Connecting the Individual to Society

Objective: Illustrate the sociological imagination by having students understand the connection between the individual and society.

Directions: Present students a list of social issues and have them individually list ways that this social problem influences the individual and how the social issue influences society. Example social problems include substance abuse, food insecurity, juvenile crime, poverty, unemployment, urban sprawl, discrimination, and so forth. You can break students into groups and assign them a social issue or have them select one from a list that you present in class.

 

Which Group to Study?

Objective: Help students understand the various types of social groups and levels of analysis and that more than one level of analysis/social group can be used to examine the same social phenomenon.

Directions: Break the class into small groups (three to five students) and hand each a worksheet (below). Ask the groups to decide what size group they would choose to study and which level of analysis would be most appropriate for the questions asked. After all groups have completed the worksheet, reconvene the entire class and ask for answers/reactions. You should find that students have chosen different groups and levels of analysis for study of the same questions (if a particular group size/level is not mentioned, brainstorm how this group/level could be used to answer the question). Explain that this is because there are multiple ways of examining the same phenomenon, all which add to our understanding of social issues.

 

What Effect Has Sociology Had?

Objective: This discussion-based project will help students see the impact of sociology over time.

Directions: Break students into groups. Provide groups with a list of social upheavals that occurred during the 19th century. The list should include many traditions and social norms that were destroyed, including challenges to the divine right of kings and religion. Have half the groups discuss the 1960s and the other half of the groups discuss today’s society and make a list of traditions and social norms that are/were being challenged.

 

How Can We Address This Sociologically?

Objective: Help students understand the difference between those questions that are best answered through sociological methods and those that must be left to philosophers or theologians.

Directions: Either in small groups or as a whole class, name the following issues one at a time:

• Stem cell research
• Adoption by same-sex parents
• Religious fundamentalism
• Abortion
• Bias in the media
• Abstinence-only education
• Affirmative action

For each issue, have students come up with one question that is appropriate to study from a sociological perspective and one that is not. If students provide incorrect answers, help them reshape their philosophical or moral question into one that is more appropriate for sociological inquiry.

Note: Do not allow students to debate these issues at this time; this exercise is only meant to illustrate the kinds of questions that sociologists pose and the kind they do not attempt to answer.

 

How Does Sociology Differ From Other Social Sciences?

Objective: Explore how sociology is distinct from anthropology, psychology, political science, and economics.

Directions: As an alternative (or in addition) to the “How Can We Address This Sociologically?” exercise above, have students work as a class or in small groups to explore one of the issues above from each of the five perspectives (sociology, anthropology, psychology, political science, and economics). Students should choose which issue they wish to explore further and decide what research questions they would choose to answer from each of the different perspectives.

 

Getting the Most From Your Introductory Sociology Course

Objective: This activity will get students invested in the course, and it is intended to get them excited about learning sociology. It will also help them understand how the skills they learn in sociology will apply to their life aspirations.

Directions: After the first lecture in which you introduce sociology to your students, ask them to do the following:

1. After hearing all about what sociology is, how does this differ from what you thought it was when you enrolled in the course?
2. Flip through the Table of Contents in your Our Social World text. Find three to five topics you will address in the course that you are excited to cover.
3. Then examine the section “Why Study Sociology . . . And What Do Sociologists Do?” State your major or career aspirations. Using this section, describe how studying sociology will help you be successful and help you accomplish these goals.

Instructors, then, can use this information to know what students are most interested in learning about sociology, and students can start seeing how useful and interesting the course can be.

 

Thinking About Your Educational Experiences

Objective: This activity will give students a chance to think about their own educational experiences during their time spent from Kindergarten to 12th grade and discuss which level of sociological analysis would be most useful in studying these issues.

Directions: Divide the students into groups of four. Ask the students to discuss the biggest issues they faced during their time in grade school and ask them to come up with a list to share with the class. Then ask the students which level of analysis (micro or macro) would be most useful in studying these issues. Why? Then to the class present the list and the levels of analysis used to study each issue.

 

 

Chapter 1: Classroom Exercise #2

How Will You Study This?

Your team has been asked to conduct research that answers the following questions. As a group, come to a consensus about what one size group you will study (recall that group sizes include dyads, small groups, large groups, nations, and the global community) and which one level of analysis is most appropriate (micro, meso, or macro). Justify your answers.

 

1. How does the number of cultural groups in a nation affect the prevalence of terrorist acts within that nation?

Group Size: ___________________________________________________________________

Why you chose this size: _________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Level of Analysis: ______________________________________________________________

Why you chose this level of analysis: _______________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

 

 

2. Why do women in cities have fewer children than women who live in rural areas?

Group Size: ___________________________________________________________________

Why you chose this size: _________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Level of Analysis: ______________________________________________________________

Why you chose this level of analysis: _______________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

 

 

3. What types of crime are women committing and what types of crime are men committing?

Group Size: ___________________________________________________________________

Why you chose this size: _________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Level of Analysis: ______________________________________________________________

Why you chose this level of analysis: _______________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

 

 

4. Why do people who practice some form of religion live longer than those who do not?

Group Size: ___________________________________________________________________

Why you chose this size: _________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Level of Analysis: ______________________________________________________________

Why you chose this level of analysis: _______________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Delving Into Journal Articles

Objective: To help students better understand the process of research and research methods.

Directions: Select two easy-to-read journal articles (preferably one qualitative and one quantitative) and have students read one of the two articles before class. Break students into small groups, ensuring that all group members have read the same article (qualitative or quantitative). Students should discuss the following issues:

1. What theory did these authors use?

2. What were the authors’ hypotheses?

3. Was the research deductive or inductive?

4. Which variables were used in the study?

5. How were the variables operationalized?

6. What kind of relationship exists between the variables? (correlation, cause and effect, or spurious)

7. What method did the researchers use? (survey, field study, experiment, existing sources, or triangulation)

8. Who composed the sample? Was it representative?

 

Applying Theory to Life

Objective: To give students a better understanding of how sociological theories can be applied to real life.

Directions: Assign students (either in groups or individually) one of the early sociologists. Send them to the library for a class period to gather information on that theorist and his or her work (or, if you can use your laptops in the classroom as an option). Have the students present this information to the class. Then (as a class, in groups, or individually) ask students to apply these classical theories to issues in contemporary society. Follow this with a discussion of the usefulness of these theories today.

 

Creating Our Own Study

Objective: To help students better understand the process of research and research methods.

Directions: Guide the class through the research process including Steps 1 through 8 above. Have them choose a research topic and develop a theory and hypothesis, operationalize variables, and choose the most appropriate method to investigate their topic. If desired, this would be an opportune time to supplement the text with a discussion of designing good survey or interview questions. Alternative: When guiding the students through this process, choose the topic yourself (such as “How do college students feel about the fairness of the no-smoking policy on campus?”). Ensure that the topic and methods are something the students could actually carry out themselves in a mini-project (e.g., design a questionnaire and administer it to 50 students). Students could actually complete this project and hand it in for extra credit if desired.

 

“You Can Make Statistics Say Anything”

Objectives: To counter the common argument that “you can make statistics say anything” while also teaching students about what the popular media can do to sociological research.

Directions: Bring in (or have students bring in) several media “snippets” of research (polls from a newspaper or short press releases). Then instruct students to compare the popular press reports to the original sources. Discuss how the two are different and the reasons they differ. Explain some of the precautions sociologists take in order to ensure that their original research is as accurate as possible.

 

Locating a Representative Sample

Objective: To show students the process that researchers go through in order to find representative samples for their studies.

Directions: Tell students that today, they will be locating a representative sample for a study on how people feel about having a new cultural festival on campus. Using the Internet (or PowerPoints you print off before class), show students four different possible groups from which to sample: one group should be all of the students on your campus (you should be able to get this information from your college’s Student Affairs or Diversity Center), one group should be all of the individuals in your college’s county, one from your college’s city, and one from your state (you can locate information for all three at http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/). Have students point out the similarities and differences among the four populations. Further, ask them to debate which would be the most effective group from which to sample and why.

 

Research Ethics

Objective: To show students that a variety of anticipated and unanticipated ethical issues can occur in the course of research using real scenarios.

Directions: Below are a number of scenarios that have emerged during the course of actual social science research. Divide students into five groups and distribute one handout to each group. Have the students read through the scenarios and discuss the questions with their group. Then bring the entire class together again to share their scenarios and proposed courses of action with one another. You can use this exercise as a springboard for discussing research ethics and the reasons for the emergence of IRBs.

 

A.

Research Methods and Ethics Activity

Imagine that you are a student who wants to write a sociological paper. While conducting your research, you run into the following ethical situation. Discuss as a group what you would do in the scenario and some of the consequences you see for continuing with or abandoning your research.

Your Topic: You are interested in how social norms (or rules that guide social behavior) emerge for gang members. You want to know specifically how gang members justify behavior that is not accepted in the larger society as a whole.

Your Methodological Approach: You decide that you need to be viewed as a member of the gang and see the process through which different gang activities get assimilated into your gang membership.

Your Ethical Dilemma: You are most interested in how certain activities that most members of society see as immoral (like drive-by shootings, beatings, and drug use) become normalized in the gang that you are researching. As a member of this gang, you are expected to participate in these activities.

Discussion Questions for Your Group

1. Do you conduct this research despite the potential to act in ways that you view as unethical? Or do you stop the research when you find that potentially damaging effects can occur? Why or why not?
2. What benefits are there to understanding the social processes that you are researching? Do they outweigh the behavior you find unethical?
3. What ethical issues does your group see raised by this particular line of research?

B.

Research Methods and Ethics Activity

Imagine that you are a student who wants to write a sociological paper. While conducting your research, you run into the following ethical situation. Discuss as a group what you would do in the scenario and some of the consequences you see for continuing with or abandoning your research.

Your Topic: You are interested in how social norms (or rules that guide social behavior) emerge for persons that engage in casual sex. You have heard rumors of casual sexual activities taking place at rest area bathrooms (called “tearooms”) and would like to know how this exchange is made between unacquainted participants.

Your Methodological Approach: You decide that you need to go to rest area bathrooms and see if these tearooms exist. You also want to find out the social roles the participants in these tearooms engage in.

Your Ethical Dilemma: While conducting your research, you become interested in how the people who frequent tearooms learn about their existence. You also begin to question issues of sexuality and would like to know what sexual identity these participants assume in their everyday lives. To do this, though, you would have to break confidentiality and reveal to your subjects that you are a researcher.

Discussion Questions for Your Group

1. Do you conduct this research despite the potential to act in ways that you view as unethical? Or do you stop the research when you find that potentially damaging effects can occur? Why or why not?
2. What benefits are there to understanding the social processes that you are researching? Do they outweigh the behavior you find unethical?
3. What ethical issues do your group members see raised by this particular line of research?

C.

Research Methods and Ethics Activity

Imagine that you are a student who wants to write a sociological paper. While conducting your research, you run into the following ethical situation. Discuss as a group what you would do in the scenario and some of the consequences you see for continuing with or abandoning your research.

Your Topic: You are interested in the effect of power on how people assume social roles. You are specifically wondering if people with power in a social situation behave differently than people without power in the same situation.

Your Methodological Approach: You decide to conduct an experiment in which you randomly assign participants as “prisoners” or “guards” in a mock-prison environment that you have set up. You then ask them to role play their assignment to see if even falsely earned (or falsely removed) power affects their behaviors.

Your Ethical Dilemma: While conducting your research, you find that the participants get very involved in their role playing. Although you planned for the research to continue for 14 days, you fear that the participants’ view of reality is becoming very blurred, and many are identifying with the roles that they have been assigned.

Discussion Questions for Your Group

1. Do you conduct this research despite the potential to act in ways that you view as unethical? Or do you stop the research when you find that potentially damaging effects can occur? Why or why not?
2. What benefits are there to understanding the social processes that you are researching? Do they outweigh the behavior you find unethical?
3. What ethical issues do your group members see raised by this particular line of research?

D.

Research Methods and Ethics Activity

Imagine that you are a student who wants to write a sociological paper. While conducting your research, you run into the following ethical situation. Discuss as a group what you would do in the scenario and some of the consequences you see for continuing with or abandoning your research.

Your Topic: You are interested in the extent to which authority affects personal behavior. Based on your interest in Nazi Germany, you question the extent to which a person will do something simply because they are told to do it.

Your Methodological Approach: You decide to conduct an experiment in which you randomly assign participants as “teachers” or “students” in a mock-classroom environment that you have set up. For your participants that are teachers, you tell them that electrical shocks help motivate people to learn. Thus, for each question the student gets incorrect, the teacher must administer an electrical shock. Based on the instructions given to the teacher, the electrical shock also must be increased with each wrong answer given by the student.

Your Ethical Dilemma: While conducting your research, you find that the participants get very involved in their role playing. Many of the teachers are taking the electric shocks to near-fatal levels.

Discussion Questions for Your Group

1. Do you conduct this research despite the potential to act in ways that you view as unethical? Or do you stop the research when you find that potentially damaging effects can occur? Why or why not?
2. What benefits are there to understanding the social processes that you are researching? Do they outweigh the behavior you find unethical?
3. What ethical issues do your group members see raised by this particular line of research?

E.

Research Methods and Ethics Activity

Imagine that you are a student who wants to write a sociological paper. While conducting your research, you run into the following ethical situation. Discuss as a group what you would do in the scenario and some of the consequences you see for continuing with or abandoning your research.

Your Topic: You become friends with people who you later find out are drug smugglers. You are interested in how social norms (or rules that guide social behavior) emerge for drug smugglers. You want to know specifically how drug smugglers justify behavior that is not accepted in the larger society as a whole.

Your Methodological Approach: You interview your friends and ask them to introduce you to other members of the drug-trafficking community. You become socially involved in their world to understand how they came to participate in such a deviant lifestyle.

Your Ethical Dilemma: Your subjects are not only conducting behavior that would be viewed as unethical to the majority of the population but is also considered illegal by your local and federal governments. Also, because you first befriended these people, they have the expectation that you will make readers of your dissertation sympathetic to their lifestyle and different decisions that they make on account of their occupation.

Discussion Questions for Your Group

1. Do you conduct this research despite the potential to act in ways that you view as unethical? Or do you stop the research when you find that potentially damaging effects can occur? Why or why not?
2. What benefits are there to understanding the social processes that you are researching? Do they outweigh the behavior you find unethical?
3. What ethical issues do your group members see raised by this particular line of research?

Is It Ethnocentric?

Objective: This activity is intended to get your students considering the difference between ethnocentric and culturally relative perspectives on social issues.

Directions: The instructor should divide the class into groups and assign the groups to debate that the action, belief, or policy is either “ethnocentric” or “culturally relative.” The groups should then be allowed 10–20 minutes to make and outline of their main points. The groups can then spend three to five minutes each presenting their argument to the class. Classmates should be allowed to ask questions of the groups before voting to decide which group wins the debate. At the end of the activity and after all the groups have presented, the instructor should lead a discussion about the difference between ethnocentric and culturally relative perspectives.

Debate Topics

1. In 1997, two Iraqi brothers moved with their wives from Iraq to Montana. The couples legally wed in Iraq before relocating to the United States. The brothers, 28 and 34, worked, and the women, 14 and 16, respectively, attended school. All were participating in the naturalization process to become U.S. citizens. However, after being alerted by a teacher at the wives’ school, the two brothers were arrested and charged with statutory rape. Was their arrest ethnocentric or culturally relative?
    
   
   1. Note to instructors: The brothers’ defense was that the law was ethnocentric, and they were not convicted.
       
2. Multiple states are now discussing an “English-only” policy that would make all government-sponsored activities conducted solely in English. This would make all court proceedings, public school classes, and licensing examinations exclusively in English. In some states, the laws make it impossible for an individual to work with a translator in these settings. The laws would also make government documents, such as tax forms, the census, and discrimination grievance forms, available only in English. Is this policy ethnocentric or culturally relative?
3. Immigrants from many African nations that practice female circumcision are being arrested in the Western nations they relocate to for performing female circumcisions on their daughters. The immigrants argue that female circumcision is a culturally important practice that many women in their cultures have performed. Many nations consider female circumcision child abuse, and the UN is considering making the practice a violation of global law. The UN even refers to the action as FGM, or female genital mutilation. Is the arrest of these immigrants ethnocentric or culturally relative?
    
   
   1. Note to instructors: You could also ask whether the UN policy to prohibit female circumcision is ethnocentric or culturally relative.
       
4. In the United States, many schools and businesses are closed on the Christian celebration days of Easter, Christmas, and Good Friday. In fact, Christmas Day is one of only 10 federally recognized holidays. However, the same schools and businesses are not closed during the holidays celebrated by Americans with other religious affiliations, such as Rosh Hashanah, Ramadan, or Vesak. Is this practice ethnocentric or culturally relative?

 

Connecting Nonmaterial and Material Culture

Objective: This assignment is designed to show students the interrelation among elements of nonmaterial and material culture. After completing this activity, they should see how material and nonmaterial culture work together to emphasize the overall cultural values of a society.

Directions: This activity can be conducted in small groups or with an entire class. The instructor will state the importance of values and beliefs, norms and behaviors, and material goods in a culture. Then the instructor will ask students to think of characteristics that would define “American culture.” The instructor should first ask students to come up with a list of values and beliefs that are important in American culture. After a list is compiled, the students are then asked to list norms and behaviors in our culture that reinforce those values. Then the students should make a list of material goods the culture creates to reinforce those norms and values. This activity should be followed up with a discussion on the importance of material and nonmaterial culture in a society.

• Note to instructors: You could also ask students to list culturally important symbols that reinforce values and norms. Students could use symbolic material goods as support for the importance of norms and values.

Here is an example table of potential responses:

Value or Belief	Norms and Behaviors	Supportive Material Goods
Importance of Material Success/Comfort	Long work hours to earn enough money to support a desired lifestyle	Any material status symbol would work here (i.e., luxury cars, large homes, and electronics)
Importance of Physical Fitness	Many diet norms control fat and caloric intake; fitness norms emphasize physical activity	Exercise equipment, health food, diet soda, gyms, and so forth
Importance of Success	Turn something into a competition unnecessarily; trying hard to be “the best”	Trophies, blue ribbons, and Employee of the Month plaques
Importance of Democracy	Tendency to make decisions in groups; generally allowing individuals to voice own opinion	Political buttons, yard signs, bumper stickers, newspapers, and other media

 

Does the United States Have a Real Culture?

Objective: In this activity, you want students to understand the importance of culture in a society.

Directions: Tell the class that it is their job to use objects to describe the United States’ culture to someone who has no knowledge of their society. If they could only use five objects to explain the culture what would they be? Have them make a list of the five most important objects. Have students list their objects and tally the responses as they read them out loud. Is there a general consensus on the most important objects to use? Do these objects represent our real culture or the ideal culture? Do some of the objects listed represent a subculture and not the culture as a whole?

 

Mainstream Culture, Subculture, or Counterculture?

Objective: This activity should get students to understand the difference among subcultures, countercultures, and mainstream culture.

Directions: Ask students (or small groups of students) to consider whether any of the following groups are subcultures, countercultures, or mainstream cultures:

1. Al-Qaeda
2. Soccer moms
3. Fraternity members
4. Traveling carnival workers
5. Amish
6. Gang members
7. American Medical Association members
8. The band at your college or university
9. Deadheads
10. Hamas
11. Congress
12. The Hell’s Angels

Ask them to keep in mind the authors’ definitions of the groups when doing this activity. What are (or may be if the students are unaware) some of the group’s norms, values, and beliefs? Are there particular symbols associated with these groups? Are there elements of material culture associated with these groups? What artifacts do they create? Do they have a cultural icon? Do they subscribe to the culture at large? In what context could they be a subculture, a counterculture, or a mainstream culture?

 

Subcultural Show and Tell

Objective: The objective of this activity is to get students to understand the importance of symbols and artifacts in subcultures. It will also show students how objects that are commonplace to many people hold special value to members of subcultures.

Directions: Ask each of your students to bring in an object that they feel is an artifact or symbol of a subculture they belong to. Then have each student stand up with the object and describe what the object is and how it is important to their subculture. The students should highlight if there are norms and values associated with the object. After each student has shared his or her object, they can discuss in small groups or as a class how the subcultures they are a part of vary. They should also discuss similarities and differences of the groups.

For a larger class, students could submit a picture to the instructor of an object that they believe is an artifact or symbol of a subculture they belong to along with an explanation about the object, the subculture, and the importance of the object to the subculture. In class the instructor shows a few of the pictures and asks the class their thoughts on the object, subculture, its importance, and associated norms and values. This can provide a good lesson on how group membership influences the members while outside group members may not share in the meaning of symbols and artifacts.

 

Global Connections Through Products

Objective: The activity will show students how the global economy connects individuals in different cultures, often without our knowledge.

Directions: Ask students to take a minute or two and make a list of where different objects they brought to class were made. They can look at their clothing, jackets, electronic devices, backpacks, pencils, pens, and so on. After they make a list, ask them to think about what they know about each of these national cultures. Would the product be useful to people who live in this culture, or is it produced mainly for individuals living in other cultures? How may the cultural value of the object differ between the two cultures? What values and norms are these products associated with, and how does that differ between the two cultures? You can also debate whether material or nonmaterial culture plays a greater role in global culture.

 

Norms, Values, and Beliefs on Display in Important Life Events

Objective: This activity will give students an idea about the importance of shared cultural values in their lives.

Directions: First, you will want to collectively create a list of important norms, values, and beliefs in a brainstorming session. This will work best if you brainstorm for each separately. Spend about 2 or 3 minutes generating each list. Then break students into groups of three or four and have them tell a story about an important event in their lives. Here are some suggested topics:

• Getting their driver’s license
• Attending prom
• Turning 18
• Going to college or moving out
• Graduating high school
• Making the decision about which college to attend

Give each student in the group 3–5 minutes to tell their story. While they are telling their story, have the other students make a list of the norms, values, and beliefs that are central to each student’s story, allowing them to extrapolate these based on what the student says. After each student is finished with his or her story, have them compare their lists to see what beliefs, norms, and values they share and which were different. Have them come to a consensus about which cultural elements were most important to them. Then lead a group discussion on their findings.

 

Connecting Symbols to Ideal or Real Culture

Objective: This activity allows students to better understand the importance of objects and shared meaning in a society.

Directions: Select 10 objects that represent traditional ideal American culture (i.e., the American flag, a mortarboard, and a single-family home). Present a photo of each object to the class and ask them to write whether the object represents ideal or real culture in our society. Jot down what the associated values are with that particular object. You can also discuss with the class whether the meaning of the symbol has changed over time.

 

Thinking About Other Cultures

Objective: This activity will help students identify items from other cultures and understand the significance of these items.

Directions: Have the students bring in an item that is from another culture (i.e., food item, clothing, and artifact). Have the student do some research on the background of that item (from another culture) and discuss the significance of this item for the class as a “show and tell” activity.

Mass Media Socialization

Objective: To help students learn to expose the socialization messages in television or film.

Directions: Select one (television or film). Show brief video clips (approximately 3–5 minutes each) to students from sources aimed toward different age groups. One clip should be of a film/TV show aimed at very young children, one should be produced for preschoolers, one for elementary-aged children (e.g., a Saturday-morning cartoon), one for teens, one for adults, and one for older adults. Show the clips one at a time. After each one, ask:

1. What messages is this video sending to [age group]?
2. How do you know which age group it’s targeted toward?
3. What type of [person in age group] is this video aimed toward? [consider issues of race, sex, social class, etc.]
4. What is the purpose of these particular socialization messages? Why might others think that it is important for [age group] to learn these things?

Finally, discuss the entire collection, comparing and contrasting the differences in socialization messages.

 

How Do Our Socialization Experiences Vary?

Objective: To help students understand that, while there may be some variation, most of their socialization experiences are more similar than different

Directions: Break students into small groups and have them discuss the following issues, recording their similarities and differences. Be sure that each group member is heard from on all issues:

1. How did you learn table manners? Do you recall any specific learning instances? If so, feel free to mention the experience.
2. How did you learn to read? Do you recall any specific learning instances? If so, feel free to mention the experience.
3. How did you learn how to behave on a date? Do you recall any specific learning instances? If so, feel free to mention the experience.
4. What’s keeping you in your seat right now answering this questionnaire rather than being outside enjoying the weather/napping/reading or watching television? How did you learn that this is appropriate behavior?

Bring the students back together to discuss their findings. Are students surprised by the similarities? How do they explain the differences?

If possible, share information from your particular college on diversity at the school (i.e., statistics on racial, sexual, national origin, and social class diversity). Despite the diversity in your school, ask students if they expect that other students at your university have socialization experiences that are like their own. Why or why not?

 

Being Socialized to Become a College Student

Objective: To allow students to understand how we are socialized

Directions: Ask students to list ways in which they were socialized to become a successful college student. Have them think about what socialization occurred in high school, at home, with their peers, via the internet, and so on. Examples of ways include taking “college-prep” classes in high school or taking tours of college campuses. Have students share ways in which they were socialized. Then ask students if they believe they were properly socialized. How or how not? How has the socialization continued as college students?

 

How Have You Been Socialized?

Objective: Students will realize that their socialization processes differ based on their race/ethnicity, social class, gender, and religious background.

Directions: Students should be given the following assignment, asked to complete it (either in class or out of class), and be ready to discuss their findings with the class. Alternative: The assignment could be used to prompt an in-class discussion only.

Read the box in Chapter 4 of your text titled “Black Men and Public Space” and then answer the following questions.

1. How did the author’s sex and race impact his socialization process?
2. How has your sex impacted your socialization?
3. How has your race/ethnicity impacted your socialization?
4. How has your social class impacted your socialization?
5. How has your religious background (or lack of religion) impacted your socialization?
6. Have any of these factors combined to influence your socialization process (e.g., the socialization experience of a white, working-class male is likely quite different from the socialization experience of a white upper-middle-class male)?

Break your students up into five groups. Assign each group one of the different types of society and have them come up with and present reasons why their society is the best. Some things they should consider are: If you were born into that particular society, what would you be doing with most of your time? Materially, would you be better off or worse off than you are today? Emotionally? Spiritually? Would growing up in that society make you a different person than you currently are? Would you think the same way? Would you think about the same things? Are there any parts of your current identity that would not be any different? After they answer the questions, hold a class discussion asking your students if they would prefer to grow up in a hunting-and-gathering society, a horticultural society, a pastoral society, or an early industrial society if forced to choose. Why? Make sure you exclude the current computer age from the choice. You can also have students try to predict the future, or what the next society will look like based on what they know of the evolution of these other societies, including our current society.

 

Roles

Objective: To understand the number of roles that each person possesses in their lives and how we were socialized to assume those roles.

Directions: Have students list all the roles they currently occupy. Then have them share their answers. Ask the class to discuss how people are socialized to take on these roles within society.

 

Life Without the Internet and Cell Phones

Objective: Students will realize what life would be like without the Internet and how dependent we have become on the Internet and cell phones for many purposes.

Directions: Break the students into small groups. Tell them to imagine a world without the Internet and cell phones. Ask each group to answer the following questions (have each student in the groups answer questions 1 through 3 and as a group come up with the answers to questions 4 and 5):

1. How would you conduct research for a research paper?
2. What would be your primary mode of communication?
3. How would your life be altered?
4. List the benefits of a world without cell phones and the Internet.
5. List the disadvantages of a world without cell phones and the Internet.

Do You Know Who I Know?

Objective: This activity is intended to get students to see how socially connected they are to one another. It also allows them to test Milgram’s Six Degrees Theory.

Directions: Assign your students to random groups with roughly six members. Then give them 10–20 minutes to find out how many friends or acquaintances they have in common (it must be individuals they personally know and interact with—not famous individuals or cultural icons that everyone will “know”). The group should keep a list of individuals they name and a tally of how many of the group members know the individual. For each individual that more than one member of the group knows, the group will get a point for each member that knows the individual. The group with the most points at the end of the activity wins (although no reward needs to be attached to winning).

Instructors can use this activity to discuss the reality of the “small world” hypothesis. It can also be used to discuss groups and statuses, because the students should quickly discover that, if they realize groups and organizations they have in common, it will more easily lead them to common acquaintances. This activity will highlight the role of groups in developing social networks.

Note to Instructors: It is crucial to this activity that students do not self-select into groups.

 

Construction of Reality

Objective: This activity is designed to help students understand how reality is socially constructed.

Directions: Create some real-life scenarios and ask the students to write down how they would handle each scenario, and then ask various students to share with the class. The responses will vary from student to student. Explain to the students that reality is constructed differently for each individual based on their life experiences.

 

Presentation of (the Virtual) Self in Everyday Life

Objective: This activity will encourage a discussion of impression management in real life and online.

Directions: Prior to the day you do this activity, ask each of your students to prepare a 1- to 3-minute presentation addressing the question, “Who am I?” Then, during the next class, instructors will ask students to compare their presentation to the way they answer “Who am I?” on their Facebook or Instagram profile. You can do this activity in groups or as a class, if students are willing to share their profiles with their colleagues and instructor. This activity should engage students in a discussion of impression management and face work. Instructors could also use this activity to discuss the role of the Internet in social interaction. It could also lead to an ethical debate about whether college admissions counselors, employers, and faculty should use these profiles to evaluate students and employees (a practice becoming very common, especially in the business world).

Note to Instructors: To complete this activity, instructors will need a computer and a projector or students will need computer access. Also, not all individuals will have a profile on networking websites but the majority of your students should (based on the authors’ experience with their classes).

 

Visualizing Social Networks

Objective: This activity should get students thinking about their social networks and the networking opportunities available to them because of their network.

Directions: Give each student a piece of graph paper. Then ask them to list as many individuals they know and can think of in 5–15 minutes down the rows (they will need another 5–15 minutes to make the same list across the columns). Have them mark a 1 in the cell if the individuals at the intersection know one another and a 0 if they do not. Then have each student attempt to draw their social network. By drawing their social networks, students should see the benefits they could get from networking. You could then discuss if students realized the extent of their social networks. You could also discuss if their networks consist of more individuals they are connected to through primary or secondary group membership and the implications this has on their ability to network.

 

Bureaucratic Structure in Your College or University

Objective: This activity is intended to get your students to see their college or university as a bureaucracy and a formal organization.

Directions: Either in groups or as a class, have your students list all the departments and organizations (or services) that they can think of in your college or university. Then have your students discuss the ways that the departments and organizations interact with one another to have them visualize the organizational structure of the college or university. Also have them think of list the departments and organizations they interacted with to be a student this quarter or semester. This activity should lead to a discussion of the role of bureaucracy and formal organizations. Instructors should ask students whether they had previously viewed the college or university as a formal organization or a bureaucracy. They should also talk about the benefits and the problems created by the college or university bureaucracy.

 

Create Your Own Formal Organization

Objective: Completing this activity should lead your students to think about the costs and benefits of bureaucracies and alternative organizational structures.

Directions: Have your students create the ideal organizational structure of a workplace or a university. Then have them compare and contrast the workplace or university they create to their current workplace or university. What problems might there be with the ideal structure they created? What problems exist in the current organization that will be solved by the new organizational structure? This activity should also lead to a discussion of ideal-type bureaucracy and the ability of alternative organizational structures to solve the problems associated with current bureaucracies.

 

Groups in Our Social World

Objective: This activity is intended to get students to realize the salience of groups in their everyday lives.

Directions: Give students 5–15 minutes to make a list of all the groups and organizations they belong to. Then ask them to go through and label each group as a primary or secondary group. Then ask them to list the statuses and roles they have in each group. This activity can lead to discussion about the salience of groups in society. Instructors can also use the activity to discuss the importance of primary and secondary groups in students’ lives. Instructors can also discuss role strain and role conflict and formal and informal statuses in relation to students’ social worlds.

 

The Difference Between Role Strain and Role Conflict

Objective: This activity will allow students to understand the difference between role strain and role conflict and to recognize potential role strain and role conflict in their own lives.

Directions: Have students list the demands of the role of college student. Have them read some of the demands out loud to the class so everyone understands how complex the role is. Then have them discuss examples of role strain.

Next have them list other roles that they occupy in addition to being a college student. Ask for students to share some of the roles they occupy and examples of role conflict between that particular role and being a college student they have experienced.

 

Technology Transforms Society

Objective: Students will be able to determine the effects of technology.

Directions: When discussing how technology is the key to transforming societies, put students in small groups and provide them the following scenario: Imagine what might happen if a group of modern-day anthropologists visited a hunting and gathering society in a remote jungle of Central Africa and accidentally left behind the following objects: a flashlight, a transistor radio, a moped, a keg of beer, and a small arsenal of guns. Considering each object, one by one, how might that object transform the society as well as change its members’ social interactions and relationships? You can change up the different items if you want, such as book of matches, cell phone, tablet, laptop, or any other modern items.

 

Understanding Goffman’s Dramaturgy

Objective: To understand how we go through “front-stage” and “back-stage” behavior in our daily lives.

Directions: Have students list out everything they did yesterday (or if they stayed in all day yesterday—the last day they went out). Then have them determine what was “back stage” and what was “front stage.” How did they act differently depending on what stage they were occupying?

You can expand on this if students hold jobs in restaurants or retail stores to discuss how they go between front and back stage in a shift at work.

 

Visualizing Your Social Network in Groups

Objective: To visually understand how many groups we are a part of and the way these groups form our social networks.

Directions: Give each student a blank piece of paper and have them draw a small circle in the middle with their name in it. Then have them fill the paper with all the groups they are a part of it. If the group is a primary group, then the circle should be closer to their name, a secondary group should be farther away. They can even change the size of the circle depending on the importance. Have the student then connect groups with lines if members from one group connect to members of another group. This can be expanded further by having students list on the back reference groups.

We are ALL Deviants

Objective: To show students that everyone is deviant and expose them to the range of deviant behaviors that occurs just in their small corner of the world.

Directions: In the class before you teach Chapter 6, distribute an index card to each student. Instruct them not to put their names on the cards but to print the most deviant thing they have ever done on the card. Provide some examples that you feel are extreme so that they feel that their own behavior is more “normal” and therefore will be more likely to disclose. Ask them to place the cards anonymously in a large envelope. Before the deviance class, sort the cards by theme and present the themes (and perhaps some composite examples) to the class. Have the group discuss whether they are surprised by the findings and why.

 

What is Deviant?

Objective: To illustrate that what we as a society considered as deviant behavior changes over time and often depends on the context.

Directions: Ask students to raise their hands if they have at least one tattoo. Estimate the percentage of the class that have their hands up. Then ask the students what they know about tattoos. Who historically had tattoos? (Soldiers, members of biker gangs) Discuss how this once deviant act is now mainstream. How did this occur? Are tattoos still deviant? Does it depend on where the tattoo is located? Who has the tattoo? (Surgeon compared to server, for example). Who decides what is deviant?

Note: This works best in a large classroom. In the author’s experience, over half of the classroom will raise their hand.

 

Can We Explain Crime?

Objective: To familiarize the students with the various theories of deviance and encourage them to think critically about them.

Directions: In class, break the students into small groups and provide each group with a newspaper story describing a crime (try to include several different types of crime). Have the students identify the type of crime that occurred and attempt to explain it from each of the eight theoretical perspectives (social control, rational choice, differential association, labeling, anomie, strain, conflict, and feminist). Then, as a group, they should decide which one theory best explains the crime and why. Finally, reassemble as a whole class and have each group present a brief overview of their crime, which theory they think best explains the crime, and why they chose the explanation they did.

 

How Do We Define Deviance?

Objective: To understand how we “rank” deviant behavior and that our rankings are not arbitrary.

Directions: Have students individually complete the following worksheet. Once they have finished, select 5–10 students and ask them to provide you with the five acts that they ranked as “most deviant” and the five acts they consider “least deviant.” Write their responses on the board. Then have the students identify patterns among the most- and least-deviant activities. What types of crime do the most deviant behaviors tend to be? What types of crime do the least-deviant behaviors tend to be? How is societal power related to how we define the most- and least-deviant activities? How does this activity relate to the social constructedness of deviance?

 

On a scale from 1 (low seriousness) to 10 (high seriousness), indicate the seriousness of each offense listed below.

___ Slapping a spouse

___ Selling cocaine

___ Causing the death of an employee by not repairing machinery

___ Stealing cigarettes from a gas station

___ Holding suspected war criminals for 5 years without a trial

___ Stealing lipstick or powder from a drug store

___ Being drunk on a public sidewalk

___ Beating up a stranger while sober

___ Manufacturing and selling autos known to be defective

___ Printing counterfeit $5 bills

___ Theft of car for the purpose of resale

___ False advertising of a headache remedy

___ Burning a child with a cigarette

___ Planned killing of a spouse

___ Stealing pens from the office

___ A public official accepting bribes in return for favors

___ Planned killing of a person for a fee

___ Manufacturing and selling drugs known to be harmful to users

___ Forcible rape of a neighbor

___ Fixing prices of a consumer product such as gasoline

___ Knowingly selling defective cars as completely safe

___ Armed holdup of a taxi driver

___ Beating up a stranger while drunk

___ Killing a pedestrian while exceeding the speed limit

___ Underreporting income on income tax return

___ Killing spouse’s lover after catching them together

___ Knowingly using inaccurate scales in weighing meat for sale

___ Employee embezzling company funds

___ Armed robbery of a supermarket

___ Overcharging on repairs to automobiles

___ Causing the death of a tenant by neglecting to repair heat

___ Killing an unarmed person who breaks into your home

___ Downloading music without paying for it using a data-sharing program

___ Seriously injuring someone in a barroom free-for-all

___ Performing unnecessary surgery

 

The Theories of Deviance Through Music

Objective: Students will be able to apply various theories of deviance to pop culture artifacts.

Directions: Bring a variety of songs (and song lyrics) to class that illustrate specific theories of deviance. After discussing each theory, play the associated song and ask students to apply the theory to the lyrics. Alternatively, students could be asked to bring songs to class that illustrate specific theories. Some examples include:

• Toby Keith—“Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue” (Durkheim’s functions of deviance)
• Cab Calloway—“Minnie the Moocher” (Merton’s strain theory)
• Steve Earle—“Copperhead Road” (Miller’s features of deviant subcultures)
• Billy Joel—“Only the Good Die Young” (labeling theory)
• Johnny Cash—“Ballad of Ira Hayes” (medicalization of deviance)
• John Prine—“Paradise” (corporate deviance)
• The Beatles—“Run for Your Life” (feminist theory)
• Dead Prez—“Police State” (conflict theory) **WARNING: Explicit Lyrics

 

Understanding the Impact of Labels

Objective: To better understand labeling theory and the impact of labels.

Directions: Pass out index cards to each student at the beginning of class and have them write a label that they have called at some point in their life. The label can be positive or negative. They should write one label per card. Alternatively, you can give them index cards at the end of a class session and tell students to bring them back filled out and have them deposit them in a manila envelope when they come into class.

Ask a student to write on the whiteboard or type on the computer as you read off each label. Record as many as necessary.

Ask students how these labels could potentially impact people. How do seeing these labels make them feel? Are the labels more positive or negative? Why do they think that is the case?

 

Victimless Crimes

Objective: This activity will help students think about and analyze the concept of “victimless crimes.”

Directions: Have the students split into groups of four. Give each group a news article that pertains to a victimless crime (i.e., prostitution and pornography). Then have the students answer the following questions:

1. Summarize the main points of the article.
2. In your opinion, are there any victims in this story? Why or why not?

Share the results with the rest of the class and discuss why these crimes are considered “victimless.”

 

Hate Crimes

Objective: This activity will help students understand the nature of hate crimes.

Directions: Show the students this clip titled “The Matthew Shepard Story”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU03SBj9EUM. Then discuss current statistics regarding the prevalence of hate crimes and have the students think about how each sociological perspective would analyze hate crimes by having them break into small groups to discuss.

Living on a Budget

Objective: This activity should get your students to realize the lifestyle differences between upper-middle-class and poor families in the United States.

Directions: Prior to coming to class, the instructor should print out online ads for job openings, available housing, and transportation for sale. Place your students in small groups and give them a collection of newspapers. Assign them the task of finding job(s) for two partners in a family, housing, child care, and transportation. Once they find a job, assign the group a realistic monthly salary for the career they select and have them budget the salary for all the financial responsibilities or wants the family may have during a particular month. It is important that the instructor does not limit the career path the students select. (It is actually better if they select upper-middle-class occupations). Once they have finished their budgets (25–30 minutes), give them a similar amount of time to budget the same responsibilities or wants on the monthly minimum wage in your state. After the students are finished with the second budget, the instructor should lead a discussion about the differences in the two lifestyles. The students should consider what items that were previously considered necessities became luxuries. Ask the students to project the relative happiness of the families. Students should also discuss if the division between the two family’s lifestyles were greater, less, or about what they expected. The instructor can also tie the activity into a discussion of the “living wage” or a discussion of the working poor in the text.

 

How Much Do You Need to Earn to Survive in Your City?

Objective: To understand the complexities of poverty and how much someone needs to earn to meet financial responsibilities.

Directions: Present this family to your class. A married husband and wife with two children. One child is 7 years old and attends public school, the other is 3 years old. Break the class up into groups. Have each group write out a monthly budget for what they consider necessities for this family. Have each group share their budget and compile the results. Have actual costs for your city available. Average costs for food for a family of four, fulltime daycare for a 3-year-old, transportation costs, and most importantly rent for a 2- or 3-bedroom apartment.

Offer ideas of budget items students may have overlooked (health insurance and taxes). Present the fair market rent for 2- and 3-bedroom apartments in your city.

Have students calculate that hourly wage needed for the family to afford their budget. Where does this wage land the family in terms of the median income for your city?

Note: In the author’s experience, this activity leads to excellent discussions on what is considered a “need” versus a “want.” Debated needs include cell phone, internet access, and a personal car. Students typically underestimate the costs for nearly all budget items.

Variation: Once students have calculated their budget and needed hourly wages, have them calculate what this translates to in annual income. Compare these figures with the poverty line. Discuss how the poverty line came to be and have students discuss the differences in their annual incomes needs and the poverty line.

 

Child Sex Trafficking

Objective: Students will understand why child sex trafficking occurs in the United States.

Directions: Break the students into small groups and assign each group one item from the list found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/15/human-trafficking-month_n_45905.... Have the students, as a group, analyze the item that they were given and have them come up with potential solutions to the item they were assigned and then have them share with the rest of the class.

 

That’s Not Fair

Objective: The activity will get students to realize the impact desired resources have on social stratification.

Directions: Instructors should come to class with a limited number of an item that the class would determine a “desired resource.” The resource could be extra-credit points, exam questions, an extension on a deadline, an excused absence from class, a snack, office supplies—anything that your students might find desirable will work, but the more desirable the item, the more successful the activity will be. Tell the students about the resource and give them the task of determining how the resource will be distributed. Give them 15 minutes to discuss the matter and require them to come to a democratic consensus at the end of that time. Tell them that if they do not reach a consensus at the end of the allowed time, the resource will not be offered to anyone. The instructor should keep track of various solutions that are posed and what type of student proposes the solution (i.e., do the “A” students suggest the reward go to students with the highest grades? and do females suggest the reward goes to females?). At the end of the activity, lead a discussion on the suggested distribution methods and how they match Marx’s four models to distribute wealth. Have your students discuss whether their methods more closely resembled structural functional theorists’ or conflict theorists’ explanation for stratification in society. Also, have them discuss if other socially desirable resources are distributed in similar different ways and how their distribution affects inequality.

 

Ranking Members of Society

Objective: This activity will get your students to consider whether power, privilege, or prestige is the most socially important resource. It will require students to assess the assumptions of the structural functional theory of stratification.

Directions: In small groups have your students come up with an occupation or social role for each of these descriptions:

• High wealth
• Low wealth
• High prestige
• Low prestige
• High power
• Low power
• Low power; high wealth
• High power; low wealth
• High prestige; low wealth
• Low prestige; high wealth
• High power; low prestige
• Low power; high prestige

Instructors should make copies of a sheet listing these descriptions to pass out to student groups with the lists in different, random order. The groups should create a separate sheet of paper on which they only write the list of occupations or social roles and not the descriptions. The instructor should then collect these lists and distribute the lists to different groups (no group should get its own list back). Give the new groups 5 minutes to distribute $2 million in salary as annual income to the 12 occupations or roles on the list. After this task is complete, tell the groups they have 2 minutes to select the three occupations or roles from the list they would take to a tropical island with them to start a new society. Then have a representative from the group that created the list share with the new group what categories the occupations or roles were in. Give the groups some time to reflect on how they determined social importance and the distribution of social rewards. Then the instructor should lead a discussion on the structural functionalist perspective of stratification, getting students to comment on the thesis drawing from their experience with the activity. The discussion should center on the relative importance of social roles and the unequal distribution of rewards.

 

The Digital Divide and Occupational Segregation

Objective: This activity should have students see the reality of the digital divide and how it may shape educational opportunities.

Note to Instructors: This activity will require computers and the Internet. However, without Internet access, this activity could be adapted with the students conducting the research at home and bring evidence of their findings to class to discuss.

Directions: Take a traditional method of job recruitment (such as job classified ads in community newspapers or by collecting flyers and advertisements for job openings in the campus area). Have your students evaluate the types of jobs listed in this medium. Then have your students conduct an online job search. (Instructors may want to compile a list of websites students can use for the mock job search. Suggested sites are monster.com, careerbuilder.com, your college or university’s employment postings, your state’s employment postings, websites for local or corporate stores in the area, etc.). After you have given students 30–45 minutes to search for jobs, instructors should lead a discussion on how the digital divide might contribute to social inequality. For instance, were your students able to find “better” jobs online or in the paper? What jobs would be available to job seekers using the traditional method to find employment? What jobs would be available to job seekers using the Internet to find employment? Instructors can also ask students to discuss why employers might choose to advertise their opening in a particular medium and if that serves as a gate-keeping mechanism.

 

Wealth and Income Inequality

Objective: This activity will help students understand the wealth and income inequality in the United States.

Directions: Before showing the clip titled, “Wealth Inequality in America,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM, have the students write down, on piece of paper, what they believe the wealth and income gap is between the wealthiest and poorest people in the United States. Then show them the clip referenced above. Ask them to compare what they have written down with the information presented in the clip and have them share their results with the class.

 

Status Symbols

Objective: This activity requires your students to consider the role of symbols in maintaining and reproducing social inequality.

Directions: Read your students the following brief descriptions of individuals and have your students, either in small groups or individually, create a list of material possessions they might expect the individual to own. Here are some sample descriptions:

• Jess is a college sophomore majoring in fashion merchandising. Although she grew up with relatively affluent parents, she is paying for college on her own with the help of student loans. She works part time in the local mall.
• Keith holds an executive position in a Fortune 500 company. He lives with his spouse and their two teenage sons.
• Becky is a single mother of three young children and is the assistant manager of a local restaurant. She holds a degree in hospitality management.
• Ivan is an elderly man who is retired from an auto manufacturing plant. He lives with his wife, Laura Marie. They are often visited by their grandchildren.
• Kacie is a 30-year-old metropolitan art director. She has no children and no partner.

After giving the students a few minutes to create a list of items the fictitious individuals may possess, have them share the lists with one another through discussion. Instructors should address the differences and similarities in the lists the students created, paying particular attention to how students’ interpretation of the individual’s social status contributed to the material possessions they expected them to have. Instructors should integrate symbolic interaction theorists’ perspectives of social stratification into the discussion and use the activity to have students assess the merit of the theory and the importance of symbols in maintaining and creating social divisions.

 

How We Help

Objective: This activity should require students to evaluate social welfare programs in their society. It should also make students see the stigma society places on certain social welfare programs.

Directions: Either in groups or individually, instructors should ask students to think of five ways the state or federal government helps or provides aid to (1) upper-class individuals or families, (2) middle-class individuals or families, (3) working-class individuals or families, and (4) poor individuals or families. Instructors should make a list as well, to ensure that programs are highlighted that students might not recognize as support. Through having students share their lists with the class or in a small group, lead a discussion on various policies created to help different social groups. Instructors should focus the class discussion on the public perception of the various policies and how that public perception is shaped by (or influences) social inequality. Instructors should also lead the class in a discussion of which group the government “helps” the most. They can also focus on how the different policies affect the recipients’ chances for social mobility.

 

Just How Many Social Classes Are There?

Objective: This activity will show students how complex social classes are and get them critically thinking about the concept and its definition.

Directions: Either individually or in small groups, ask your students to come up with a list of the social classes that they believe exist in the United States. As a precursor to this exercise, it is best if you have already lectured on education, occupation, income, and wealth disparities. Once they have created their list, have them categorize who belongs to each class based on the following questions:

1. How much education do people in this social class have? Where did they go to school? What kinds of training do they have?
2. Where do people in this social class live? What do their homes look like? Do they rent or own?
3. What kinds of jobs do people in this social class hold? What qualifications did they need to have for these positions?
4. How much money do these people have in savings and investments? How much do these people owe on mortgages, car loans, student loans, and credit card debts?
5. How much income do people in this social class earn? Who contributes financially to the household?
6. What do the people in this social class do for fun? Where do they go, if anywhere, on vacation?
7. What kinds of lives do the children of this social class have? What do they do for fun?

Based on how your students answer these questions, ask them to revisit their social classes. Do they feel that their list is exhaustive? Do they feel like their classes are classified enough to be useful, or are the classes too big to be meaningful? Given that we typically acknowledge three social classes in our society, lead your students in a debate on whether that is enough or if it is meaningful.

 

Who Deserves Welfare?

Objective: This activity will show students who really need welfare and how their opinions of welfare recipients have been influenced.

Directions: Have students prepare a list of characteristics of welfare recipients without putting their names on the paper and turn them in to you so you can compile a list of the characteristics and how many students have each of them listed. Most often, students will hold unrealistic, media-influenced opinions about the poor. After compiling the list, present students with the real statistics regarding welfare and hold a discussion about who deserves welfare and how it should be controlled.

 

Cultural and Social Capital

Objective: This activity will help students assess their own levels of social and cultural capital.

Directions: Review with students the definitions of cultural and social capital. Have students list examples of social capital and cultural capital they possess in their lives. Have the students discuss their results. How do they think their results will impact their social mobility?

Music as Social Activism

Objective: Students should recognize the power of music to impact social movements and heighten social awareness.

Directions: Instructors should make a music compilation to play in class of songs that address issues of social injustice. Instructors should also make overheads or handouts with the song lyrics they intend to play. In class, instructors will play a selection of songs and then ask students to discuss the role of music in social activism. Depending on song selection, discussion can be focused around many different topics. For instance, the following playlist can be used to discuss the role of music in unifying individuals on social issues and constructing specific instances as social problems. However, playlists can also be created to discuss why tone and message make some songs more able than others to unify people on social issues. Instructors can also select songs to discuss whether music is more effective as social activism when it targets minority or dominant groups. To find additional songs that could be used in class, please see http://rateyourmusic.com/list/SadEyedLady/top_30_protest_songs/.

Recommended Songs

1. “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holliday (There is a PBS documentary by the same name that could be used in conjunction with this activity.)
2. “Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey” by Sly and the Family Stone
3. “Fight the Power” by Public Enemy
4. “Maria” by Rage Against the Machine
5. “Your Racist Friend” by They Might be Giants
6. “Hurricane” by Bob Dylan
7. “Southern Man” by Neil Young
8. “Get Up, Stand Up” by Bob Marley
9. “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” by Buffy Saint Marie
10. “Ridin’” by Chamillionare
11. “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye
12. “We Shall Overcome” traditional hymn

 

Our Perception of Race

Objective: After completing this activity, students should understand that it is difficult to determine an individual’s racial identity by physical characteristics only.

Directions: Have the class complete the activity “Sorting People” found here: http://www.pbs.org/race/002_SortingPeople/002_00-home.htm. Ask the students why they categorized people into certain racial categories. Discuss the results with the students.

 

Race Relations

Objective: This activity allows students to understand the current state of race relations in the United States today.

Directions: Have students review the State of Race Relations report by the Pew Research Center. http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/interactives/state-of-race-in-america/

Ask students to break up into groups and discuss the findings. Questions to consider:

1. What are some of the major differences in the perception of race relations between blacks and whites?
2. What are some of the major differences in the perception of race relations among other population groups (age groups and political party affiliations)?
3. What are some of the most surprising findings to your group?

 

Racism and Discrimination Today

Objective: Some people believe that racism no longer exists in the United States. This activity will illustrate that this is unfortunately not the case.

Directions: Have students do a search for recent media stories that illustrate racism in the United States. This can be done during class if students have computers in the classroom or before class and students will bring in their news stories. Discuss the examples as a class. What type of racism does the news story illustrate? Is discrimination involved? Prejudicial attitudes?

 

What Is Racism?

Objective: In this activity, students should learn to distinguish between ideological, symbolic, and institutional racism. They should also explore why our society is more prone to identifying ideological racism as a social problem.

Directions: In groups or as a class, students should be given 5–20 minutes to think of instances or scenarios they would define as racist. (If the instructor is worried about scenarios students might create, they could also create a list of 10–15 scenarios, but this activity works best if students create the list). The instructor should go around the room and have students list their instances and scenarios. As the students create the list, the instructor should write the scenarios on the board or the overhead, dividing the scenarios into examples of ideological, symbolic, and institutional racism (but without labeling the three types). After the list is compiled, the instructor should then label the categories as ideological, symbolic, and institutional racism. The class will likely highlight more examples of ideological racism. The instructor should use the activity to discuss how our society defines racism. Discussion should also include the social problems created by ignoring or underemphasizing certain types of racism.

 

Connecting Prejudicial Attitudes to Racism

Objective: Have the students understand how prejudicial attitudes can lead to racism.

Directions: Show the students the documentary “A Class Divided.” Elliott divided her class by eye color—those with blue eyes and those with brown. On the first day, the blue-eyed children were told they were smarter, nicer, neater, and better than those with brown eyes. Throughout the day, Elliott praised them and allowed them privileges such as taking a longer recess and being first in the lunch line. In contrast, the brown-eyed children had to wear collars around their necks, and their behavior and performance were criticized and ridiculed by Elliott. On the second day, the roles were reversed, and the blue-eyed children were made to feel inferior while the brown eyes were designated the dominant group. What happened over the course of the unique two-day exercise astonished both students and teacher. On both days, children who were designated as inferior took on the look and behavior of genuinely inferior students, performing poorly on tests and other work. Then divide the students into small groups and have them answer the following questions:

1. What did you learn?
2. What features did Elliot ascribe to the superior and inferior groups and how did those characteristics reflect stereotypes about blacks and whites?
3. How is the blue eyes/brown eyes exercise related to the Sioux prayer, “Help me not judge a person until I have walked in his shoes”?

 

Is Discrimination?

Objective: In this activity, students should learn to distinguish between individual and institutional discrimination. They should also explore why our society is more prone to identifying individual acts of discrimination as the predominant form of discrimination.

Directions: In groups or as a class, students should be given 5–20 minutes to think of instances or scenarios they would define as discrimination. (If the instructor is worried about scenarios students might create, they could also create a list of 10–15 scenarios, but this activity works best if students create the list). The instructor should go around the room and have students list their instances and scenarios. As the students create the list, the instructor should write the scenarios on the board or the overhead, dividing the scenarios into examples of individual or institutional discrimination (but without labeling the two types). After the list is compiled, the instructor should then label the categories as individual or institutional discrimination. The instructor can also have students classify examples of institutional discrimination as purposeful or unintentional discrimination. They should also be asked to classify the unintentional discrimination as side-effect or past-in-present discrimination. The instructor should use the activity to discuss how our society defines discrimination. Discussion should also include the social problems created by ignoring or underemphasizing certain types of discrimination. Discussion should also include various ways the examples of discrimination have been or could be addressed by organizations or policies. If this activity is done in conjunction with the “What is Racism?” activity, the instructor should also describe how the lists are similar or different. Another point of discussion should be whether how our society defines racism also defines what we view as discrimination.

 

What Has My College or University Done?

Objective: This activity will highlight efforts taken by your college or university to promote ethnic and racial equality. It will also facilitate a discussion about colleges and universities as organizations that promote social change.

Directions: Either as a class or in small groups, have students list all the various campus organizations or initiatives created to address racial/ethnic equity or to promote diversity. Have students discuss how effectively the college or university has addressed racial/ethnic stratification. Also, have the students discuss what else the college or university could do to better promote diversity. (Most colleges and universities have statements on diversity. If possible, instructors should make copies of the college or university’s statement on diversity and encourage discussion about how effective students think the administration has been in addressing these goals.) Instructors should also discuss the role of colleges and universities in addressing racial and ethnic stratification.

 

Race in the Media

Objective: This activity requires students to think about media portrayal of racial and ethnic groups in American popular culture. It should help them understand race relations; racial and ethnic stereotypes; and ethnic boundaries.

Directions: Either bring in copies of magazines or assign your students to bring in magazines targeted to a particular racial or ethnic group as well as some mainstream publications such as Newsweek, Cosmopolitan, Details, or National Geographic. In groups, have your students browse the various magazines. Have them note how the content varies. Also, have them note how the advertisement varies. Lead a discussion in the various portrayals they saw. Also, have them discuss the role that stereotypes played in these differences.

Some potential magazines include Jet, Vibe, Ebony, Black Enterprise, American Jewish Spirit, Audrey, KoreAm Journal, Latina, Vanidades, and The Crisis.

 

What Is Race?

Objective: This activity will ask students to examine what race is and how it is socially constructed and leads to racism.

Directions: Have students bring in a list of various definitions of race and racism compiled from dictionaries and social science textbooks and the Internet. Part of the assignment should be for them to try to identify how many races there are. Break students into small groups to compile each of their lists into what they think is the best definition of each concept. Have them include a discussion of the differences among all their definitions and why they settled on the one they are presenting. Ask each group to identify how many races there are and how they came to that number. Ask them if it would be possible for them to label their group one particular race. After they have discussed the concepts, have each group present their definitions of race and racism and how many races they think there are. Then hold a class discussion on the following issues: How do the definitions of race contribute to racism? Can members of racial minority groups also be racist themselves? If so, do these ideas tend to perpetuate a racial divide in America? How? Finally, what role does politics play in defining what constitutes racism and/or determining its consequences?

What Is Feminism?

Objective: To show students that feminist ideals are often poorly understood, in part because they are not universal.

Directions: Instruct each student to quietly write a response for 2–4 minutes to the questions “What is feminism?” and “What do feminists believe?” Then put students in small groups and have them share their definitions with one another and discuss the similarities and differences. Groups should report their findings to the entire classroom.

 

What Is Masculine? What Is Feminine?

Objective: Students will learn more about the socially constructed nature of masculinity and femininity.

Directions: On the board, make two columns. Label one “masculine” and another “feminine.” As a group, list items that should fall under each category. These can include physical items or character traits. After the list making is complete, begin asking students about each of the items on this list in turn. Is each trait exclusively masculine/feminine? Is it only considered masculine or feminine for a certain subsection of the population? Is masculinity/femininity a continuum, or are they mutually exclusive categories? Since they are endpoints on a continuum, draw the continuum and place the items from the original list on the continuum.

 

What Is Sexy?

Objective: To help students learn that gender, sex, and sexuality are not readily apparent and are independent.

Directions: Before class, prepare a collection of 5–10 photographs as a PowerPoint or as overheads. These should include very feminine-appearing drag queens or transgendered persons, masculine-looking biological women, very masculine-appearing drag kings or transgendered persons, and feminine-looking biological men. Break the students into groups and ask them to rate each person pictured based on how attractive the person is and how sexy the person is. They should explain their answers. Then as a whole class, go through the pictures one at a time and write the group rankings on the board. Finally, reveal to the entire class the true sex, gender, and sexual orientation (if known) of the individuals pictured. Use students’ surprise to begin a discussion of how the three concepts differ, are all socially constructed, and are not readily apparent.

 

How Did You Become Gendered?

Objective: To help students understand that gender is the result of socialization, not biology.

Directions: Either as a paper or as an in-class discussion, have students answer the following questions:

1. What is gender? How does it differ from sex?
2. Which of your personality traits, behaviors, and beliefs do you consider “masculine?”
   
   1. How did you learn that those are considered masculine characteristics?
3. Which of your personality traits, behaviors, and beliefs do you consider “feminine?”
   
   1. How did you learn that those are considered feminine characteristics?
4. Of those traits/beliefs/behaviors, which were you born with?
5. Of those traits/beliefs/behaviors, which did you learn? How did you learn them?

 

Gender Norm Violation

Objective: Students will learn the process of sanctioning those who do not conform to gender norms and how those sanctions vary based on the degree of the violation.

Directions: Students should be placed in groups of three. One student will be the gender violator and the other two will act as observers. As a group, students should determine which gendered norm to violate (e.g., female students could walk with a “swagger” or sit on the bus in such a way as to take up more than half of the seat; male students could carry a purse or wear feminine earrings/clothing). Students should find a location on campus or in the community to practice the violation.

The students who are acting as observers should be as unobtrusive as possible. At the end of the exercise, students who violated the norm should present or write about their experiences as norm violators, and observers should present or write about the different forms of sanctions that they saw others giving the violator.

As a class, students should rank the severity of the different violations (and discuss what makes specific violations more or less severe). Finally, students should determine if there is a relationship between the severity of the violation and the types of sanctions received.

 

Stereotypes

Objective: To show students how early gender stereotypes are formed and their impact.

Directions: Have students go online to websites or on social media to look for examples of gender stereotypes. These can be products geared toward a particular gender or people speaking about a particular gender on social media. Present to the class the best examples submitted and then discuss with the class the following:

1. How prevalent do you think these gendered thoughts are in our society?
2. What impact do these examples have on members of our society?

 

Gender Messages in Television Shows

Objective: Students will learn the significance of gender messages presented in various television shows.

Directions: Have the students, over the course of a week, watch a variety of television shows. Have them watch one crime-themed show, one comedy, and one cartoon. As they watch each show, have them write down their observations in terms of how the males and females are dressed, how they are speaking, and how they are behaving. Then break the students into groups of four and have them discuss their findings with their small group. Have a designated student present the findings of their group to the class.

 

Femininity and Masculinity

Objective: This activity will demonstrate how feminine and masculine traits are possessed by both men and women.

Directions: Have the students who identify as male list any “feminine” traits they possess and have students who identify as female list any “masculine” traits they possess. You can also have students include activities they enjoy that are thought of as something that men or women do. Read the lists out loud to the class. Start with masculine traits that women possess and then feminine traits that men in the class possess. In the author’s experience this activity elicits a lot of laughter among the students. The instructor can then ask students about why they find these lists funny. Is it because we are uncomfortable with people who are not following gender norms or because it demonstrates how “silly” the idea is that certain traits are strictly male or female?

Social Structure and Mate Selection

Objective: Students will explore how various social factors influence mate selection.

Directions: Pair students up and have each interview the other about the characteristics that person is looking for in a mate, using the questions below. Language can remain gender neutral in order to protect the privacy of any students who are sexual minorities but do not wish to identify themselves as such. Then students should reconvene as a class and discuss the ways that some preferences are near universal among college students at their university (e.g., want a mate who is attractive or who earns a good salary), while others may differ (e.g., the level of education desired, whether prior relationships matter). Try to distinguish the background characteristics of students whose desires differ from the general trend. In addition, traits that male students are looking for versus those that female students desire can be explored.

Your Future Mate

1. Do you ever desire to find a romantic partner? If not, why?
2. Ideally, how many partners will you have in your lifetime?
3. Ideally, what will your prospective mate look like? On a 1–10 scale, how attractive will he or she be?
4. Ideally, what will your mate do for a living? (Note: “stay-at-home parent” is an option)
5. Ideally, what is the highest level of education your prospective mate will have completed?
6. Ideally, will you have children? How many? Will one partner stay home with the kids? Who?
7. Ideally, what religion will your mate be? (Note: “no religion” or “atheist” is an option)
8. Ideally, how often would your partner attend religious services, if ever?
9. Ideally, what family background will your mate come from (nuclear, married family, gay or lesbian parents, single parent family, etc.)?
10. Ideally, will your partner ever have been married before?
11. Do you plan to cohabit with your partner?
12. Ideally, would you like to marry your partner?
13. List five words that describe your ideal mate.

 

Yourself

1. How attractive do you feel you are (1–10 scale)?
2. What job or career do you plan to have? (Note: If you plan to stay home with children, please say so.)
3. What is the highest level of education you will complete?
4. Do you have any children? If so, how many? How many children do you want?
5. What religion do you identify as (if any)?
6. How often (if ever) do you attend religious services?
7. What is your family background?
8. Have you ever been married? Do you ever plan to marry (again)?
9. Have you ever cohabited? Do you ever plan to cohabit (again)?
10. List five words that describe you.

 

What is a Family?

Objective: This activity will demonstrate the complexities in describing a family and expose some preconceived notions that people have about what constitutes a family.

Directions: Break students up into pairs and have them write down as many family types as they can think of. You can give the example of a nuclear family and have them go from there. After a few minutes have students share their family types. In the author’s experience a common response will be “single mother with children,” which allows the instructor to ask about a single father with children. Typically, students will say “yes this is a family.” Have them continue. A married couple without children? A cohabitating heterosexual couple? A married gay couple? A cohabitating gay couple? Continue to illustrate that the concept of what constitutes a family is not as simple as it may appear on the surface.

 

Talking About Family

Objective: To have students critically think about what we think constitutes a family.

Directions: Ask students to take out a piece of paper and draw what they think of when they hear the word “family.” Have students share their photos and ask the class several questions to get them thinking about how we define family:

1. Why did you draw these people?
2. Does this look like the family you grew up in?
3. The family you picture having one day?
4. Are pets in any of the pictures?
5. Did anyone draw a picture of their closest friends?
6. Extended family members?

A discussion of the different types of pictures students have drawn makes a great introduction to the chapter on family.

 

Childhood Socialization and Family

Objective: Students will be able to critically analyze messages children get about “proper” families.

Directions: Choose a Disney movie for students to watch in class (suggestions: Frozen or Maleficent). While watching, students should take notes on the portrayals of families. What is the role of the father that is presented? The mother? The stepmother? Siblings? What do we learn about marriage from these movies? What might children learn about “proper” families from watching these videos?

 

Family, Work, and Social Policy Paper

Objective: Students will understand that the things they think make their family unique are often constrained by social factors.

Directions: Students should be given the following paper assignment:

Assignment: Write a 4- to 6-page paper that addresses all the following points:

1. Spend one-to-two pages summarizing your family history for at least three generations (yourself, your parents, and at least one set of grandparents). Be sure to include information about these people’s education, marriages, divorces, births, occupations, and health.
2. Spend roughly two pages writing about the interconnections between one generation’s choices and the choices of subsequent generations. For example, if your parents did not attend college, how did that impact your decision to go to school? If your grandfather was a coal miner, how did that impact your father’s choice of occupation? If your mother had her first child at age 20, how is that related to your own preferences for when you did or will have children?
3. Spend roughly two pages detailing some of the social and governmental policies and programs that have impacted your family in some way. For example, if your grandfather worked in a coal mine, how was your family impacted by the Clean Air Act? If your mother is a teacher, how has No Child Left Behind impacted her job? How has the Federal Student Loan program impacted you?
4. Finally, examine the interconnections among these topics. How are the options available to you in life and your choices related to your family history, and social or governmental policies and programs? Explain the ways in which your own path has been determined, at least in part, by the paths of those before you and social structural factors.

 

Family Similarities and Differences

Objective: Students will have the opportunity to learn about various types of families and understand that commonalities within families outweigh outward differences.

Directions: Invite a panel of speakers to your classroom that represent persons living in a variety of household structures. Suggestions include: a person living in a nuclear family, a person in an arranged marriage, a person in a gay or lesbian family, a person in a single-parent household, a person in a polyamorous relationship, and a person living in an extended-family household. Students should be told the types of families represented by the panel, but you should not specify which individual lives in which type of family. Then students should be given 15–20 minutes to question the panel about the goings-on within their households (e.g., division of labor, recreational activities, or ideas about parenting). Finally, students should attempt to guess which individuals live in which type of family. Then lead a discussion about the exercise, allowing the panel to participate if they wish.

 

Why Do People Divorce?

Objective: This activity will help students see that the reasons why couples divorce are not as easy to determine as people think.

Directions: Break your students into small groups; make sure as many groups as possible have both male and female members. Ask each group to draft a list of 10 reasons—from most important to least important—that describes why people might get divorced. Have groups keep track of whether males or females presented the reason. Afterward, have each group present its list to the class, noting how many items are similar or different between groups. In addition, break the male and female suggestions out to see if there are differences between them. If there are differences, have students discuss what might be the reasons for the differences. Compare your lists with the extensive research done on the topic to see how close your students were to what researchers have found.

 

The Importance of the Family

Objective: Students will understand the importance of the family as an institution.

Directions: Assign the students to groups of four and have them imagine a society with no families. Then have them answer these questions:

1. How would children be cared for in this type of society?
2. What type of adults would this society create?
3. How would children raised in a society with no family structure be affected financially, emotionally, and physically?

 

Family Structures and Financial Budgets

Objective: Students will understand the difficulties of creating a financial budget for certain family structures.

Directions: Come up with various family structures and scenarios. For example, an example might be a nuclear family with six children all under the age of 20. The father works full time and the mother stays home. Three of the children attend private school. The yearly income is $40,000. Have them come up with a monthly budget based on these characteristics. Assign students to groups of four and give them various scenarios. Have them work together to come up with a monthly budget and present their findings on the board.

 

The State of the U.S. Education System

Objective: To challenge students to think critically about the current state of the education system in the United States and the potential for alternative models to impact positive change.

Directions: If your university has the film Waiting for Superman borrow it and show it to the class. If not, show the preview available at http://www.takepart.com/waiting-for-superman/.

Use the community conversation guide available at http://www.takepart.com/sites/default/files/Ford_FINAL_Waiting_for_Superman_Community_Discussion_Guide.pdf

To lead a discussion on the state of education in the United States, of particular interest is discussing the different school options available. Doing research on your own state prior to this discussion (on the number of charter schools, vouchers) makes the conversation even more beneficial to the students.

 

Socialization in Schools

Objective: This activity is intended to highlight the importance of the hidden curriculum in schools by getting students to realize the various ways schools have socialized them to participate in other social institutions.

Directions: Break up your students into smaller groups (the number of groups should reflect the social concepts or institutions you want your students to discuss). Assign each group an aspect of the social world or a social institution. Then have each group of students brainstorm to recall how their educational experiences have influenced their beliefs about the social concept or institution they were assigned. Have them recall specific courses, lessons, activities, programs, or assemblies the school used to address the particular issue. After the students have created their lists (give them 15–20 minutes to create this list), ask them to list how the value, belief, or behavior of the educational experience shaped and influenced them (if at all).

• Recommended institutions include:
  
  • Higher education
  • The economy (or job market)
  • Religion
  • Media
  • Laws and the criminal justice system
  • Family
  • Politics
  • Sports and leisure
  • Health care
• Recommended issues include:
  
  • Gender
  • Race and ethnicity
  • Social class
  • Sexuality
  • Sex education
  • Drugs and alcohol
  • Dating
  • Competition
  • Cooperation
  • Patriotism
  • Nutrition and health

Instructors should have each group present its list and challenge other classmates to add to the list or discuss similar experiences. The activity should also include a discussion on the importance of the manifest and latent functions of education. You can also discuss which beliefs, values, and behaviors the students feel schools have the responsibility to socialize in students and others they believe schools should not address.

 

Design the Perfect College or University

Objective: This activity should get students to think about an ideal-type university. They should then be able to compare their college or university to the ideal type to discuss real versus ideal institutions of higher education.

Directions: Either as a class or in small groups, have your students design the perfect college or university. Potential questions to consider include the following:

• How many students are enrolled in the university?
• How many students are in the typical entry-level course?
• How many students are in the typical upper-level or specialty course?
• What types of sports, activities, and clubs does the university offer?
• How much does tuition cost and what is included in this fee?
• What are the demographic characteristics of the student body?
• What are the demographic characteristics of the faculty?
• What resources are available for the students?
• What types of leisure activities are available to the student body?
• Do students live off campus or on campus?
• What does the community look like where the campus is?
• What is the organizational structure of the university?

Once students have created their “ideal” university, have them compare it with their actual university. Also, ask them to consider some of the problems that might exist in their “ideal” university. Are the problems similar to or different from the problems that exist on their actual campus? Instructors should also ask the students how important bureaucracy is in their “ideal” and “real” campus. If the activity was completed in groups, the instructor should have the groups compare their images of an “ideal” university and discuss why the images varied. This activity could also be completed for compulsory schools.

 

The Bureaucratic School Structure

Objective: This activity will allow students to understand Weber’s bureaucratic structure of schools model while also applying this concept to their own educational experiences.

Directions: Present the five components of Weber’s bureaucratic school structure model to the class. Have students reflect on their own high school and how this structure was represented in their school. They should also reflect on if it was helpful or harmful to them and their friends as students. Were all these components in place? Did students benefit from this structure? Were students not served well because of any of these components or how they were implemented? After students fill in each section on their own, lead a class discussion on how each component looked at various types of high schools.

1. Schools have a division of labor among administrators, teachers, students, and support personnel. The roles associated with the statuses are part of the school structure. Individual teachers or students hold these roles for a limited time and are replaced by others coming into the system.
2. The administrative hierarchy incorporates a chain of command and channels of communication.
3. Specific rules and procedures in a school cover everything from course content to discipline in the classroom and use of the schoolyard.
4. Personal relationships are downplayed in favor of formalized relations among members of the system, such as placement on the basis of tests and grades.
5. Rationality governs the operations of the organization; people are hired and fired on the basis of their qualifications and how well they do their jobs (unless or until they attain tenure) (Weber, 1947).

 

What Is Education?

Objective: This activity will show students what education means and how important it is in society.

Directions: Conduct a brainstorming session either as a class or in small groups with your students on the “meaning of education.” First, ask them to define, in their own words, the term “education.” What is it? What constitutes an “educated person” versus an “uneducated person?” Second, ask them to look for and discuss any cultural and/or class biases in their definition of “education.” As they have defined and described the term, is “education” equally accessible to everybody? How does “education” reflect the intrinsic worth and value of an individual? And finally, how might the meaning of the term be misused to divide people into “less worthy” and “more worthy” human beings?

Note to Instructor: This assignment can be modified to include more concepts from education. If you break the students into groups, have them discuss the questions based on a particular concept, such as tracking, hidden curriculum, tenure, and so forth. Then have each group present what it discovered about the meaning of its concept and incorporate all the concepts into the discussion on the effect of education and each concept on individuals’ chances for success in society.

 

Equal Access to Education

Objective: In this activity, your students will assess the educational system as a meritocracy. This will encourage students to evaluate the reality of meritocracy in the current educational system and discover potential problems in creating a meritocracy.

Directions: Either as a class or in small groups, have your students suggest different aspects about the institution of education that produce inequality. As they list each aspect, have them decide if the inequality should or should not be tolerated by community or society. If they decide that the inequality should not be tolerated, they must come up with a solution to address the problem so that it either is resolved or is tolerable. Instructors should have students pay particular attention to policies regarding tracking, class size, accountability, testing, educational climates, dropouts, grading, school funding, curriculum, and race, class, and gender inequalities. After the activity is complete, instructors should lead a discussion on the reality of formal education as a meritocracy. Students should discuss which aspects of schooling create specific difficulties in creating or maintaining a meritocracy and potential problems in creating a meritocratic educational system.

 

Evaluating Inequalities in School Funding

Objective: This activity should highlight the reality of unequal school funding for students and have them identify the role of school funding in creating or perpetuating social inequalities.

Directions: This activity will require outside research. Prior to coming to class, ask your students to find out the per-pupil spending limit for the high school they attended. Then assign them a school district near your college or university and have them also find out the per-pupil spending limit for a student attending that high school. Make sure that the high schools you assign are socioeconomically diverse (especially if your college or university is not). Then have students investigate some of the resources and activities available to the students in the school districts. When they return to class, either as a class or in small groups, have your students compare the range of per-pupil spending that they discovered. Then have them compare other aspects about the educational climate they discovered in their research. Instructors should discuss with students what resources schools should minimally offer students. They should also discuss the difficulties a district might face in trying to meet students’ needs. They can also discuss potential ethical considerations school districts face when trying to get funding, such as conforming to federal standards and programs, gaining corporate sponsorships, and privatization. In general, the class should discuss the importance of per-pupil spending in shaping inequality and the school environment.

 

Exploring Climates in Schools

Objective: This activity will help students identify education and value climates in their high school and college or university. Comparing the two will foster a critical discussion of how the two vary.

Directions: Give students 5–10 minutes to list some of the contested issues that spurred debate in their high school while they were attending. Have them list the way the issues were resolved, if it was. Then give them another 5–10 minutes to list some of the contested issues in your college or university since they have been attending and how the issue(s) has been resolved. Then, either in small groups or as a class, discuss some of these issues. Have the students decide whether they were issues about the educational climate of the school or the value climate or both. Did the resolutions properly address the climate? How did the issue and/or resolution change the education or the value climate of the school? Instructors can also tie this discussion into the manifest and latent functions of school.

 

Problems in Our Educational System

Objective: Students will identify problems in our educational system.

Directions: Brainstorm with the class some problems in our educational system. Ask the students to identify, in their opinion, the most concerning problems in our educational system. Discuss these issues with the class and ask how many other students may feel the same way about the issue. Ask the students what they feel can be done to resolve this issue in the future.

 

Comparing Educational Systems

Objective: Students will understand the differences among various educational systems around the world.

Directions: Assign each student a country. Some students may have the same country. Have the students research the characteristics of the educational system in that country and discuss their findings with the rest of the class. Compare the similarities and differences of each educational system.

Disease Popularity

Objective: This activity will allow students to learn about how some diseases become popular sources of charity although they may not be some of the most prevalent.

Directions: Assign students a disease or health condition to research. These should be well-known diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and the like. Have them research the prevalence rates, what population groups are most affected, and how much money is spent on research toward treating or curing the disease. Are there disparities? Why do they think that there are?

 

Accuracy in Portrayals of Health and Medicine

Objective: Students will learn that portrayals of health care systems are often glamorized and dramatized by the media.

Directions: Bring in a video clip from a dramatic medically based television show and a comedy medically based television show. Have the students compare and contrast the portrayals of the doctors, nurses, and administrators in the two types of shows, as well as note the policies and practices that seem common to the two. Then lead a discussion on the ways these portrayals differ from reality. If possible, have actual medical professionals come critique the programs. Finally, discuss the reasons the television industry has chosen to portray medical professionals and medical settings in the ways that it has.

 

Medicine Mini-Conference

Objective: Students will learn about nonconventional, culturally bound medical treatments.

Directions: A week before medicine is discussed in class, break students into groups of six-to-eight students each. Each student in each group will be randomly assigned a different type of medical treatment to research. These can include, among other things, acupuncture, medical massage, chromotherapy, reiki, cupping, rapid eye movement desensitization, hypnosis, polarity/magnetic therapy, psychic surgery, or qigong. Each student should prepare a 1- to 2-page “mini lecture” on the treatment they have been assigned. On the day that medicine is discussed in class, students will reconvene in their groups and take turns presenting their lectures to one another. These lectures should include the basic practices of the treatments, the regions where the treatments are most common, the illnesses they are used to treat, and the theories behind the treatments.

 

Affordable Care Act and Socialized Heath Care

Objective: Students will compare the characteristics of the Affordable Care Act and Socialized Health Care.

Directions: Break the students into small groups of four or five. Create a “health scenario” for each group and have them discuss how a patient might be treated if he or she was covered by the Affordable Care Act and how he or she might be treated in a socialized health care system. Discuss the group’s findings with the class.

Debating Capitalism Versus Socialism

Objective: This exercise provides a fun way for students to learn about capitalism and socialism.

Directions: Break the class into a capitalism side versus a socialism side at least one week before the debate and have students bring with them arguments to provide for their assigned side. Have a formal class debate on the virtues of capitalism versus the virtues of socialism, inviting three students on each side to present their best arguments in favor of their preferred system. Allow time for rebuttal and counterrebuttal, as well as for questions from audience members directed toward the debate participants. Afterward, have the class decide which side made the more convincing argument. Second, regardless of which side made the more convincing argument, ask students which economic system they would prefer to live under: capitalism or socialism.

 

Views to Candidates

Objective: This activity allows students to connect their opinions on social issues to the candidates that share these views.

Directions: Tell students to go to VoteSmart.org and take the issue quizzes to match candidates. Note: Depending on the year this may be available for congressional candidates or presidential candidates. They can do this in class if they have computers or take the quiz before class and bring in the results to discuss.

After students take the quiz have them answer the following questions:

• Did the candidate you ended up with match who you expected to match with?
• What was the percentage of match?
• What three issues are most important to you? (You do not have to share your opinion—just what issues are important).
• Did the candidate you expected to match with share your views on these issues? How or how not?

 

Do Your Leaders Have Power Over You?

Objective: This activity connects students to Weber’s forms of legitimate power by giving them personal and easy to remember examples of the concept.

Directions: Ask your students to list five entities they are a part of at the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels. Then ask them to list and describe the leader in charge of that group. Have them list if they believe that leader is traditional, charismatic, or rational-legal. The instructor can either put students in small groups or lead a classroom discussion that explores leadership. Have students discuss what trends they observed, where the different types of leaders seem to be concentrated, and whether leaders can share types of authority.

 

Participation of Your Peers

Objective: This activity allows students to investigate ways they can be politically active. It also lets them see the variation in activity among their peers and colleagues.

Directions: Give students 20 minutes to briefly interview their classmates on how politically active they are (or the instructor could take students to a high-traffic space on campus to complete this activity). Make sure students ask for multiple dimensions of activity (voting, volunteering, learning about issues, discussing politics with family or friends, protesting, campaigning, donating, etc.) and at various levels (national, school, community, etc.). Then, either in groups or individually, ask students to provide a 3- to 5-minute presentation about how involved their peers are. Lead a discussion highlighting the range of activity your students discovered and see how they explain it. Did they find students who felt alienated by or apathetic toward the political process? Are they convinced, given the amount of inactivity they found (if any), that our democracy is healthy? What activities and actions are most popular among youth they sampled? Why do they think this is? All these questions can lead you to a discussion about the state of democracy in the United States.

 

What Would Your Government Look Like?

Objective: This activity will give students insight on just how difficult it is to run and maintain a government. It will also allow them to see what purposes political institutions serve. It will also provide them with information that will help them create or reassess their vision of Utopia.

Note to Instructors: It is highly recommended that instructors use the NationStates online game developed by Max Berry online at http://www.nationstates.net/. If the instructor does not use the NationStates game, they will need to come up with taxonomy of questions to determine students’ governments. Not all the suggested directions will be possible without using the NationStates game.

Directions: Have each student log on to the NationStates website at http://www.nationstates.net/ and create a nation. The game will ask students to answer a series of questions about their politics, and then the game will create a nation-state for them. After the nation is created, the students will need to log on once daily to answer a question about a potential policy change or issue that arose in their nation-state and read the update about how their nation is developing. Instructors can either have a lab time designated for students to create their nation or they can require the students create their nation as an out-of-class activity. Instructors will have to allow some time to pass for the activity. The best way to conduct the activity seems to be to have the students construct their nation when the Politics chapter is covered, having a discussion in class about the various types of nations that were created and how students felt about how the game summarized their ideology. Then instructors can either revisit the activity weekly to get updates on how the game is progressing, have students keep a journal of their nation’s development, or revisit the activity when you cover Chapter 15 to discuss politics and social change.

 

Researching Regimes

Objective: This activity encourages students to learn about the diversity of political systems in the world. It will also help provide a base for instructors to discuss variations in political systems.

Directions: Based on the number of students in your class, either assign each student to a small group or allow students to do the activity independently. Assign the group or student a nation. When you are selecting the nations, make sure to select a diverse range of government types. For a list of nations with current political type, instructors can visit the CIA World Factbook at https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2128.html. Have students research their nation’s government and classify it. Also have them see how the government serves the six functions of meso-level political institutions discussed in the text. Have the students get into groups when their research is completed to discuss the various forms of government they found in the world. Instructors can also use this activity to construct an “ideal-type” government through students’ research and perceptions of what they found.

 

Parties: How Real Is the Divide?

Objective: This activity requires students to learn about political parties in the United States. It should also get students questioning similarities and differences among the parties.

Directions: Have your students research the mainstream political parties in the United States. You may also want to include the three predominant independent parties (the Constitution Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Green Party). Have students research the variations in the parties’ views along the following lines:

1. Government intervention in the economy
2. Taxation
3. Immigration
4. Abortion
5. Access to marriage and family rights
6. Defense
7. Homeland security
8. Education
9. Religion
10. Environmental concerns
11. Foreign policy
12. Health care
13. Poverty

The instructor could also do this research and provide students with a summarized factsheet to have a less time-consuming activity. After the research is collected, have a discussion about the differences among the parties. Were the parties more or less similar than the students expected?

Note to Instructors: An interesting addition to this activity would be to incorporate news clips or campaign ads discussing the differences among the parties (although this is likely only possible for a Republican-versus-Democrat comparison). Have students discuss whether they believe that the framing of the differences in the ads is representative of the actual differences.

 

Working to Avoid War?

Objective: This activity gets students to explore the role of diplomacy in conflict resolution at the macro level.

Directions: Either compile a quick factsheet or ask students to research the ongoing conflicts in the world. (For a quick reference, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ongoing_conflicts). Have students (or in the factsheet) pay particular attention to what diplomatic efforts were pursued both before and since the conflict arose. Have students discuss, either in small groups or as a class, whether they believe the parties were working to avoid war or are currently working to avoid it. This can lead to a larger discussion about diplomacy and conflict in the global system.

 

Women in Politics

Objective: This activity will allow students to learn about the underrepresentation of women in government in the United States.

Directions: Review the current state of women in office in the United States by presenting the facts from the Center for American Women in Politics at http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/current-numbers Have students break up into groups and discuss the results. This works best if the groups are mixed sex. Ask students to discuss as a group the following issues: Are you surprised about the current numbers? What does this mean for women? Why do not more women run for political office? Do you think this will change going forward given the 2016 presidential election? Are there any differences of opinion based on sec in your group?

Improving Your Own City

Objective: Students will better understand the cities they live in and what can be done to improve them.

Directions: Before class, get a large map of the city. Each student (or team of students) should be given a section of the city to investigate, either by walking tour or by computer. Students should report back on the population and makeup of that area of the city, including observations on the race or ethnicity and socioeconomic status of the residents. In addition, any businesses or industries should be noted. After all students have reported on the city, hold a discussion about the ways in which the city is segregated or integrated and determine which theory of urbanization from the text best applies.

 

International Demography

Objective: Students will learn more about the ways the populations of other countries differ from the population of the United States and from one another.

Directions: Assign each student a different country from around the world by writing it on the top of their individual worksheets (follows). Give them the sheets at random the day before population is discussed in class, and ask each to complete the sheet using the provided directions and bring them back to class the next day. Call on selected students to discuss their findings before the class. Alternatively, you can place students into small groups (try to ensure that a variety of countries—in terms of stage of development and continent—are represented within each group) and have them present their findings to one another, comparing and contrasting the populations of their countries.

 

Your Assigned Country

To complete the following tables, use http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbsum.html to find the answers for this project.[1]

	Your Country	United States
Total Population**
1950
2012
2050
Annual Period Growth Rate
1950–1960
1990–2000
2040–2050
Life Expectancy at Birth
2000 or 2006
2025
Birth Rate
Death Rate
Infant Mortality Rate
Total Fertility Rate
Net Migration Rate
Median Age
Male
Female
Ethnic Groups
Literacy Rates
Dependency Ratio (must calculate)

[1] Thanks toAnchor Christie Batson, The Ohio State University, for her inspiration on this exercise.

Ethnic Enclaves

Objective: One of the most fascinating parts of a major city is the ethnic enclaves that are present. This acidity will have students research ethnic enclaves to develop an appreciation of the role of these enclaves in the development of major cities.

Directions: Provide a list of major U.S. cities and have students choose one and identify an ethnic enclave within the city’s borders. Have the students do some research on the history of the enclave and the state of the enclave today. In the next class have students discuss their findings. What did they learn about the role of enclaves in terms of immigration? What impact does this enclave have on the larger city? How has the enclave changed over the years since it was originally formed?

 

The Ideal City

Objective: Students will learn what is required to “make” a city and what the differences are between small and large cities.

Directions: Break your students into small groups and have them design, from scratch, their ideal city. In doing so, tell them to address the following variables: its size, people, economy, businesses, politics, services, systems of social control, tax base, transportation system, education system, housing, culture, and types of entertainment. Have each group present their ideal city to the rest of the class. Have a discussion on the benefits of small and large cites.

 

Your Country of Expertise

Objective: To help students understand that the levels of poverty, urbanization, health, and education in a particular country are often related to the history of that country.

Directions: Give the following assignment to students to complete as individuals or in research teams. Once students have completed the out-of-class assignment, you may want to have them present their findings to the class to see the differences that exist among different parts of the world.

 

Your Country of Expertise

For this assignment, you will be assigned a country by your instructor. You will be exploring different indicators of the country and connecting those to global events.

Please note: You MUST cite any ideas that are not your original thoughts or common knowledge both in the text of your work and on a separate reference page. Failure to do so will be reported to the Committee on Academic Misconduct.

1. Research the history of your country and provide a brief (2- to 3-paragraph) summary of your findings. Include things such as the following: How did your country develop? Was it a world superpower at some point in history? Was it colonized? Have there been important wars that have affected the development of the country? Is it considered more or less developed today? What factors in the history of the country have led to its current stage of development?
2. Using a variety of international databases (listed below), answer the following questions (write approximately 1 paragraph for each question). Include both relevant statistics and textual explanation to answer each question. The best papers will incorporate relevant statistics (which may be different for everyone—demography is sometimes a creative endeavor that involves using whatever statistics we do have available); fully explain what those statistics mean; and support their own ascertains with relevant citations. In addition, the best papers incorporate material from lectures and past readings.

1. What is the rate and extent of poverty or economic prosperity in your country? What factors have impacted the economy of your country?
2. How urbanized is your country? How does this level of urbanization impact the economy of your country?
3. What is the state of education in your country? What primary challenges or strengths do you see affecting the current education system?
4. What are some of the primary health issues in your country? What factors influence these health issues?

The World Bank Activities by Country

The World Bank Poverty Assessments

    U.S. Census Bureau International Database

    CIA World Factbook

1. Using what you know about the history of your country and how it developed, how do you attribute your findings in Part 2 to the historical development of your country? For example, if your country was colonized by another country that exploited it economically, how does that affect the current economy and educational system of your country? How might that colonization have impacted the health, contraceptive use, and urbanization of your citizens? (This discussion should be approximately 2–3 paragraphs.)

Cities in the United States

Objective: Students will understand the various characteristics of U.S. cities.

Directions: Assign each student a city in the United States. Have the student research:

1. Population
2. Crime rates
3. Cultural attractions

Then have the students discuss their findings with the class. List on the board the various characteristics of each city and compare their findings.

 

Cities Around the World

Objective: Students will understand the characteristics of cities around the world.

Directions: Assign to students to groups of four or five. Give each group a city around the world. Have the group research the demographics of the city (i.e., race, population, and marital norms). Discuss the group’s findings with the class and compare the characteristics of each city.

Music as the Impetus/Reaction to Change

Objective: Students will see how popular culture reacts to or can be a source of social change.

Directions: Have each student email you the lyrics to what they feel is a song inspired by or that inspired a social movement. You may wish to assign various time periods to students, including spirituals sung during the era of slavery, protest music from the 1960s and 1970s, and hip-hop music from the 1990s and 2000s. Make a PowerPoint of what you feel are exemplary songs and bring those in, along with the music itself, if possible. Have students listen to the song, first as an aesthetic experience, then again while following along with the lyrics. Students should work as a class or in groups to analyze the messages behind the songs and the calls for action present within them.

 

Core and Periphery Connections Within the Classroom

Objective: Students will gain an understanding of the reliance of core nations on semiperiphery and periphery nations.

Directions: Place columns on the chalkboard labeled “core,” “semiperiphery,” and “periphery.” Then ask students to find as many “made in” tags as possible on items within the classroom. They should check their clothing, book bags, purses or wallets, textbooks, furniture, and so on. For each tag that is located, write the item on the board under the correct column, based on where the item is made. After cataloging all the items, ask students, “If it were not for the semiperiphery and periphery nations, what would we be left with in this classroom?” Students should come to realize their reliance on other countries within the world system as they recognize that, without semiperiphery and periphery nations, many of them would be nearly nude, with only their textbooks to cover themselves.

 

Social Movements in the News

Objective: Students will learn more about the social movements taking place currently around the world and the conditions necessary for a movement to take place.

Directions: Have students bring in national newspapers. In class, they should go through the papers in teams of two or three and identify those stories that detail social movements or conditions that are ripe for social movements to emerge. If the social movements are currently active, students should identify the types of movement and propose the theoretical explanation that best explains each movement, based on the information in the paper. If conditions are ripe for a social movement to emerge, students should identify the type of movement they expect to see occur and why, as well as identify which additional things must occur for a movement to formally emerge.

 

Addressing Environmentalism and Social Justice

Objective: This activity will require students to evaluate one popular social movement in the United States, environmentalism. They will compare this to issues of social justice and sustainability.

Directions: Before class, have the students look up the corporate websites of a few companies they currently support (by buying from them or purchasing their goods). Have them investigate the “social responsibility” of the corporation, including their environmental efforts, their commitments to their consumers, their commitments to their workers, and their commitment to improving the social climate of the world we live in. Then, in class, have a discussion comparing these issues. Was there any information that was hard to find? Do all companies seem equally committed to social change? Given the information your students discovered, do they think that there is a serious commitment to improving the social world on multiple dimensions? Are there some problems or issues we seem more committed to solving than others?

 

Engaging in Collective Behavior

Objective: This activity will encourage students to realize the role that collective behavior plays in their everyday lives. It will also help them make a micro- or macro-connection between what happens in their everyday lives with the larger social forces going on around them.

Directions: In class, go over the forms of social movements detailed in the text. Then ask students how they have been involved in these forms. Do they intend to participate in things such as fads, fashions, rumors, and mob behaviors? How did they see these activities reforming the social landscape or the social relations of others involved? Then discuss how this differs from participation in social movements. You may also find that only some students have participated in social movements, but all of us have participated in collective behavior. Lead your students in a discussion of why that is.

 

Back to the Beginning

Objective: To encourage students to think about the effects of technology on their lives and how dependent society has become on technology.

Directions: Break students into small groups of four to five students. Assign each group a piece of technology and have them write about what would happen if, starting tomorrow, that particular piece of technology were banned in the United States. How would its elimination affect social, cultural, and economic arrangements in American society? For example, using the car: What adjustments would Americans have to make to effectively function in an automobile-free society? If forced, could Americans make such adjustments? What would you personally have to give up and/or change about your lifestyle to live in an automobile-free society? If you had to, could you make such adjustments? Finally, in which ways, if any, do you think American society and/or you would be better off without the automobile? In which ways would society and/or you be worse off? After your students complete the assignment, have each group present its conclusions to the rest of the class and discuss or debate their ideas. Other technologies can be broad such as the car or specific such as Facebook.

 

Did You Hear the Latest . . .

Objective: Students will understand the effects of rumors and what purposes they might serve.

Directions: Have your students share any rumors that are currently going around—and that they happen to believe—while discussing the following points: What underlying social factors do these rumors have in common? Where did you first hear these rumors, and why do you believe these are true? With whom have you shared these rumors and why? Why do you think people like to spread rumors? In what ways do rumors differ from gossip? Whether we are talking about rumors or gossip, what harm or damage can be done? Which groups of people are most likely to be hurt by them? Finally, what can be done, if anything, to reduce the numbers of rumors and/or amount of gossip in our society?

 

The Impact of the Internet

Objective: Students will realize the impact the Internet has had on our society.

Directions: Assign the students to groups of four or five. Ask them to imagine what would happen if the Internet disappeared today. Have each group answer the following questions:

1. How would this change the way you conduct research for papers while in college?
2. What impact would this have on businesses and the way they operate?
3. How would this change the way people communicate?

Have each group report its answers to the class and hold a discussion regarding this issue.

 

Social Change in Action

Objective: Students will learn about social movements and social change by designing a movement to address an issue on campus.

Directions: Have students come to consensus on an issue on campus that they believe needs to be changed. Break students into groups and have them design a movement to accomplish the change. What is their ultimate goal? How will they garner support? How will they get their message out? What opposition do they think they will face? Who would be a good leader for their movement? Students can even design a slogan or logo to capture their ideas for social change.