1.01 A Sociological Introduction

WELCOME SOCIOLOGY SCHOLARS!

If you did not have a chance yet, please complete these two tasks:

Student Demographics Survey 

I want to get to know each of you better as an individual, so please answer this demographic survey.  Please share as much info as you are comfortable sharing, but please know that all of the information is private and only for me to see.

Syllabus

After you finish the demographic survey above, please begin reading the syllabus.

Attendance Sign In

Start of class meditation - meditation number one

Introducing...The Class

 

Syllabus 

 Importance of college syllabus in general

 Our syllabus

 

What questions do you need answered to be confident that you can do well in the class?

Fired Up? [Ready to Go!] come to class each day fired up and ready to go. 

Be Present; Mindfulness

Mindfulness is an awareness of yourself.  To start each class, I use a mindfulness meditation.  I will ring a bell to signal that we are starting class. This is a reminder to center your thoughts and limit distractions.  This present moment is a gift (that's why it's called the present!) I want you to be in this moment.  I will also give you a thought to meditate on and help you develop your own personal mindfulness.

Mindfulness and Learning

Being mindful means having an appreciation and a focus for the present moment. In this case, we are in class, together. Be present. I value your presence and I feel that each of you can be a teacher for all of us - we are all students and teachers of each other!

There is a lot of evidence that electronic devices and social media are a distraction for not only you but for those around you. One study calls social media the second-hand smoke of learning. So, please mindful of your presence in class. Please try to be in the moment for our class - this is yet another group that we are connected to and an example of how intricately we are connected to other people.

In short: Have something to write on/take notes with but if it is a digital device, work hard to not distract yourself or classmates from the present moment.

Touchscreen

Watch slam poet Marshall Soulful Jones perform his poem called touchscreen.   

(Here are the lyrics)

This slam poem resonates with me because I want students to understand the effects of digital devices on learning generally, but I also want students to connect with each other personally through our class. I have tried to personalize the class in both how I present the content using examples from my own life and how I assess student understanding of the content by asking students to apply and personalize the content to their own lives.

Today's lesson:

I had you fill out the survey above because I wanted to get to know you as an individual.  My question now is, are you, in fact, an individual?  What makes you an individual? 

Introducing You...

Introduce yourself to one or two of your peers.  Please say your name and where you are from and then share:

1.  Do you think you are an individual?  Why or why not?  What makes you unique?

2.  What do you think it means to be an individual?

If you are absent from class, the Google Form for this lesson is here.  Absent students must fill out the Google form to even be considered for participation credit.  If you are present in class, you do not have to do the Google Form.

Big Group Discussion:  Are you an individual? 1 and 2.

At first glance, it might seem like you are unique.  In my case, I am a Loyola University graduate, a professor and a Chicagoan;  I like basketball, the Cubs, skiing, mountain biking, golfing, gardening, and cooking.  I am a husband and I have three daughters.  All of this might make me sound unique, but all of it also is a result of my connection to others and at the same time, it connects me to others.  We are intimately shaped by other people and society at large, but our culture's fascination with individuality often hides this connection.  Sociology will help us explore this reality.

3.  Now think about how you arrived at this moment in this class.  How did you get here?  Who are all the people that helped you get here today?

3.2 After you answer that, think even more creatively about who those people are that have made it possible for you to be here today.

Introduce yourself to one or two different peers.  Please say your name and where you are from and then share:

Small groups:  Share the people that you came up with. What was one answer that someone said that you had not thought of?

Mindfulness and Sociology

How many different people did you come up with? Did you think of your parents? Probably.  How about your grandparents or great-grandparents?  How about the people who built the roads or the engineers who designed them; The architects who built the building you are sitting in;  The doctors who helped you stay healthy until you reached this age or the dozens of teachers who have taught you over the years. There are so many people who have affected your ability to be here and now.  Sociology will make us aware of our connections to other people.  Michael Schwalbe called this awareness of our connection to others "Sociological Mindfulness."  Throughout our class, you will see that sociological mindfulness is woven into the lessons and assessments.  

Sociological Mindfulness is also all of the people that we influence in society. We are both products and agents of society.

4. Think about the people who you may have had an impact on in your journey to Loyola. Who have you influenced? In what ways?

Small Group Discussion

Find 2 or 3 people who you did NOT discuss with earlier. Share your answers with them. Tell them how you arrived at Loyola and ask them how they think that YOU may have influenced people along the way.

Introducing You and Sociology

Sociology is a discipline that examines all the ways that individuals are affected by their social memberships - the groups that that they inhabit. A group can be as few as two or as many as millions of people.  As long as those people can identify with each other in some way, they can be considered a group.  

This lesson will ask you to list your groups.  

On a notes sheet, put yourself in a circle in the center and then around the outside,  list the most important groups that you are a part of.  (Remember that a group can be as small as two people or as large as millions.)  Some groups interact with you and others shape your perception of who you are. 

What are the groups that influence you?  

What are all of the groups that shape your identity and how you see yourself?  

What groups do you identify with?

Another way to think about this is who do you spend your days with?  You are not alone.  Think about who you are with in the morning, daytime, afternoon,  and evening.  And then who are you with during the week, on weekends, and in different seasons?

Status
Status is our position(s) within each group, for example, in my group, family, I hold the positions of husband and father, etc... Next to each group list your status(es) within it.  Note that in some groups, like family, you might have multiple statuses.

Master Status
After you list all of your statuses, choose your master status.  A master status is an individual's most important, most defining status.  It is a status that he/she takes with them everywhere they go.  There are two ways that you might think about master status:

It might be a status that is always present in his/her mind.

Or it might be a status that everyone else sees her/him with.   

Look at ALL of the statuses that you listed across your whole sheet.  Choose 1 or 2 statuses that are your master status right now (master status can change throughout your life or even based on your schedule).  Mark your master status(es) with a star.

Large Group Activity

As I call out groups, please stand if you listed a status or group that I name.  Then remain standing if you starred it as a master status.

Conclusion
I am always interested by all of the groups that students are influenced by and especially the unexpected groups that surprise me along the way. Sometimes it is someone who I never thought to be religious and they list a religion or sometimes it is someone who I never realized was black who lists her race as an important influence on her. All of these groups we belong to are the complex way we as individuals are made up and that is the way sociologists understand individuals; through their groups.  For example, I am part of a family, a school, a group of friends and a neighborhood. In each of these groups I have a status (dad, teacher, friend) and each of these statuses comes with a role that is expected of me (make dinner, show up prepared for class, return a phone call, etc...). 

These groups shape my life. Each group creates expectations for your actions.  These expectations are called roles.  For example after becoming a dad I will never be the same. I can't help looking at kids through the eyes of a parent; I think about music lyrics differently; I am overly critical and cognizant of my own behavior and manners etc... These groups can also come into conflict in an individual's daily life.  For example, if I have to go home and cook dinner and my daughter demands attention, it is very difficult to get grading and lessons prepared for the next day, and if a friend calls to socialize or to get together, that becomes a third conflict.  My roles as a parent, teacher and friend are all conflicting. This is called role conflict.  There are also times when I experience what sociologists call role strain.  That is when I am having difficulty meeting the expectations of one role.  An example of this might be parenting. I have never been a parent before and so when my daughter is challenging me, I am not always certain how to react; do I give in, ignore or punish her?  Some statuses we choose (achieved statuses) like those I already mentioned, but sometimes we are not given a choice (ascribed statuses) like that of being bald, or white, or a son.

Example of sociology

Note each of the "individuals" in class is really made up of various groups - connections to other people. All of these groups shape the way we see ourselves and the way others see us. They also contribute to our opportunities and obstacles that we encounter.

Example of sociological mindfulness in class
I hope this exercise helps students see that our class might seem homogeneous but really it is quite diverse. The unique diversity comes from each person's membership in different groups. I hope this is another way we can become sociologically mindful of each other in the class; that is, we can appreciate each person's unique membership in different groups.  This way we can be more understanding of each other and more compassionate for each other. 

Conclusion (What you should be able to do/explain after this lesson and what the final assignment will ask you to do):

• Why is the syllabus important?
• What do sociologists study?
• What is sociological mindfulness?
• Why does sociological mindfulness matter?
• How do sociologists define "group"?
• What is a master status?