Proceedings of The 6th International Conference on Research in Teaching and Education
Year: 2022
DOI:
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Teaching Social Theory to Sociology students: Challenges and Pathways
Paridhi Joshi
ABSTRACT:
Higher education institutions require and demand an altogether different habit of mind than the school education systems. Teaching social sciences specially sociology a discipline steeped in social theories to understand social problems in depth also requires an alteration in pedagogy of the teachers to orient students theoretically. This paper explores this required alteration, how can it be achieved by the way of making students participant-actors so as to enliven social theory. Challenges like kindling students imagination in sociological lines by the way of inculcating mode of reflection upon one’s own experience and student diversity’s relation with understanding social theory will be discussed elaborately.
Methodology: Based on a reflexive approach to study my own teaching experience of social theory to under graduation students in India and my own experience of learning theory as Sociology doctoral student informs the arguments in the paper with a purpose to instill a debate for example differences between science and social science, the difference in nature of reality in the two disciplines etc. I take up the identity as a teacher and also as a sociology student thereby reflecting on the experiences and being able to argue from my own journey and understanding gained after reflection and realization that not necessarily everything taught in higher education is true to individual experience and that theory can become a means to survive for those who do not wish to tread with collective ideologies.
keywords: Social Theory, Teaching, Pedagogy, Doing Theory, Higher Education