To See Ourselves as Others See Us: Using Humor to Teach Sociology

Hynes, Eugene

doi:10.2307/1318426

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 4 publications

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“…The teaching literature includes significant discussion of the pedagogical utility of such pop cultural items as music (Ahlkvist 1999;Armstrong 1993;Martinez 1995Martinez , 1994Walczak and Reuter 1994), film (Burton 1988;DeFronzo 1982;Hannon and Marullo 1988;Leblanc 1998;Pescosolido 1990;Prendegrast 1986;Tipton and Tiemann 1993), television (Cantor 1991;Douglas and Olson 1995;Olson and Douglas 1997;Scanlan and Feinburg 2000;Snow 1983) and comics (Hall and Lucal 1999;Snyder 1997). In a similar fashion, teaching sociologists have turned to the use of humor in the classroom as an innovative way to engage students and improve learning outcomes (Hynes 1989;Schacht and Stewart 1990). These efforts have proven to be especially effective in helping students to recognize and apply the sociological perspective outside of the classroom.…”

Section: The Pedagogical and Social Functions Of Humormentioning

confidence: 99%

“Laughing Matters”: The Comedian as Social Observer, Teacher, and Conduit of the Sociological Perspective

Bingham

Hernandez

2009

Teach Sociol

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Much of the sociological curriculum often represents society as tragedy. This article explores the incorporation of a society as comedy component in introductory courses at two institutions using the sociological insight and social critique of comedians. A general discussion of parallels between the comedic eye and the sociological imagination is followed by specific steps for locating, selecting and incorporating comedic clips into various courses. Through comparisons between experimental and control groups, as well as student questionnaires, we found that the use of comedians to model sociological perspectives increased student ability to apply course concepts, decreased student anxiety when tackling new concepts, and engaged a broader number of students during class discussion. We conclude with discussion of challenges specific to these methods—language use and controversial comedians—as well as the broader need to learn from figures who have been historically successful at engaging the public on issues of social importance.

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Section: The Pedagogical and Social Functions Of Humormentioning

confidence: 99%

“Laughing Matters”: The Comedian as Social Observer, Teacher, and Conduit of the Sociological Perspective

Bingham

Hernandez

2009

Teach Sociol

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What do you meme? – Meme-Making as a research method

Tidy,

Irving-Walton,

Currie

et al. 2024

Teaching in Higher Education

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Families in the Mirror and Women on the Edge

Costa

2022

Exploring Comics and Graphic Novels in the Classroom

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This chapter highlights the power of comics in the field of higher education with a focus on teaching for diversity and inclusion, particularly United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Examples are drawn upon pedagogical exercises explored in the university classroom. In the context of a course aimed at sociology undergraduate students, Argentinian Maitena Burundarena's (b. 1962, Buenos Aires) work is used to explore diverse contemporary family issues and the related ever-changing gender roles. At the end, humor is used to provoke strangeness with a relatively close behavior, thus applying the sociological principle of “turning the familiar strange” and, consequently, achieving reflexivity regarding the topics under analysis.

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To See Ourselves as Others See Us: Using Humor to Teach Sociology

Cited by 3 publications

References 4 publications

“Laughing Matters”: The Comedian as Social Observer, Teacher, and Conduit of the Sociological Perspective

“Laughing Matters”: The Comedian as Social Observer, Teacher, and Conduit of the Sociological Perspective

What do you meme? – Meme-Making as a research method

Families in the Mirror and Women on the Edge

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