Sociology of Inequality: Trying out Backward Planning!

I often feel like when I design or redesign a class that I get stuck in the many, and overwhelming details and spend a lot of time looking for a reading or assignment that I think will be “useful” or students will “like” from the beginning. Or, I spend a lot of time thinking about logistics or the parameters of an assignment: when will we meet, and should I use a discussion board, journaling, etc. This has meant that I sometimes don’t have a strong sense of why, or how the materials and assignments contribute to the goals of the course as a whole. So! After I read this, I decided to work backwards by first defining the big goals of the course. When I did this, I realized my module structure would need to be revised. Here’s what I wrote about the overarching learning goals.

• By the end of this course, students will gain skills to describe, understand, and discuss the scope and degree of inequality in the United States. Students will be able to
  • Locate, use, and understand contemporary Sociological data about inequality produced by researchers and institutions in the U.S.
  • Recognize and analyze stratification associated with race, gender, sexuality, and other identities, statuses, and roles.
  • Analyze contemporary issues of inequality as discussed in the media and in relation to their everyday lives using the Sociological imagination.
  • Use these ideas and concepts to make an informed argument about inequality, social mobility, and democracy in capitalist societies.
• Students will gain an understanding of key areas of inquiry in the Sociology of Inequality, and will be able to deploy the ideas and vocabulary developed in class to analyze inequality in the U.S. These concepts include
  • The Individual attributes and the structural approach to understanding and explaining inequality, including the materialist structural model and its use in analyzing and explaining our experiences, identities, and worldviews.
  • The structure and operation of the political economy of capitalism including stages and varieties of capitalist organization, class power and the relational and dynamic view of class, and social mobility and democracy in capitalist societies.
  • Racial capitalism and its relationship to contemporary forms of inequality with a focus on housing, labor, and forms of social control including policing and prisons.
  • Features of social welfare systems, and policies, structures, and techniques of governance related to the management of poor people including critiques of the “culture of poverty” thesis and the nature and function of policing and prisons.

More soon!…