Teaching Mills in Tokyo

Abstract

Here I emphasize the applicability of the sociological imagination to an international audience by sharing my journey of teaching sociology in Japan. I found my own sociological imagination helpful in critically evaluating the literature on Japanese higher education and the construction of the Japanese student as a form of Orientalism. As I embraced international students' unique, context-specific capacities for learning, I relied on the illuminating power of C. Wright Mills's sociological imagination to heighten their understandings of themselves and others. Despite the characterization of Japanese students as passive learners, I discovered an engaged and responsive student body who developed a keen sociological imagination through storytelling. Employing a pedagogy of storytelling, I helped my students successfully explore gender and ethnic troubles as public issues in a global context. The insight gained abroad has led me to expand my pedagogy at home beyond active learning strategies to incorporate stories to enhance U.S. students' sociological imaginations.