Undergraduate Sociology Research Articles

In Their Words: What Undergraduate Sociology Students Say about Community-Engaged Learning

Community-engaged learning (CEL) is becoming increasingly popular across university and college campuses and sociology provides an ideal space for this type of learning to occur. While increased faculty workloads and the benefit of CEL for students are well documented, less is known about what individual students say about their CEL course experience. This paper provides a student perspective from an inaugural fourth-year sociology seminar course in CEL at the University of Victoria. The course gave students first-hand experience applying their sociological skills while reflecting on their positionality as students, peers, and researchers. Students cocreated and completed semester-long projects to aid their nonprofit community partners. To assess students’ experiences in the course, reflective journals were analyzed to explore what they said when they left the comfort of the classroom.

Using Facebook to enhance student engagement in undergraduate sociology classes at Bangladeshi colleges

This paper attempts to explore and improve the success of Facebook technology in undergraduate Sociology classes to enhance students’ engagement. Teaching Sociology in Bangladeshi colleges faces several challenges particularly in using Facebook which has been critically presented in this paper where student engagement has been defined from different aspects i.e. systematically and conceptually. It is found that Facebook is effectively used in various settings for strengthening academic achievements but is not used equally in developing countries like Bangladesh. Nevertheless, the scope of applying ICT technology like Facebook is widening as the use of devices becomes popular gradually. But for achieving the target a suitable plan and sincere efforts is essential which may ensure quality education and the output will be a valuable outcome in the ICT based globalized world

Motivations and Self-Perceived Career Prospects of Undergraduate Sociology Students

Sociology undoubtedly plays an important role in the world of sciences, as it provides an opportunity to examine the society in which we live and our social relationships using widely accepted means with real scientific value. As Giddings has noted, 'sociology tells us how to become what we want to be' (Giddings, 2011). However, discussions of the social sciences can be controversial, as they are sometimes perceived as ‘inferior’ to natural sciences. To alleviate this discrepancy, it is essential to supply professionals with useful knowledge in the field of sociology, understand their motivations and ensure the best career prospects for them. In this pilot study, 18 sociology B.A. students answered seven open-ended questions in the form of a short essay regarding their motivations in terms of faculty choices, initial expectations and the fulfilment thereof, their aims in the study of sociology, preferred areas of employment, willingness to undergo further training, five-year plans and their opinions about the prospects of newly graduated sociologists in Hungary compared to graduates from other areas in terms of the usefulness of knowledge gained, perceptions of their professions and earning opportunities. According to the results of this study, the future plans of the participants were very different, but all of them believe that an undergraduate sociology degree provides extensive knowledge about the functioning of society and has helped them to form attitudes that they consider to be extremely valuable on the labour market.

The Potential Role of Comics in Teaching Qualitative Research Methods

This article argues that comics have a potentially positive role to play in supporting the teaching of qualitative research methods in higher education. It tells the story of the creation and use of a short pedagogical comic. We begin with a brief review of the literature around the use of comics in teaching. Then we offer two first-person accounts. Independent researcher Helen Kara narrates her creation of Conversation with a Purpose, designed as a resource to support the teaching of qualitative interviewing. It contains the story of a student’s first real-world interview, with some deliberately ambiguous aspects, and some discussion questions. Then Jenni Brooks, a senior lecturer in sociology at Sheffield Hallam University, outlines her use of the comic in teaching undergraduate sociology students. Each author offers a brief reflection on her experience. We conclude that the use of comics has the potential to bridge the gap between classroom and practice for inexperienced qualitative researchers, and we encourage further research in this area.

Revising Teaching Exercises To Engage First-Year Undergraduate Sociology Students

Revising Teaching Exercises To Engage First-Year Undergraduate Sociology Students

Academic dishonesty and whistleblowing in a higher education institution: A sociological analysis

High rates of academic dishonesty are a concern, and whistleblowing is a mechanism that can curb the incidence thereof. This study attempted to identify the variables associated with the reporting of academic dishonesty, framing itself within the reasoned action approach. It entailed a survey with a sample of 405 undergraduate sociology students. Data was collected by means of self-administered structured questionnaire. Five factors mediate the willingness to report: students’ general honesty; their level of academic honesty; the justification for committing academic dishonesty; the personal impact of reporting; and the adherence to principles as an influence on reporting. Students with higher degrees of general honesty were more willing to report, the fear of retaliation contributed to an unwillingness to report, and institutional rules; norms and procedures influenced willingness to report.

Constructing the ghetto: an analysis of the representation of Black urban communities in urban and community sociology courses

ABSTRACT This article uses analysis of 72 syllabi to investigate portrayals of Black urban communities in undergraduate Urban and Community Sociology courses taught in colleges and universities in the United States. The authors conducted keyword analyses of the syllabi and content analyses of the assigned readings. Although professors’ course descriptions do not focus on poverty, segregation, and crime, assigned readings relating to Black communities largely focus on those topics. The authors argue that urban sociology classes reproduce the ‘iconic ghetto,’ the lens through which Black urban communities are perceived. This pattern poses a risk of reinforcing current structures of racial inequality. This study identifies a need for more nuanced representations of Black communities within undergraduate Urban and Community Sociology classrooms, particularly in terms of required readings and assignments. The authors provide pedagogical and methodological suggestions around the use of ‘portraiture’ to develop syllabi that are more representative of the range of experiences in urban Black communities.

Teaching Data Reproducibility through Service Learning

Data reproducibility is becoming increasingly important in the social sciences, but it has yet to be incorporated into many undergraduate sociology programs. This note describes a service-learning activity that can be added to an introductory statistics course. Students partner with a nonprofit and analyze quantitative data to answer questions selected by the agency. Reproducibility is the central mechanism of communication between the nonprofit, the students, and the course instructor. An assessment of the project suggests that students achieve an understanding of how to create reproducible data. They also come to see its value as a method of communication about data decisions.

Aproximación a la institucionalización de la sociología en Bolivia. Un estudio sobre el Instituto de Sociología Boliviana (Isbo)

A principios del siglo xxi, en Bolivia se intentó hacer de la universidad un “objeto de conocimiento”, aunque no fue posible, esos esfuerzos quedaron plasmados en algunas publicaciones. Sucede lo propio desde una perspectiva histórica, pues los escasos estudios realizados abarcan solo hasta 1930. En este contexto, el artículo aborda los vaivenes de institucionalización de la sociología como disciplina, en sus dimensiones de investigación y formación, tensionada entre proyectos intelectuales, políticos, competencias entre áreas y dificultades financieras. Actualmente, Bolivia cuenta con cinco carreras de sociología, la primera fue creada en 1967 en la Universidad Mayor de San Andrés (umsa), de La Paz, y la última en 2006 en la Universidad de San Francisco Xavier (USFX), de Chuquisaca. En este caso se toma por objeto el Instituto de Sociología Boliviana (Isbo) de la usfx, creado en 1940, para describir y analizar los principales factores que intervinieron en la emergencia y el desarrollo de la sociología. La problematización del tema se basa en la discusión sobre la institución e institucionalización en el campo educativo-universitario que remonta hasta los autores clásicos como Durkheim, pero recoge sobre todo los aportes de Foucault, Bourdieu, Kuhn o Laudan, en la medida que la institucionalización de la investigación y los modelos de formación es un proceso social, político y mental o simbólico de los grupos sociales; lo que permite conectar con la idea de tradiciones —en lugar de paradigmas— que suponen la instalación de una temporalidad lógica, práctica y mental. Por eso, para evitar los riesgos de un cierto funcionalismo-sistémico que asedia al conocimiento de las instituciones, introducimos la idea de conflicto y tensión en el análisis. La metodología se basa en datos primarios y secundarios, entre los primarios —lo esencial del trabajo— se hizo una revisión documental en los archivos universitarios referidos al Isbo, correspondencias, informes, etc. La intención fue combinar un análisis genealógico e institucional basado en datos en torno al caso del Isbo como una herramienta teórica-metodológica en el proceso de argumentación discursiva sobre la institucionalización, similar a otros casos en América Latina.

Realities and Perceptions of Methodological Teaching and Debates in Post-War British Sociology: New Evidence from Peel (1968) and Wakeford (1979)

This article contains the first systematic analysis of the undergraduate sociology methods course syllabuses collected by John Peel in the late 1960s and John Wakeford in the late 1970s. It outlines the major trends in methods teaching in the late 1960s and 1970s, highlighting the teaching of quantitative methods in this period. But the broader aim of the analysis is to explain how the debates surrounding the rise of feminist sociology and the critiques of ‘positivism’ in the 1960s and 1970s affected methods teaching in British sociology. The article argues that despite their limited influence on the contents of the methods curriculum, these debates had another, more subtle but pervasive, impact on how methods were perceived in the sociology community and which methods could be justifiably seen as important and which as irrelevant.

GoSoapBox in public health tertiary education: A student response system for improving learning experiences and outcomes

Most pedagogical literature has generated “how to” approaches regarding the use of student response systems (SRS). There are currently no systematic reviews on the effectiveness of SRS, for its capacity to enhance critical thinking, and achieve sustained learning outcomes. This paper addresses this current gap in knowledge. Our teaching team introduced GoSoapBox (an interactive online SRS) in an undergraduate sociology and public health subject, as a mechanism for discussing controversial topics, such as sexuality, gender, economics, religion, and politics, to allow students to interact with each other and to generate discussions and debates during lectures. Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (SLT) was applied to investigate the effectiveness of GoSoapBox for improving learning experiences. We produced a theoretical model via an iterative analytical process between SLT and our data. This model has implications for all academics considering the use of SRS to improve the learning experiences of their students.

Dealing with Data: Instructing with Infographics in an Undergraduate Sociology Course

As the collection and dissemination of “big data” become easier, we are exposed to increasing numbers of visuals, or infographics, that convey this data. Students are likely to interact with infographics through news, advertising, and social media platforms, but they may not have the skills in quantitative reasoning or visual literacy to effectively understand how data is employed or framed to tell particular stories. Teaching students about the tools, available data, and communication styles that infographics offer early in their coursework can provide them a basis on which to better develop a variety of analytic and communication tools throughout additional courses in their major field of study. Through the process of learning to locate, evaluate, and use data in infographics, students also become better consumers of data visualization. A series of scaffolded assignments that help accomplish this are detailed here.

Racial differences in college-student drinking

ABSTRACTRacial differences in drinking motives, protective behavioral strategies (PBSs), alcohol consumption, and alcohol-related problems were examined among college student drinkers (N = 443: 296 [66.8%] White, 147 [33.3%] Black). Survey participants were recruited from large undergraduate sociology classes and residence halls at the university. Key differences between Black and White college students in drinking behaviors, reasons for drinking (i.e., motives), and the use of PBSs were observed. These racial differences have implications for the implementation of prevention/intervention programs intending to reduce alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems among college students.

Linking Sociology Majors to Labor Market Success

Colleges and universities face pressures from multiple stakeholders to attend to the labor market success of their graduates. In this article, we argue that it is in the best interests of sociology students and the discipline that sociology programs respond proactively to these pressures. We encourage sociology programs to design curricula that develop student skills in critical sociological thinking as well as explicitly connect skills to career-related interests. After reviewing research on what employers expect, what students want to learn, and sociology graduates’ first labor market experiences, we offer suggestions about how programs can respond to the requests for accountability for employment outcomes without substantially revising the traditional undergraduate sociology curriculum or expending excessive amounts of faculty time on new initiatives. We argue that integrating liberal learning and applied learning is the best way to serve students and the discipline.

Sociology and Social Work Undergraduates’ Experiences Participating in a Research Project on Campus Sexual Assault and Misconduct

In this article, we discuss the application of a collaborative, team-based, semester-long research project in undergraduate sociology and social work research methods courses at a midsize southeastern university. The goal of the endeavor was to engage undergraduates in research on students’ perceptions and knowledge about sexual assault and misconduct on their college campus. Surveys focusing on sexual assault and misconduct modeled after the Association of American Universities’ Campus Climate Survey and the Illinois Rape Myth Acceptance Scale were distributed to students in introductory classes on campus. The data from the surveys were then used in various assignments in the social work and sociology research methods courses to demonstrate to students the multitude of steps involved in the research process. The assignments culminated in a research paper and presentation at the end of the semester. We use data collected from end of the semester student evaluations to better understand students’ learning experiences by participating in this hands-on research project in the sociology and social work methods courses.

Love in the Time of ACT UP: Reflections on AIDS Activism, Queer Family, and Desire

Abstract In 1994, I was a member of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power)/Chicago’ and a doctoral student in sociology. I also fell in love. In this article, I apply a queer sociological lens2 to examine the interplay among my activism, scholarship, queer family, and desire. In particular, I explore dynamics of AIDSphobia—and resistance to it—within this constellation of experiences. I draw from several sources. These include my lecture notes from an undergraduate sociology course; I wrote the first version of this lecture in 1996 and have updated it almost every year since. Other narrative elements derive from an unpublished narrative manuscript I wrote in 1998 and an unpublished spoken-word piece I wrote in 2000. I reviewed my own journal entries and personal correspondence from the years 1994 to 2000 to gain a better understanding of what I was experiencing, thinking, and feeling. I’ve presented parts of this article at academic conferences, each of which has provided feedback enhancing my queer sociological framing. Finally, I have integrated other scholarship on HIV/AIDS, intersectional inequalities, and collective action. I have drawn particular inspiration from the testifying/testimonio writings of black and Latina feminists.3

Making Room for Methods: Incorporating Full-scale Research Projects in Non-methods Courses

Scholarship examining the educational potential of semester-long research projects in non-methods undergraduate sociology courses is limited. To address this gap in knowledge, I drew from active learning and problem-based learning literatures to develop a term research project in two sections of an undergraduate sociology course at a large public university in the Midwest. This study assesses the efficacy of that research project by addressing two main areas in need of further discussion in the teaching sociology literature: (1) the ability of full-scale research projects to develop students’ sociological imaginations and (2) the effectiveness of incorporating a full-scale research project in a non-methods course. Panel survey methods reveal that completing the research project contributed to the improvement of students’ sociological understanding of inequalities. The findings also suggest that completing the project increased students’ confidence in their abilities to conduct social research even though the project took place in a non-methods course.

Statistics Education for Undergraduate Sociology Majors: Survey Findings across Institutions

Statistics Education for Undergraduate Sociology Majors: Survey Findings across Institutions

Groups That Work: Student Achievement in Group Research Projects and Effects on Individual Learning

Group research projects frequently are used to teach undergraduate research methods. This study uses multivariate analyses to examine the characteristics of higher-achieving groups (those that earn higher grades on group research projects) and to estimate the effects of participating in higher-achieving groups on subsequent individual learning (grade on final paper). The sample includes 257 students who completed a sociology research methods course at a small liberal arts institution between 2004 and 2015. Group achievement (grade on group research project) is predicted by group size, gender composition of the group, and group’s average grade on midterm exams. Group achievement on the research project contributes to subsequent individual learning (grade on final paper) even after controlling for individual characteristics (student’s gender, race, and average grade on midterm exams) and group characteristics. The findings support claims that group research projects are an effective pedagogy for undergraduate sociology research methods courses and point to some guidelines for instructors’ composition of groups for research projects.

Signs of the feminization of sociology in Turkey: Transformation of gender composition and possible scenarios

Recently, both in Turkey and the international arena, there has been a remarkable increase in the number and visibility of women among students and academic personnel, particularly in specific areas of higher education. In this respect, this article provides a gender-based picture of students and academic personnel in undergraduate and graduate sociology programs in Turkey and identifies the direction of the gender-based changes in these programs over the last 20 years in quantitative/demographic terms. The article also attempts to assess, within the framework of qualitative/cultural changes, the current and potential changes and transformations in the methodological practices of the discipline, as well as in the discipline’s present and future basic fields of interest and study. To this end, and within the scope of discussions in the literature regarding the feminization of certain academic disciplines, the article focuses on where sociology in Turkey currently stands in this respect, and on possible future scenarios regarding this discipline.