A course such as Introduction to Sociology must be grounded in the diversity of the social world. Our culture, socialization, and lived experience all emanate from a social context of difference, which makes it all the more important to approach the classroom with an eye toward inclusion. American society shares much in terms of a common democratic way of life, but is replete with rich cultural differences, such as through gender, age, race/ethnicity, class, religion, disability, and sexual identity. The Sociology classroom invites persons from all identities and backgrounds to share their lived experience in a safe space that garners mutual understanding and respect, recognizing that all students have the right to be acknowledged.
A number of activities could foster such an environment. For instance, when discussing LGBTIQ issues, put people in scenarios they are not used to disrupt commonly accepted notions of normality: an exercise where students imagine an opposite world where homosexuality is compulsory, all classmates are LGBT, you cannot go out in public with your heterosexual partner, you cannot walk out at night because you may be assaulted for being heterosexual, etc., coupled with The Heterosexual Questionnaire activity. Students reflect on how his would make them feel and what might they do to try to better it. Similarly, utilize activities that challenge conventional thinking on racial privilege and disadvantage, like McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” Activities should acknowledge how all of us have latent racist, sexist, classist, and homophobic biases, and should explore microaggressions through an activity where students act out examples to get all the stereotypes in the open so that they can be acknowledged and disrupted. Lastly, although I have had very few students volunteer for this project option, it has been very effective to the few who did it: students spend a day or just an hour using only a wheelchair to get around on campus, reflecting on how society constructs notions of physical space and access.
Matthew West 