Teaching Sociology: Toward Collaborative Social Relations in Educational Situations

Abstract

In this article I argue that pedagogical reform is needed in the current Westernized teaching of sociology to create a new, more equal, humane and ecologically sound world. Present teaching methods encourage instrumental approaches to studying and learning. As a result, students seem to have grown indifferent to learning, becoming mere reflections of their study environment. In confronting the needed pedagogical reform, I focus on the smallest particle of higher education — the structure of the teaching and learning process in the sociology classroom, and suggest the implementation of collaborative learning situations.