Sociology
Section 2
Program Summary Narrative (printable
version)
2A. The teaching major and minor in Sociology provides students with the opportunity to master the analytical, methodological, and problem solving skills necessary to understand the social forces shaping individual lives, communities, and the larger global context. Their study includes an examination of the major institutions and organizations that influence social life. It provides students with an understanding of the roles that ethnicity, gender, socio-economic class, education, age, health, and religion play in influencing social processes. Classes at all levels provide substantive information concerning the way in which these roles and social positions influence and structure behavior, attitudes, emotions, and opportunities.
Sociology includes the study of groups that influence daily life and the socialization of the individual via agents of socialization, such as the family, school, peers, media, and religion. It examines the ways in which people and groups learn to conform to social rules and analyzes the factors leading to various forms of deviance and societal response to deviance. Sociology is concerned with all forms of social change and the factors that influence it and shape the results. It examines social processes and attendant social problems at both the micro (small group) and macro (organizational or societal) levels.
Sociology provides students with the major theoretical perspectives and the methodological skills necessary to organize and use this knowledge in their professional careers and as part of their continuing personal development as members of society. The emphasis is on critical thinking; recognition of the importance of diversity and its contributions; the necessity for the development of policy based on empirical evidence; and the analysis of both the short-term and long-term, the intended and the unintended, consequences of policy and action.
The undergraduate sociology teaching major and minor at Eastern Michigan University has been designed to prepare students to take their place as citizens, and to work in today’s diverse, global society. During the past academic year, our Undergraduate Curriculum Committee revised our major and minor in response to lower than desired scores of our graduates on the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification. The deficiency appeared to be that we were requiring too few hours to be from sociology, and we were allowing students too many hours from related social science study. The objectives from the MTTC were obtained, and our specific curricular objectives were redesigned in accordance with the MTTC. We are now requiring all hours to be from sociology, to better assure that students are knowledgeable in the five core areas as defined by the MTTC:
1. Foundational Concepts and Skills: sociological terms and theories; critical thinking skills; problem solving; research methods, data collection, and data analysis; major characteristics of, and issues in contemporary American and global societies.
2. Understanding Individuals, Groups, and Social Interaction: socialization processes; the importance of human diversity, the influence of diverse cultures, and the role of ethnicity, gender, religion, education, age, health, and social class in human groups; the relationship between culture and personality; the formation of values, beliefs, emotions, and attitudes; theories and consequences of deviance; theories and methods of social control; types and functions of groups and group processes; types and functions of communication.
3. Social Organization: determinants and implications of social status; the formation of social roles; kinship, marriage, and family forms; types and functions of political, economic, and religious systems.
4. Social Stratification and Change: contemporary American and global socioeconomic, gender, age, health, education, and racial/ethnic stratification systems; inter- and intra-generational social mobility; theories of cultural continuity and change; urbanization processes and consequences; social movements theory.
5. American and Global Social Problems: race and ethnic relations; gender relations; poverty and social welfare programs; social justice issues; crime and criminal justice; environmental issues; and social problems related to aging, health care, education, family life, and problems by place (urban, suburban, rural).
2B. Both depth and breadth in the Sociology Teaching major and minor are ensured by a minimum requirement of 30 hours of Sociology classes for the major and 21 hours for the minor. These hours are distributed to cover a broad introduction to the field, the development of skills in research methods and statistics, the basis for analytic understanding and critical thinking, and solid grounding in the five content areas within sociology as defined by the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification: 1) Foundational Concepts and Skills; 2) Understanding Individuals, Groups, and Social Interaction; 3) Social Organization; 4) Social Stratification and Change; and 5) American and Global Social Problems.
Foundational Concepts and Skills: Required courses: SOCL 105 Introductory Sociology; SOCL 202 Social Problems; SOCL 250 Social Statistics; and SOCL 304 Methods of Social Research. Within SOCL 105 Introductory Sociology, basic sociological concepts are used to analyze aspects of American and global societies, with a focus on the institutions of family, education, religion, government, medicine, politics, and economics. SOCL 202 Social Problems provides an analysis of problems arising in contemporary American and global societies, such as problems within the major social institutions, as well as gender and ethnic relations, crime and delinquency, and deviant behavior. Together, these two courses lay the foundation of basic knowledge for most of the higher-level substantive sociology courses. Two courses provide the analytic tools necessary to carry out and interpret sociological research. SOCL 250 Social Statistics (required for the major but not the minor) introduces the student to the evaluation of quantitative data and the organization of bivariate and univariate data using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. SOCL 304 Methods in Sociological Research introduces students to the logic of both qualitative and quantitative sociological research, sampling, data collection, and data analysis.
Understanding
Individuals, Groups, and Social Interaction: The following required
courses address this content area, in addition to the required courses listed
above under the Foundational Concepts & Skills content area: SOCL 308
Social Psychology; SOCL 310 Contemporary American Class Structure; SOCL 403
Modern Sociological Theory. SOCL 308 Social Psychology provides the study
of the micro-level processes of human interaction, the development of beliefs,
values, and attitudes, the construction of social norms, and the socialization
process. SOCL 310 Contemporary American Class Structure instructs students
in the study of the determinants and consequences of social class structure
in
Social Organization: Each of the required courses described in the previous section inform this content area. Additionally students may take SOCL 462 Complex Organizations as a restricted elective.
Social Stratification and Change: Each of the required courses described in the three previous sections inform this content area, with SOCL 310 Contemporary American Class Structure being the most important course.
American and Global Social Problems: The study of social problems is addressed to some extent in each of the previously described required courses, but certainly SOCL 202 Social Problems is the keystone course.
Students of the major are then required to choose at least one additional 300-400 level course from the following menu of restricted electives: SOCL 306 The Urban Community, the study the ecological and social organization of urban life; SOCL 307 Industrial Sociology, the study of the social structure of the workplace, the work experience of the participants, and the relation of both to the community and to society; SOCL 311 Social Gerontology, the study of aging; SOCL 312 Medical Sociology, the study of health behaviors and social organization and their roles in the distribution of disease and disability; SOCL 450 The Family, the study of courtship, mate selection, and problems of marital and family adjustment from sociological and social-psychological perspectives ; SOCL 462 Complex Organizations, the study of organizational growth, recruitment, control, and relations between organizations and between organizations and individuals; SOCL/ANTH 309 Culture & Personality, the study of the manner in which group and cultural factors influence the development of the personality ; and SOCL/ANTH 336 Social & Cultural Change, the theories and problems of change in developing and developed societies. Students of the major may then choose one 300-400 level elective from the menu of free electives listed on page 3 of Form XX.
Students of the minor must take the same required courses, as listed on the first page of Form XX, except they are not required to take SOCL 250 Social Statistics or SOCL 405 Senior Seminar in Sociology. Students of the minor are further required to choose one additional 300-400 level sociology course. The restricted elective menu listed above for the major is recommended, but any 300-400 level free elective sociology course is allowed.
Examples of free elective courses include: SOCL 303 Sociology of Childhood and Youth, the study of the relationship between social structure and the emergent personality of the individual; SOCL 320 Sociology of Religion, the sociological analysis of religious organizations and the institution of religion, including the interaction between religious organizations and other institutions; SOCL 321 Cooperation and Conflict in Society, the study of the principles of cooperation, cooperation in our competitive-individualistic society, cooperative skills, and forms of mutual aid; SOCL 334 Population, the study of population size and composition and its impact on society, and the determinants and consequences of natality, mortality, and migration; SOCL 344 Sociology of Gender, the study of the past, present, and future gender roles, and the consequences of these changes on other social institutions; SOCL 352 Sociology of Education, the study of the interplay between education, its social history, gender, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, social control, and ideology; SOCL 375 Political Sociology, the study of the structure of political systems; SOCL 448 Collective Behavior, the study of transitory and volatile collective behavior, including crowd behavior, mass behavior, and the study of social movements; and SOCL 451 Sociology of Work and Occupations, the study of the social aspects of work, including recruitment, career patterns, professionalization, and the labor force.
Additionally, senior level courses in SOCL 403 Modern Sociological Theory (required for both the major and minor) and SOCL 405 Senior Seminar in Sociology (required for majors) are considered “capstone” courses, in that they provide for the integration of prior learning, and serve as an intensive review of all previous material.
The Sociology Teaching major also requires a 20-hour minor in Economics, Geography, Political Science, Psychology, or History. The most common minors have been Political Science and Geography.
EMU also requires extensive exposure to a wide variety of disciplines through its basic studies (General Education) requirements, totaling sixteen courses spread through four areas: I. Symbolics and Communication (5 courses); II. Science and Technology (3 courses); III. Social Science (4 courses); and IV. Arts and Humanities (4 courses). An additional requirement is for at least one cross-cultural or international course chosen from a specified course list from Areas I-IV. Some courses may be “double counted” for courses that are in Basic Studies and the major and minor. The total credit hour accumulation for the major is 135 hours.
Professional training is ensured by a minimum of 39 hours in Professional Studies, begun in the junior year following admission to the EMU initial teacher preparation program. Students have course length exposure to both general teaching methods and social studies methods, the social foundations of education in a multicultural society, measurement and evaluation, human development and learning, reading in the content areas, teaching exceptional children, media and instructional materials development and the applications of computers in education. Structured pre-student teaching experiences accompany the professional training sequence. The program culminates in a 15-week student teaching assignment.
2C. Students of the sociology teaching major and minor receive this training within their required teaching preparation courses through the College of Education.
2D. There are no differences.
2E. Gender, ethnicity, culture, social class, and globalization are major variables in sociology and each of these issues is addressed in virtually every course, particularly in SOCL 105 Introductory Sociology and SOCL 202 Social Problems. In addition, many courses deal directly with gender equity issues and multicultural diversity, such as SOCL 344 Sociology of Gender and SOCL/ANTH 336 Social & Cultural Change. SOCL 202 Social Problems specifically covers such topics as racial myths, doctrines, and movements; conflict and accommodation of majority and minority peoples; and proposed solutions of racial/ethnic problems.
2F. Students of the sociology teaching major and minor receive this training within their required teaching preparation courses through the College of Education.
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