How Do We Integrate Students’ Vocational Goals into Introduction to Sociology Curricula, and What Are the Effects of Doing So?

Abstract

President Obama’s America’s College Promise proposal has brought renewed attention to community colleges’ capacity to connect the college and career aspirations of today’s undergraduates. Despite this capacity, however, community colleges have historically offered students two distinct educational pathways: a liberal education transfer-oriented program or a terminal vocational program. In the face of this long-standing and ideological divide, some community college instructors have taken to integrating students’ liberal and vocational learning in individual courses, an act that requires a willingness to define “liberal” and “vocational” learning in broad terms. Through a preliminary qualitative case study and content analysis of students’ assignments, this research explores the nature and impacts of said integration in two spring 2015 sections of Introduction to Sociology at Queensborough Community College of the City University of New York.

Vocational Education from a Cross-national Perspective: Comparative Analysis of China, Germany, and the United States, with a Case Study of Zhaixing Academy

“…The German dual system combines theoretical education in vocational schools with practical training in enterprises, providing a highly skilled workforce that contributes to Germany's economic success [6,7] . American community colleges offer students educational and vocational opportunities in various ways, including liberal arts transfer-oriented programs and terminal vocational programs [8] . In recent years, China has implemented a series of vocational education reform measures, such as the "double reduction" policy and the concept of quality education, promoting the integration of talent chains and industry chains, as well as the strategy of industry-education integration [9] .…”

“You Make Your Own Luck”: Building Cultural and Social Capital in a Major-Based Career Course

“…For example, students in one introductory sociology course explored key sociology concepts through an occupational profile assignment (Mobley 2000). Traver (2016) asked students in an introductory sociology class to apply sociological concepts like “culture” and “networks” in answering “How can sociology help me to think critically about my intended career?” Students in Senter’s (2017) research methods course developed data collection skills while investigating alumni experiences with transferable skills. In a “cornerstone” class that bridged introductory and advanced theory and methods coursework, Holtzman (2018) integrated career exploration readings to solidify student commitment to the major.…”

Linking Sociology Majors to Labor Market Success

“…Community colleges, which enroll a large proportion of students in introductory sociology courses, are particularly crucial in this endeavor (Kapitulik et al 2016; Zipp 2012). Introductory sociology courses can incorporate readings and assignments focused on students’ anticipated careers to teach a variety of sociological research methods (field research, interviews, and analysis of existing statistics), core concepts (culture, socialization, deviance, identity, networks, and social change), and central features of the discipline (its capacity to predict outcomes, the intersection between self and society) while also helping students see that their sociological skills are transferable to workplaces and explore particular occupations (Traver 2016). Alternatively, faculty can embed these kinds of assignments within a particular unit in the introductory course, for example, by requiring students to analyze data on gender and race inequality in their chosen careers (for a summary and assessment of DataCounts!, open educational resource [OER] materials developed for this purpose, see Sweet and Baker 2011).…”

“…Integrating liberal learning and applied learning does not mean that sociology programs must abandon their traditional commitments to liberal learning, the debunking motif, or critical commentary about social life. Rigorous sociology curricula emphasizing theory, methods, and advocacy for a more just society can be designed to develop students’ critical thinking skills and explicitly connect these skills to students’ preparation for employment (see Abdul-Amin 2017; Traver 2016). Further, we argue that this model is consistent with effective curricular design as articulated by the ASA (Pike et al 2017), students’ own goals, and employer preferences.…”

“…Our analysis is informed by our participation on the ASA’s Task Force on Liberal Learning and the Sociology Major and extends portions of the recently released The Sociology Major in the Changing Landscape of Higher Education: Curriculum, Careers, and Online Learning (Pike et al 2017). Although we focus primarily on suggestions for sociology programs at four-year institutions, we also point to examples of how programs at two-year institutions integrate liberal education and preparation for employment, particularly in the introductory sociology course (Traver 2016; also see Kapitulik et al 2016; Rowell et al 2017; Zipp 2012).…”