Sociological education as a field for developing divergent thinking

The article considers the relationship between divergent thinking as a socially significant competency and the specifics of sociological education which serves as an institutional environment for developing such thinking. The author focuses on interpretation as a key mechanism fostering the ability to work with multiple meanings and uncertainty; shows that the structural features of sociological knowledge as based on the competition of theoretical paradigms and the practice of reflective work with empirical data form a student disposition towards divergence. At the same time, there is a contradiction between this inherent logic and institutional constraints of contemporary education (standardization and formalization). Thus, the development of divergent thinking is not a peripheral but essential result of sociological professional training, which is necessary for analytical and expert work in the complex society

Contradiction · Divergent thinking · Sociological research · Sociological theory · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Educational Innovations and Challenges · Political Science Research and Education