Sociology as a vocation: Reputations and group cultures in graduate school

Graduate training in sociology involves more than meeting organizationally imposed demands such as satisfying departmental requirements, taking exams, and completing a dissertation. More central is the development of identity through institutional and interactional forces. We examine the experience of graduate students as tied to the social psychological processes associated with professional training. We consider the faculty-student relationship, identifying how student identities as future sociologists are negotiated and constructed within a reputation market linked to status politics. Through this process, graduate students construct frames of interpretation that make sense of a status system in which criteria for evaluation are often variable, uncertain, or undisclosed. To recognize how graduate students fit into their occupational routines, we build upon three core disciplinary constructs: identity, reputation, and group culture. This perspective permits graduate education to be grounded in sociological understandings, underlining the role of a sociological imagination. We propose strategies that sociology departments might follow to facilitate the professional socialization of graduate students, emphasizing the establishment of group culture and presentational norms. In the absence of these changes, we offer advice to graduate students on navigating their current programs.     

Understanding the World of High School Sociology: Views from an Insider

Haven been placed in the unique position of teaching high school sociology at the same time when a renewed interest from professional sociological associations led to a revival of scholarly research on the topic, a commitment from professional sociological associations, my insiders view from the high school classroom and from various professional sociological association committees, I offer my insights as well as the direction future research on high school sociology might take to enhance the efficacy of teaching at that level.     

Integrating professional socialization and training for sociology graduate students

It is a curious contradiction that sociology, a discipline that includes in its subject matter socialization, norms, occupations, formal organization, the institution of education and the concept of the career does not necessarily prepare its products in a systematic and coherent manner to become trained professionals. Newly minted Ph.D.s must often learn by trial and error because we have left them adrift concerning how to conduct themselves as professional sociologists. Moreover, while these new Ph.D.s are usually trained well as scholarly researchers, many are not prepared for the non-research careers they will take as sociologists. When this happens, we sociologists, supposedly enlightened about such matters, have failed our students. This article is divided into two parts. The first is a critique of traditional graduate education in sociology. The second part plays off these criticisms by offering a coherent plan, consonant with the current and future possibilities for sociologists.     

The impact of sociological orientation on pedagogy: A reconsideration of teacher training in sociology Ph.D. Departments

The emphasis in sociology Ph.D. programs continues to be on training researchers rather than teachers. This is a serious mistake, given the overwhelming proportion of students who go on to academic careers that require at least some time in the classroom. Departments that offer some type of graduate training in teaching focus almost exclusively on the students’ mastery of pedagogical strategies—tools, tips, and techniques for improving their instruction. But this approach neglects students’ assumptions about sociology as a discipline—or their sociological orientations—that underlie and inform their pedagogical choices. This paper explicates the relationship between sociological orientation and pedagogical practice, and asserts that graduate students need to consider their orientation to the discipline before stepping inside a classroom. This may be effectively accomplished through a required year-long seminar to be taken during the second year of graduate study. The first semester would be devoted to the issues, debates, and questions that currently characterize the discipline. The second would consider the “nuts and bolts” of teaching, and how pedagogical practice derives from sociological orientation. Students would also work as teaching assistants before, during, and after completing the seminar. They would then be required to teach at least one course of their choice before graduating. During this first teaching experience, each graduate student would work closely with a faculty mentor. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2003 annual meeting of the Eastern Sociological Society. I wish to thank Michael Lewis, Joya Misra, Afshan Jafar, Brian Kapitulik, and the editor of the American Sociologist for their help in improving this paper.     

Human capital,social integration,and tournaments: A test of graduate student success models

A tournament model emphasizes variation in graduate department resources and environments and is compared to human capital models of graduate student success. Success is defined as participation of sociology students in professional activities and commitment to various professional aspirations. Data from a random survey of 25 sociology graduate programs provided student achievement indicators and department resource factors that are regressed on student success rates. Both the department resource factors and student background variables show substantial effects on success, and human capital factors are moderated by the opportunity structure of the graduate program itself. Women students have lower academic aspirations and racial/ethnic minority students participate in professional activities at lower rates, when student achievement factors are controlled. Academic and private-sector career goals and department resource effects on graduate student involvement are discussed. This article is a revision of a paper presented at the American Sociological Association meetings, August 1991.     

The graduate student's double bind: A professional socialization problem in sociology

The problem some graduate students have developing a confident professional self is argued to be at least partially a result of a double bind structured into the graduate sociology program. The double bind consists of two contradictory communications: the communication of shapeless complexity and the communication of closure, the first pointing to an infinitely complex and shapeless knowledge pool and the second to finality and comprehensiveness. After elucidating the double bind and its communicators, its variability is examined in terms of 13 working hypotheses. Finally, some solutions to the double bind are suggested. The paper's goals are twofold: to provoke thought on this particular professional socialization problem and to expose and alleviate one harmful dimension of our professional socialization process.     

Undergraduate research experience as preparation for graduate school

Graduate students learn to be sociologists in part by doing research. Many undergraduate institutions whose roles have been primarily defined by teaching have inadequately addressed the need of their students to obtain research experience. When such opportunities are available, and when they are properly structured and coordinated with the undergraduate curriculum, advantages accrue to both students and the profession. This paper examines curricular and extracurricular ways to strengthen undergraduate research opportunities as preparation for graduate school. It is suggested that such preparation is also beneficial to many students who do not go on to graduate school. His primary research areas are methodology and urban sociology. He is currently working on models of urban housing markets and neighborhood change and is editing a book on those topics with Donald J. Bogue. This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (8852039).     

North Central Sociological Association 2014 Teaching Address: The John F. Schnabel Lecture—Sociology’s Special Pedagogical Challenge

Instructors and students must overcome a course’s special pedagogical challenge in order for meaningful and important learning to occur. While some suggest that the special pedagogical problem varies by course, I contend that the special pedagogical problem is likely to be shared across a discipline’s curriculum, rather than being unique to each course. After reviewing a three-part typology of learning outcomes for sociology, I argue that the development of students’ sociological imaginations is sociology’s special pedagogical challenge; I then offer some general guidelines for teaching strategies to enhance the students’ success in developing a sociological imagination.     

Political Social Work

This article contributes to discourse on signature pedagogy by reconceptualizing how our pedagogies are understood and defined for social work education. We critique the view that field education is social work's signature pedagogy and consider what pedagogies are distinct about the teaching and learning of social work. Using Shulman's work on professional education, we offer a conceptualization that rests on the belief about the necessary outcome of our pedagogy—it must enable students to think and perform like social workers through the development of the professional self. We present a framework that focuses on three integrating features: thinking and performing like a social worker, development of the professional self, and characteristic forms of teaching and learning.     

Twenty-first century learning in schools: A case study of New Technology High School in Napa, California

The most pertinent question concerning teaching and learning in the twenty-first century is not what knowledge and skills students need--that laundry list was identified over a decade ago--but rather how to foster twenty-first century learning. What curricula, experiences, assessments, environments, and technology best support twenty-first century learning? New Technology High School (NTHS) in Napa, California, is one example of a successful twenty-first century school. In this chapter, the author describes the components of this exemplary high school, illustrating an environment that will cultivate twenty-first century student learning. New Technology High School began by defining eight learning outcomes, aligned with the standards of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills; to graduate, students demonstrate mastery of these outcomes through an online portfolio. To help students achieve the outcomes, NTHS employs project- and problem-based learning. Whereas in traditional classrooms students work alone on short-term assignments that do not lend themselves to deep understanding, the project-based learning approach has students working in teams on long-term, in-depth, rigorous projects. Students' work is supported by the school's workplace-like environment and effectiv use of technology. Meaningful assessment is essential to project-based learning; students receive continuous feedback, helping them become self-directed learners. In fact, NTHS uses outcome-based grading through which students constantly know how they are performing on the twenty-first century outcomes. Research has shown that NTHS graduates are better prepared for postsecondary education, careers, and citizenship than their peers from other schools. To facilitate twenty-first century learning, all schools need to rethink their approach to teaching and learning. New Technology High School is one way to do so.     

Graduate education

Graduate training in sociology is an uneasy compromise between teaching new sociologists what would be good for them to know and doing what a graduate department’s various constituencies demand. Instead of worrying about teaching a core of materials, the graduate faculty instead should teach students what they know, and try to help students learn what they want to know, as they come to define that during the course of their studies. Instead of requiring courses, faculty should develop a continuing dialogue with students and incorporate them, formally and informally, in their work. His most recent book isDoing Things Together (1986).     

‘What you need to do is …’: social work students’ reflections on an advice giving audit exercise

This paper reports on qualitative research investigating the advice giving behaviours of social work students. Second-year students, who were enrolled in an interpersonal communication skills course, were required to undertake an ‘advice-giving audit’ exercise across 6 days, with the aim of strengthening their awareness of the interactive nature of advice giving. Students then wrote a diary entry about the frequency of their everyday advice giving behaviour, its intent and reception. Nineteen students provided these reflections for analysis. Findings included three themes pertaining to advice-giving: (i) Giving advice as a natural, comfortable and unconscious way of communicating; (ii) Power and position influences advice dissemination, and (iii) Withholding advice opens, deepens and confuses norms of communication. A fourth theme pertained to the insights that students reported from engaging with the exercise. These findings illustrate the complex interactional process associated with professional advice giving. The research also suggests that experiential activities, which are conducted outside of the classroom, have significant potential to promote the critical examination of embedded communicative practices.     

Social Workers as Boundary Spanners: Reframing our Professional Identity for Interprofessional Practice

One of the more difficult tasks for social work educators is socializing students into a professional identity. Social identity theory provides a lens to consider what is needed for a social work identity that will continue to be salient for students as they move into practice. Framing social workers as boundary spanners might offer students a professional identity that is congruent with core values, reflects what social workers do and places less emphasis on old debates about the profession. It also positions students well for work in the increasingly interprofessional realms of health and social care. I consider how social workers are well equipped to meet the demand created by ‘joined-up working’ for people with boundary-spanning expertise. Seeing ourselves as boundary spanners is one way to reconcile our professional and interprofessional identities, thereby increasing the chances that our students will continue to identify as social workers when they move into interprofessional practice.     

2007 North Central Sociological Association Presidential Address: Teaching and Learning and the Culture of the Regional Association in American Sociology

Abstract

In this essay, I examine the role of teaching and learning in the culture of the regional association in American sociology. I analyze the programs of (1) the 2007 joint meeting of the North Central Sociological Association (NCSA) and the Midwest Sociological Society (MSS); (2) the 2007 annual meeting preliminary programs of the Eastern Sociological Society (ESS), the Pacific Sociological Association (PSA), and the Southern Sociological Society (SSS) along with the 2006 annual meeting programs of the MSS and NCSA, as well as the American Sociological Association (ASA); and (3) the 1991 NCSA and 1992 ASA annual meeting programs. I identify program trends with regard to teaching, professional development, undergraduate students, graduate students, and research on higher education. I conclude by identifying regional association annual meeting best practices regarding each of these areas.     

Seven strategies for facilitating access of nontraditional students to graduate education in social work

Undergraduate academic performance as a principal criterion guiding admission to graduate social work education may result in the exclusion of otherwise strong candidates for involvement in graduate education. This paper presents seven strategies for strengthening the admission status of nontraditional students, that is, those students who do not possess adequate undergraduate grade point averages to justify admission. These strategies are particularly important in the United States given the elimination or substantial limitation of affirmative action policies in higher education. Schools of social work, like other educational institutions, must become more creative and proactive to ensure that candidates for graduate education who can make important and substantive contributions to the profession gain entry. Using adult learning theory, the authors offer a rationale that underscores the need to look at an individual's vocational background and professional experience as well as professional commitment to serving vulnerable populations in order to assess readiness for admission. And, the authors identify the importance of offering opportunities to these individuals to strengthen their post-undergraduate academic records in order to be more competitive in the applicant pool. Each of the seven strategies is discussed in terms of its key processes and outcomes in relationship to developing these individuals as viable candidates who can compete in the admission process. The strategies are based on the logic of empowerment theory and they underscore the necessity of building on the strengths and assets that these individuals bring to graduate social work education. The authors illustrate the inclusion of these strategies into the admissions process of a school of social work in the United States and suggest that the use of these strategies can facilitate 'affirmative access' to social work education.     

Mobilizing betrayal: Black feminist pedagogy and Black women graduate student educators

This article addresses Black women graduate students' educational labor in higher education teacher training programs. We ground this reflective account of our respective teaching praxis in the educational betrayal we endured as younger students, connecting it to our engagement of Black feminist pedagogy. We illustrate how this praxis empowered us as undergraduate educators to implement pedagogies of equity and justice. Employing a structured vignette analysis framework, we draw on a Black feminist paradigm and Black feminist autoethnography to examine field notes of our teaching praxis. These two field notes, one from Francena and one from ArCasia, demonstrate challenges that emerged in our instruction of mostly white undergraduates. Despite the precarious nature of our political and professional positions, we discuss why working toward an anti‐oppression praxis remains our ultimate pedagogical aim.     

Developing a Program in Sociological Practice: Program Structure,Curriculum Design,and Professional Culture

A sociological practice program has much to offer an undergraduate sociology department that wishes to make itself more relevant to its students, university, and larger community. Reasons are explored for why a department might choose to transform its program from a more traditional liberals arts focus to that of sociological practice. A discussion of the programmatic content of a practice program, including structure, curriculum design, and professional culture, is detailed. The experience of Our Lady of the Lake University in developing its accredited undergraduate sociological practice program is offered as an example of program development.     

Social Work within a Community Discourse: Challenges for Teaching

This paper considers the continuing debate about the relationship between social work and community work. We write about our collaboration as educators, one from a social work background and the other from a community work background and discuss the challenge of teaching community work to social work students in a way that is relevant for contemporary practice, and that embraces community work principles and values. Our paper explores Ife's framework of competing discourses of human services and discusses how it has helped us to articulate our thinking and teaching practice in the Irish context. For us, the framework integrates social work and community work within a community discourse that provides a language transcending disciplinary boundaries. This approach represents a means of familiarising students with the community work process and enabling them to take action on issues of social justice. The framework represents four competing models of human service delivery: the managerial, the market, the professional and the community. We discuss how we use this conceptualisation to teach and engage students in a process of critical reflection. The paper discusses methods we use to undertake this process, and the development of our teaching practice over the last two years.     

Teaching critical self-reflection through the lens of cultural humility: an assignment in a social work diversity course

Social workers engage with marginalized groups in society. However, many social workers are of privileged groups and have not personally experienced social exclusions. This study explored social work graduate students’ evaluation of an assignment designed to encourage critical self-reflection as part of a required diversity course. The assignment approaches diversity using a cultural humility lens, which seeks to remove historical, unidimensional approaches to teaching about diverse populations. Data were collected from 47 MSW students enrolled at an urban, Midwestern university in the United States. Thematic analyses of students’ critical self-reflections revealed positive experiences regarding the influence of personal histories, development of professional identity, and importance of cultural humility.