Exploring the “Learning Careers” of Irish Undergraduate Sociology Students through the Establishment of an Undergraduate Sociology Student Journal

Abstract

In 2009, a faculty-reviewed student undergraduate journal titled Socheolas: The Limerick Student Journal of Sociology was officially launched. The journal, now in its fourth volume, is produced, edited, and managed by a small team from within the Department of Sociology at the University of Limerick in Ireland. The objective of this student journal is to allow undergraduate sociology students to have firsthand experience of the process of editing and rewriting for publication in a supportive and constructive environment. However, an evaluation of the journal’s editorial and review practices involving previous student contributors to the journal revealed the different challenges and obstacles—emotional, cognitive, as well as social—that hallmarked their progression from being consumers of sociological knowledge (as students) to being producers of sociological knowledge (as writers). The authors discuss these challenges with a view to developing an insight into the “learning careers” of some undergraduate sociology students in Ireland.