Course: Politics and Society
University of Southern Maine
Promising Approaches
- (1) Provide instruction in academic disciplines through the lens of government, history, law and democracy.
- (2) Incorporate discussion of current local, national, and international issues and events into the classroom.
- (5) Encourage student participation in leadership.
Overview
This is
a 3-credit undergraduate elective sociology course offered in the spring of
odd-numbered years, open to majors and non-majors. Description of learning objectives and activities:
This course provides an overview of political
sociology, the study of power and power structures at all levels of
society. Students’ active participation in class, attention to the readings and
engagement in group and individual learning activities will enable them to
achieve familiarity with many significant aspects of this subdiscipline and to apply them to their own life experiences. A number of students have become involved in
political or civic issues for the first time as a consequence of work initially
undertaken while they were enrolled in this course. Discussions have included
the significance of the “under God” clause in the Pledge of Allegiance; the
complexity of political beliefs; and projects geared towards community economic
development.
Special Features
Civic Learning Goals
- Civic Knowledge: realization that democracy looks different in different
nation-states (that the United States practices a form of democracy, but not
the only one); familiarity with the Bill of Rights and how amendments to the
Constitution apply in daily life.
- Civic Skills: appreciation for the complexity of many public policy issues and
understanding of why people have the political beliefs they do; willingness to
look for “news” in different sources.
- Civic Attitudes/Dispositions:tolerance, passion about issues, concern about
local civic issues.
Contact Information
Donna
Bird, adjunct assistant professor of sociology at USM
See
information about the course at http://www.usm.maine.edu/~donnab/dbteaching.html
