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ERIC Number: EJ912238
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Jan
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0092-055X
EISSN: N/A
Making the Undergraduate Classroom into a Policy Think Tank: Reflections from a Field Methods Class
Broughton, Chad
Teaching Sociology, v39 n1 p73-87 Jan 2011
This article examines the opportunities and limitations presented by organizing an undergraduate field research methods class as a policy think tank working for a government client. Organized as such, the course had both the learning objectives of a traditional undergraduate methods class and the corporate objectives of a policy think tank (i.e., to produce a high-quality presentation and report for its client). This article finds that the learning and corporate objectives were largely aligned rather than conflicting, leading to anticipated and some unanticipated pedagogical benefits for learning sociological research methods, substantive sociological and policy areas, how to work effectively in goal-directed group work, and public policy generally. Finally, this article considers the pedagogical and ethical concerns with the course-based production of "policy-relevant" knowledge in the context of stark social divisions between student and research subject. (Contains 3 tables.)
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A