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Teaching Social Problems Division

2008
Kathleen S. Lowney, Ph.D.
Chair, Teaching Social Problems Division (2008-2010)


Vision of a Just World:


A just world can be promoted through helping citizen-students to better understand the complex nature of the social problems which plague communities, nations, and the world. The more individuals are aware of social problems, their interrelationships, social movements for justice, and the myriad solutions available for implementation, the more we are able to begin to solve problems. The mission of the Teaching Social Problems Division is to facilitate quality educational experiences in Social Problems classrooms by providing information about innovative pedagogical techniques, classroom materials and resources, and support for faculty members.

Teaching social problems courses can be a frustrating experience, for a number of reasons. Many students feel that the course content becomes overly depressing, piling one social problem on top of another. Additionally, some feel that the course content seeks out only the “bad” in society and rarely is counterbalanced that with the “good” that individuals, institutions, and society do. And more so than in other academic disciplines, such as the natural sciences, students often enter the social problems classroom confident in their knowledge about social problems and can feel threatened when presented with facts and opinions which challenge those preconceptions.

The division’s primary challenge is to assist in the creation and identification of successful classroom experiences and texts which help students to understand the social problems process. Secondarily, we need to find ways to help students to become comfortable with and adept at understanding and manipulating quantitative data which capture the complexities of social problems such as poverty, racism, and pollution. As faculty, we need to find excellent examples which can help students to grasp how some claims become successfully constructed as social problems (and how others are not) by social activists, the media, and other social actors. Students need to see how policies for solving social problems arise out of those claims.


Some Resources (e.g., includes two textbooks from different teaching perspectives and several journal articles on issues related to teaching social problems)

Best, Joel. 2008. Social Problems. NY: W.W. Norton.

Bordt, Rebecca L. “Using a Research Article to Facilitate a Deep Structure Understanding of
Discrimination.” Teaching Sociology 33(4):403-10.

Carroll, Walter and Lutz Kaelber. 2007. Instructor’s Resource Manual on Social Problems, 4th ed.
Washington, DC: American Sociological Association.

Coghlan, Catherine L. and Denise W. Huggins. 2004. “’That’s Not Fair!’: A Simulation Exercise in
Social Stratification and Structural Inequality.” Teaching Sociology 32(2):177-87.

Desmond, Scott A. “Prioritizing Social Problems: An Exercise for Exploring Students’ Attitudes
about Social Problems.” Teaching Sociology 33(1):59-65.

Eitzen, D. Stanley and Kenneth Stewart. 2006. Solutions to Social Problems from the Bottom Up:
Successful Social Movements. NY: Allyn and Bacon.

Johnson, Brett. 2005. “Overcoming ‘Doom and Gloom’: Empowering Students in Courses on
Social Problems, Injustice, and Inequality.” Teaching Sociology 33(1):44-58.

Lewis, Tammy L. 2004. “Service Learning for Social Change? Lessons from a Liberal Arts
College.” Teaching Sociology 32(1):94-108.

Ross, Susan M. and Janet McNeil Hurlbert. 2004. “Problem-Based Learning: An Exercise on
Vermont’s Legalization of Civil Unions.” Teaching Sociology 32(1):79-93.

Spector, Malcolm and John I. Kitsuse. 2000. Constructing Social Problems. With a new
introduction by John I. Kitsuse. NY: Transaction.