The Research Article as a Foundation for Subject-Centered Learning and Teaching Public Sociology: Experiential Exercises for Thinking Structurally About Child Care Fatalities

Abstract

This paper is the latest installment in a series that is designed to bridge the gap between teaching and practice by developing classroom applications based on a current research article from the American Sociological Review. We discuss the ways in which a recent ASR paper on child care fatalities can be used to help students explore Burawoy's conception of “public” sociology in a manner that is consistent with a subject-centered pedagogical approach. To illustrate this approach, we offer three experiential exercises designed to facilitate the active engagement of students' hearts, as well as their minds, thereby linking our subject-centered approach to the increasingly popular notion of character education.

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