Consider alternative perspectives that you might include on your topic. Providing students with multiple perspectives is an important component in developing their critical thinking skills. Seek out perspectives that challenge your own approaches to your content area. Also seek out international perspectives and minority perspectives from voices that are often not heard: people of colour, women, working class and poor people, and so on. 3 Sociology professor Neil Guppy and Post-doctoral
Fellow Catherine Corrigall-Brown captured funding
from the Teaching and Learning Enhancement
Fund to revise their sections of the department’s
“Introduction to Sociology” course. “We’re trying
to teach core concepts of sociology using contexts
that are global in nature,” Prof. Guppy explains. “A
standard Intro to Sociology course would first talk
about theories, then research, institutions, and so
on. This course talks about ways of seeing,
different ways we construct knowledge of the
world.” The biggest challenge in revising the course
was finding a textbook that includes content on
globalization without simply tacking it on. Prof.
Guppy and Corrigall-Brown abandoned textbooks
and have chosen a set of readings that they have
made available on the course website instead.
Examples of topics covered in the course include: •
The scramble for Africa: How did people in
different European countries construct the
sense that it was right and proper to lay claim
to Africa?
•
The production of Ethiopian coffee in
different parts of the world where they are not
indigenous: How does capitalism function on
a global scale?
Examples of major paper topics: •
The trade in human body parts, such as blood
and kidneys
•
Vancouver 2010 in local and global context
