in inner-city L.A. to join our class via Skype and share about her experiences. She was transparent about the benefits of such a program as well as the costs and consequences, leaving my students to formulate their own opinions. I think that as a teacher, one of my strengths is the ability to hold that complexity, rather than flee from it.
Learning to teach well is a lifelong journey, and I have been honest with my students about some of the challenges. I found it gratifying when, on the last day of class, one of my brightest (and most critical) students handed me this note: “Ironically, I believe the very same reasons that make you doubt your teaching ability make you a fantastic teacher. You allow the students to reach critical insight on their own. […] A great teacher doesn’t educate or teach, he or she facilitates education. You did it perfectly!”
A note about technology: In my classroom, I strive to find a balance between incorporating technology but also maintaining a healthy distance from it. I think technology has a lot to offer us in terms of bringing in visual and audio media, offering platforms for connecting our learning in and outside of the classroom, and creating interactive ways of connecting with one another (through shared documents, surveys, etc). However, technology can also be a distraction from other skills I consider important to cultivate: skills like listening well, establishing face-to-face connections and learning to work with others. Therefore, while I incorporate technology when relevant, I also intentionally designate times and spaces where we set technology aside to focus more closely on the learning that can only come from one another.
