Category Archives: Sociology of Education

Sociology of Education, Uncategorized, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

Developing Course Goals and Objectives

Leave a comment

Sociology Assistant Instructor David Glisch-Sanchez offered an informative session Monday on how to assess student learning in the classroom.

First, there are different types of learning, from memorization and understanding to evaluation and creating something new based on knowledge gained. It is important for teachers to design activities and measurement criteria that target a variety of these types of learning.

Second, there is also variety in terms of objects learned, from facts and concepts to self-reflection and critique of one’s approach toward the facts and concepts themselves. There are many pedagogical tools, from choice-based exams to open-ended research projects, that can assess these levels of knowledge acquired through the course, each with their own pros and cons.

David also talked about the importance of specifying and clarifying course objectives at the beginning of and throughout the course. Regardless of what assessment criteria teachers use, it is important expectations be set and made explicit if not as ultimate learning goals, then as check-points for students.

‘What do I know?’ ‘What do I want to know?’ and ‘What did I learn?’ are three useful general questions teachers should pose to students, and keep in mind as they continue to improve their courses.

Below are some resources toward this end teachers can consult:

‘Helping Students Do Well in Class: GAMES’ by Dr Marilla D Svinicki

Exam Writing Guidelines from Instructional Assessment Resources, UT-Austin

Developing Course Goals and Objectives by David Glisch-Sanchez

Family Sociology, Sociology of Education, Sociology of Gender, Sociology of Religion, University of Texas at Austin Sociology

Why Non-Academic Need Not Be Un-Academic: Reflections on Working Outside the Academy

Leave a comment

Our Brownbag series took a closer look at sociological research beyond the university with an exciting panel, “Un-Academic: Reflections on Working Outside the Academy” on February 13. Following introductory remarks by Professor Mary Rose, graduate students Caity Collins, Kristine Kilanski, and David McClendon convened to share insights about their experiences working at FamilienForschung, the Urban Institute, and the Pew Research Center.

Caity’s summer 2011 work with FamilienForschung, a family-focused research and policy institute in Stuttgart, Germany, provided valuable support to aid her master’s thesis research on working mothers and the opportunities and constraints they face when trying to balance work and family responsibilities. Though Caity had lived in Germany before, she anticipated considerable challenges in conducting her interview research given language and cultural barriers. Taking a risk, Caity contacted FamilienForschung and pitched a collaboration, emphasizing her ability to support the institute’s research on gender and work trends in the U.S. and to assist with their English-language writing. In addition to helping her link up with interviewees for her study, Caity’s invaluable affiliation provided access to the institute’s census data, workshops, presentations, conferences as well as administrative resources (desk and phone line).

Kristine brought up good points from her job at the Urban Institute and the Academy of Educational Development (AED) where she worked as a research assistant and research associate. There, she contributed to multiple education-related projects, including a website on high school reform implementation, co-written with Dr. Nettie Legters and Dr. Becky Smerdon. In addition to assisting with multiple  program evaluations (including the evaluation of the Alabama, Math, Science, and Technology Initiative) and other ongoing research projects, Kristine wrote  evidence-based education briefs for state leaders in the Southeastern Regional  Educational Laboratory. Kristine maintains an interest in education, especially innovative programs for educating youth and preparing them to succeed in the workforce and world.  Her advice when considering research positions in and outside the academy is to make a checklist of their advantages and disadvantages.  For researchers in the academy the security of having tenure is offset by the challenges required to get there: publishing while teaching full time.  Her experience in the world of not for profits taught her the value of working at a well-funded policy relevant institution and staying current by looking for opportunities to publish and network.  However, while it’s nice to work 9 – 5, the uncertainties of grant funding can be a real downside.

David spent the 2011 summer working on the Global Religious Futures Project at the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. Pew is a well-known “fact tank” that provides facts and data that help inform national dialogues. David came across this research opportunity through the help of his advisor, Professor Mark Regenerus. David’s work at Pew focused on demographic projections of the future sizes and locations of religious populations around the globe. Developing his project into a working paper, David used census data to explore a number of factors affecting religious populations including age structure, religion-specific fertility and mortality rates, and “switching.” David also discussed Pew’s media strategies to publicize research findings non-academic audiences and institutional connections to other contacts in the broader field of religion studies.

Demography, Race and Ethnicity, Sociology of Education

Educational Disadvantages Associated with Race Still Persist in Brazil Despite Improvements, New Study Shows

Leave a comment

Despite notable improvements in educational levels and opportunity during the past three decades, disadvantages associated with race still persist in Brazil, according to new research at The University of Texas at Austin.

Although educational advantages for white over black and pardo (mixed-race) adolescents declined considerably in Brazil, the gap is still significant, with whites completing nearly one year more of education.

Sociologist and Population Research Center affiliate Leticia Marteleto investigated educational inequalities using the nationally representative data from Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios from 1982 to 2007. Her findings will be published in the February issue of the journal Demography.

“Although the educational advantage of whites has persisted over this period, I found that the significance of race as it relates to education has changed in important ways,” Marteleto said.

By 2007, adolescents who identified themselves as blacks and pardos became more similar in their education levels, whereas in the past blacks had greater disadvantages, according to the study. Marteleto tested two possible explanations for this shift: structural changes in income levels and parents’ education, and shifts in racial classification.

Her findings suggest the educational gap has closed in part because of the large gains in family resources among black adolescents and a shift in racial labeling.

In 1982 only 13.2 percent of adolescents who identified themselves as black had finished primary school by ages 17 and 18, compared with 21.5 percent of their pardo peers. In 2007, the gap for primary school completion had disappeared.

The second potential explanation for the closing educational gap between pardo and black Brazilians is a shift in racial identity. Children of college-educated black fathers and mothers have a greater probability of being identified by their family as black in 2007, while in 1982 these associations were still considered negative. This seems to explain — at least in part  — some of the increases in the educational attainment of those identified as black in relation to pardo, since highly educated Brazilians now have a disproportionately higher likelihood of identifying their children as black rather than either white or pardo.

Marteleto said the current debate about recent race-based affirmative action policies being implemented in Brazilian universities has engaged its population at a national level and can offer valuable insights to the literatures of educational opportunity and race everywhere.

“My research shows that educational disadvantages have recently assumed a dichotomous nature based on black and white in Brazil,” Marteleto said. “While in the United States the growth in racial and ethnic diversity has led researchers to speculate that the black-white dichotomy is losing its salience for social inequalities — and that the country will soon resemble Brazil as a result of racial mixing — Brazil seems to be headed in the opposite direction, at least in regard to racial inequalities in education.”

For more information, contact: Michelle Bryant, College of Liberal Arts, 512-232-4730;  Leticia Marteleto, Department of Sociology, College of Liberal Arts, 512-471-8302.

ASA, Crime, Law and Deviance, Demography, Family Sociology, Gender and Sexuality, Globalization and Development, Political Sociology, Race and Ethnicity, Sociological Theory, Sociology of Education, Sociology of Gender, Sociology of Health, Sociology of Religion, Uncategorized, University of Texas at Austin Sociology, Work, Occupations and Organizations

Monday ASA Events

Leave a comment

Monday, August 22th UT SOC presentations:

Adut, Ari – Thematic Session: Scandal Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Organizer – Presenter on individual submission: Scandal and the Public Sphere

Bhatt, Wasudha
Table 06. Roundtables: Immigrants from a Race, Gender, and Class Perspective
Unit / Sub Unit: Section on Race, Gender, and Class / Section on Race, Gender, and Class
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presenter on individual submission: Racist Medicine: Indian physicians’ experiences with racism, and sexism in U.S. medical workplaces

Julie Beicken
Table 03. Impacts and Outcomes
Unit: Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Presenter: “The Impact of Eugenics on U.S. Coercive Sterilization Legislation in the Early 20th Century”

Blanchard, Sarah
Table 08. International and Comparative Perspectives on Educational Outcomes
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtables.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter: “Scholars without Borders: The Graduate School Trajectories of International Students at a Major Research University”

Brown, Letisha
Table 05. Democracy and Social Organization
Unit / Sub Unit: Theory Section / Section on Theory Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 8:30am – 9:30am
Presenter: “The Black Panther Party for Self Defense: A Marxist, Maoist, Black Nationalist Organization”

Charrad, Mounira Maya
Section on Comparative/Historical Sociology Paper Session. Islam and the Modern World
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: “Patrimonial Politics: Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq”

Crosnoe, Robert
Section on Sociology of Education Council and Business Meeting
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Participant

Cuvi, Jacinto
Regular Session. Historical Sociology/Processes II: States, Societies, & Symbolic Power
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Blowing the institutional gridlock: informal institutions and symbolic action in the reform of Sunat”

Danielle Dirks (PhD 2011, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Occidental College)
Student Forum Workshop. Different Types of Publication Opportunities for Students
Unit: Student Forum Sessions
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Panelist

Ha, Hyun Jeong, Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Paper Session.
Open Topic on Collective Behavior and Social Movements.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter on individual submission: “Islamic Feminism, A New Paradigm to Crack out Patriarchy in Egypt”

Paul Stanley Kasun
Table 10. Public Opinion on Immigration
Unit: Section on International Migration Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Presenter: “Immigration Perspectives Structured Racism and Religion; Attitudes of Welcoming, Economic Threat, Illegal Immigration Toward Immigrants”

Lodge, Amy
Section on Aging and the Life Course Paper Session. Age and Sociological Imagination: Individual and Micro-level Dynamics
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Presenter: “Age and Embodied Masculinities: Mid-Life Gay and Heterosexual Men Talk about their Bodies”

McFarland, Michael
Table 23. Religion and Health
Unit: Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Presenter: “Does a Cancer Diagnosis Influence Religiosity? Integrating a Life Course Perspective”

Mueller, Anna Strassmann
Table 08. International and Comparative Perspectives on Educational Outcomes
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Scholars without Borders: The Graduate School Trajectories of International Students at a Major Research University”
Table 18. Friends and Peer Networks in Schools
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Adolescent Society and the Social Dynamics of Friendship Formation in American High Schools”

Muller, Chandra
Section on Sociology of Education Council and Business Meeting
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Chair
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. Transitions, Adjustment, and Mobility in Educational Attainment
Unit: Open Topic on Sociology of Education (4 Sessions).
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Non-Presenter: ” The Shape of the River from Middle through High School: Race, Gender, and Grade Trajectories”
Table 07. Academic and Social Determinants of College Attainment
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable – Presider
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Table 08. International and Comparative Perspectives on Educational Outcomes
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Scholars without Borders: The Graduate School Trajectories of International Students at a Major Research University”
Table 18. Friends and Peer Networks in Schools
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Adolescent Society and the Social Dynamics of Friendship Formation in American High Schools”

Pattison, Evangeleen
Table 02. Classical Theory and Contemporary Sociology
Unit: Section on Theory Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 8:30am – 9:30am
Presenter: “Education and Stratification: The Role of Class and Status in Structuring Educational Opportunities”
Table 20. Extracurricular Influences on Equity in Academic Outcomes
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider
Presenter: “The Role of Sports Participation on Advanced Math Course-taking for Black and White Males”

Pudrovska, Tetyana
Table 16. Mental Health
Unit: Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter on individual submission: “Spousal Mental Health Concordance”
Table 23. Religion and Health
Unit: Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Does a Cancer Diagnosis Influence Religiosity? Integrating a Life Course Perspective”

Reid, Megan
Table 09. Race, Gender, Class & Policy
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm Roundtable
Presenter on individual submission: “Deservingness” and Waiting for Help After Hurricane Katrina”

Rodriguez, Nestor P.
Table 06. Immigrants from a Race, Gender, and Class Perspective – Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 3:30pm
Presenter: “Racist Medicine: Indian physicians’ experiences with racism, and sexism in U.S. medical workplaces”

Ryan, Tricia
Table 03. Comparative Health Policy
Unit: Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Presenter: “Unintended Consequences to Health Reform: Patient Responses to Family Medicine and Village Health Committees in Kyrgyzstan”

Sakamoto, Arthur
C. Table 03. Migration
Unit: Open Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Non-Presenter: “Revisiting Malthus for Developed Nations? Non-Poor Population Growth as a Population Characteristic”

Sasson, Isaac
C. Table 03. Migration (3)
Unit: Open Refereed Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Revisiting Malthus for Developed Nations? Non-Poor Population Growth as a Population” Characteristic

Shafeek Amin, Neveen Fawzy
Table 03. Immigrant Education
Section on International Migration Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Presenter: “Religiosity and Academic Achievement among Immigrant Adolescents in the U.S”

Shifrer, Dara
Section on Sociology of Religion Paper Session. Religious Movements and Institutions
Unit:Religious Movements and Institutions.
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “Education and Religion: Compromises toward the Preservation of a Separatist Community”

Sutton, April M
Section on Sociology of Education Paper Session. Transitions, Adjustment, and Mobility in Educational Attainment
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Presenter: “The Shape of the River from Middle through High School: Race, Gender, and Grade Trajectories”
Table 22. Exploring the Influence of Cultural Capital Across Diverse Settings
Unit: Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Session Submission Role: Table Presider

Thomeer, Mieke
Table 16. Mental Health
Unit: Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 4:30pm – 6:10pm
Presenter on individual submission: “Spousal Mental Health Concordance”

Umberson, Deb
Section on Aging and the Life Course Paper Session. Age and Sociological Imagination: Individual and Micro-level Dynamics
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 8:30am – 10:10am
Non-Presenter: “Age and Embodied Masculinities: Mid-Life Gay and Heterosexual Men Talk about their Bodies”

Wheatley, M. Christine
Table 06. Legal Status and Deportation
Unit: Section on International Migration Roundtable
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 11:30am
Presenter: “Push Back: U.S. Immigration Policy, Deportations, and the Reincorporation of Involuntary Return Migrants in Mexico”

Williams, Christine L.
Special Session. Postindustrial Culture and the Flexible Self: Beyond the Cubicle
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 10:30am – 12:10pm
Session Submission Role: Discussant

Young, Michael
Thematic Session. Scandal
Scheduled Time: Mon, Aug 22 – 2:30pm – 4:10pm
Session Submission Role: Discussant