Research on student use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools to help with coursework and writing is in its incipient stages. In this exploratory mixed-methods study, we draw on data gathered from sociology students to answer three questions: (1) What are students’ views on using GenAI in coursework, both for students generally and for themselves specifically?; (2) In what ways are students using GenAI in their coursework?; and (3) How well do students believe their professors address GenAI use in their course design and evaluation of written work? We find that most students use GenAI for a variety of writing and learning tasks and that the majority are cautious and thoughtful in their use. However, a significant proportion of students lack clarity around acceptable and recommended uses of GenAI from their instructors. As such, we offer strategies to better support students in their learning and writing.
In-class simulations are an “active learning” strategy that can improve students’ understanding of complex issues in fun and engaging ways. Race, class, environment, health, social movements, and democratic participation—and their intersections—are integral topics to sociology curriculum and preparing students to realize meaningful social change. However, there is a dearth of in-class activity resources available for teaching about pressing social issues at the intersection of health and the environment. To help teach students about navigating ethical dilemmas and barriers to legislative change, this article details an in-class role-playing simulation activity about the health consequences of industrial pollution caused by the sterilization of medical supplies—and its disproportionate impacts on lower-income, minority communities in the United States.
Teaching students to think sociologically in a psychologically oriented culture is one of our most challenging tasks as instructors. Recognizing and understanding how sociological phenomena shape the classroom experience invites a more reflexive pedagogy in line with the tenets of the discipline, such as striving for social change and social justice. We are teaching our students to understand systemic inequalities and to fight for social justice, but is our pedagogy consistently in line with and using this lens? Many educators who are committed to social justice are embracing trauma-informed educational practices, an approach that does not reduce rigor or imply that students are unaccountable but that allows instructors to respond to trauma by fully integrating their knowledge of trauma in class policies, procedures, and practices. Sociology courses are especially poised to merge trauma-informed educational practices with orientations of social justice. I add to this and argue that sociology instructors can ‘do sociology’ by situating their pedagogy at the intersection of trauma-informed educational practices, culturally responsive pedagogy, and anti-racist practices; that we can teach students to be social-justice-minded, understand and respond to power imbalances, and consider differences in lived experience through these models of pedagogy—and that we in fact have a duty as instructors to teach sociologically because sociology is pedagogy; and that the ethos of our classrooms can and should lie at the intersection of these practices.
Empathy is an implicit goal of sociology curricula, central to linking structure and agency and fostering a sociological imagination. It is also a valued “soft skill” in fields like social work, health care, and counseling. This study extends Rockwell et al.’s finding that introductory sociology can foster empathy by examining whether such outcomes differ across in-person and online-asynchronous courses. Our sample consisted of 190 students enrolled in introductory sociology courses, including 158 in in-person and 32 inonline-asynchronous courses. In contrast to Rockwell et al., we found no statistically significant overall change in empathy scores for our sample from pretest to posttest regardless of modality. These findings highlight both the limits and the promise of teaching empathy across modalities in sociological education.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly reshaping social life, yet AI literacy remains underdeveloped in undergraduate sociology. This article offers a sociology-forward framework for integrating AI into the curriculum. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of practice, it emphasizes experiential learning, justice-oriented instruction, and critical sociotechnical reflexivity. Using survey data from an upper-division Social Research Methods course at a public research university, I show that students quickly gained technical proficiency with AI tools, but deeper engagement with algorithmic power required explicit pedagogical scaffolding. I introduce “reflexive algorithmic capital” to describe the composite disposition students develop as they learn to interrogate AI’s symbolic authority, epistemic assumptions, and social consequences. Findings show how intentional pedagogy can help students connect AI to broader questions of inequality, legitimacy, and knowledge production, offering concrete strategies for preparing them to navigate and critically evaluate the algorithmic systems that organize academic, economic, and civic life.
Traditional service-learning models often prioritize student learning over community impact, relegating community partners to secondary roles as educators and reinforcing power imbalances between universities and local organizations. This article presents a critical service-learning model designed to address these limitations through two key innovations: (1) fully embedding a community partner as a co-designer and co-instructor and (2) integrating professional project management to provide structured support during and beyond the semester. We examine the implementation of this model in a sociology course co-led by a faculty member, a community leader, and a staff member with project management expertise. The course equally emphasized academic learning, relationship building, and community-based work, balancing student outcomes with the community partner’s vision. Findings suggest enhanced student learning, deeper social justice engagement, and tangible community outcomes, although course organization and continuity remained challenges. Nevertheless, this model offers a more ethical, reciprocal, and impactful framework for community-engaged learning.
Field-based experiential learning is a high impact teaching practice that results in widespread learning benefits. However, critical scholarship suggests that benefits are not equally distributed among all students. This study asks how students from diverse positionalities engage with experiential learning. Our data come from 62 undergraduate students' positionality statements and reflections from an applied research course on local housing insecurity. We find that the benefits of research experiences vary based on social positionality. Students who identify as insiders, female students, and those from low-income backgrounds tend to form empathetic connections, indicating improved reflexivity and affective learning during the research experience. The emotional burden on students, especially those studying socially proximate respondents, underscores the need for support systems and integrating self-care strategies into course design. Course outcomes should include both affective and cognitive learning domains to capture the range of benefits for students of diverse social positionalities.
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields have been encouraged to expand and diversify the pipeline between undergraduate students and STEM professions. The field of sociology, however, has often been left out of these discussions. This teaching note examines a pilot program geared toward expanding applied research opportunities for underrepresented undergraduate students at a large, public, minority-serving institution in the Southwest. This program pairs selected students with two main faculty mentors as they collaboratively conduct applied research. In addition to describing the pilot program, this research note presents results from a participatory evaluation study of the first year of this program, highlighting the perceived benefits and challenges of the program from the perspective of participating students from the first-year cohort and faculty.
Critical service-learning is intended to address some of the critiques of traditional service-learning, such as that it benefits the university more than the community and offers temporary or band-aid solutions to endemic social issues. However, scholars have emphasized the logistical and financial challenges of developing critical service-learning programs. This article describes a case study of a service-learning project in which undergraduate students facilitated youth participatory action research (YPAR) projects with middle school partners. We analyze undergraduate journal entries, student projects, and focus groups with both middle school students and undergraduates to evaluate how YPAR might present an opportunity to create critical service-learning experiences. We demonstrate how the YPAR project (1) engages undergraduates in a collaborative experience with middle school students that results in undergraduates articulating a nuanced analysis of the structural causes of inequity, (2) prioritizes meaningful relationship building between undergraduates and students, (3) shifts power dynamics by uplifting projects that are student-led and student-organized, and (4) supports student organizing to make transformative change in their schools. We conclude by arguing that YPAR offers a productive methodology to move universities toward models of critical service-learning.
This article presents photography as an effective tool to help students understand sociological ideas and practice. After examining the historical relationship between sociology and photography, the article catalogues the ways that sociologists have used photography in the classroom. Building on this foundation, I discuss how I use photography in an upper division course on social change to teach students how to "see" sociologically and do sociology. I pay special attention to the photographic work of Dorothea Lange, whose famous photo "Migrant Mother" provides an entr & eacute;e into discussions of how sociologists (and photographers) frame their subject, work with their material, and tell their story. The article outlines three photo essay assignments and presents assessment data to demonstrate how these assignments allow students to see the world in more meaningful and sociological ways.
Amid educational debates about generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), little research focuses on large language models' (LLMs) reliability, which has important implications regardless of whether students are permitted to use LLMs in sociology classrooms. In this exploratory study, we focus on the intersection of GenAI and teaching and learning in sociology, asking: To what extent are LLM services, including ChatGPT, DeepSeek, and Gemini, reliable (a) with one another and (b) over (a short) time? We administered a sociology quiz with 20 multiple-choice questions of varying difficulty-and covering different topics, some of which are sensitive-to each of these LLM services over the course of two seven-day intervals: April 21 through 27, 2025, and June 13 through 19, 2025. The results indicate very high levels of reliability between LLM services and over these time intervals, but some unreliability mainly on two questions that were sensitive, required higher-level thinking, or both. Pedagogical and other implications are discussed.
