Teaching the Classics

Bibliographic Data

ID11064241
AuthorsThomas W Segady (corresponding author)
Year1990
Volume18
Issue2
Pages214
Publication date1990-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTeaching Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0092-055X • E-ISSN: 1939-862X
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2307/1318493
OpenAlexW1971561361
LanguageEN
Citations received10

Sociological theory is one of the last courses many students majoring in sociology will take as undergraduates. Apart from any curricular structuring, the central reason for this is that many students perceive theory as what might be termed a medicinal class: it is one that must be taken, and it usually carries the vague promise that in the future this will make them better (or at least more complete) sociologists. This promise, however sincere, unfortunately may fall on deaf ears. It is ironic that, in a discipline that generally exhorts its members to understand the subjective worlds of concrete actors, little attempt is made to understand the meaning of a given course from the students' perspective. Prior to entering the class, student understanding of the classics may well have come from reading introductory texts that often devote more space to the photographs of the than to any systematic explanation of their ideas (which are often summarily dismissed as pioneering). As a result, students may well wonder why they are suddenly subjected to reading more about the masters in an advanced

Higher education · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Political science · Sociology · Teaching method · Classical Studies and Philology · Classics · History · Law · Political Science Research and Education · Psychology

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