I agree with Mike that it is imperitive that we focus more attention, particularly in introductory-level courses, on helping students to understand what exactly sociology is, how to use a sociological perspective in understanding the world (and in conducting research), and how sociology is different from other social sciences. And I also agree with Mike that journal articles are not too helpful in reaching these goals--particularly in this era of increasingly interdisciplinary work.
However, I do beleive that journal articles play an important socialization role. This may not be about socializing our undergraduate students into professional sociology. In my opinion, it is more about providing experiences and training that will be helpful to them in their future academic, intellectual, and professional lives. We may not all agree that journal articles ought to be important, we may not all agree that many of our students should go on to graduate school, but I think that the reality is that these things are true and it is our responsibility to help our students deal with them--even if at the same time we are working to change them. Many of our sociology majors will, at some time in their careers, be faced with a situation in which they must be able to understand a scholarly journal article. A few examples: a political staffer receives social or natural science research reports and is asked to summarize the policy implications for his or her boss; an primary school teacher reads the professional journal they get a few times a year; a social worker reads literature regarding treatment outcomes for various types of drug addictions; a corrections expert is given a journal article on recidivism rates for youthful offendors; or a health care professional is expected to read journals for continuing education credits to stay current in the field. For those of our students who go on to graduate school--be it in a liberal arts or sciences discipline or in a professional program in education, social work, psychology, nursing, criminal justice, business, etc.--they will probably be expected to read journal articles at some point during their graduate coursework. There is also a significant chance that they will be asked to write a master's thesis or term paper in journal article style. We could, I suppose, act as if it is not our responsibility to prepare our students for these future experiences. But then they would be at a significant disadvantage, a disadvantage made even worse by the fact that many employers and graduate admissions offices view the particular strength of a degree in sociology as the training in professional research skills that we are supposed to provide. --Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur New York University and Queens College, CUNY --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Teaching Sociology" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/teachsoc -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
