Sage Sociology Exchange Sociological Theory

Question:

How can I introduce sociological theory in a way that encourages curiosity and sociological imagination?

Answer:

Provided by Sage Author: Catherine Corrigall-Brown, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

I like to think of sociological theory as lenses to seeing the world. Just like sunglasses with different colored lenses (red, green, blue), different theories make us see the world in different ways.  

To encourage students to use the theories, we need to practice applying them. Take a real-world situation and ask students to try to understand it using different theories. For example, we may be interested in understanding where people sit in the student cafeteria. Conflict theory may focus on how people sit based on social class or the relationship between the workers in the kitchen and their employers. Critical race theorists might look at this same scene but see it differently - perhaps considering what types of foods are served and how that is related to ethnicity or how different ethnic groups are situated in the hierarchy of the workers. By having students apply theories to real world situations, we encourage them to work out their theoretical muscles and see how theory can help us to understand the world around us.