United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy Fellowship
Connecting Sociological Theory, Research to a Social Problem
Kali Andrews, Maricopa Community Colleges (Arizona)
James Sheldon, Pima Community College (Arizona)
2021-2022
Introduction:
You are a part of a collegewide effort to increase access to education and empower students
through "open pedagogy." Open pedagogy is a "free access" educational practice that places you
- the student - at the center of your own learning process in a more engaging, collaborative
learning environment. The ultimate purpose of this effort is to achieve greater social justice in
our community in which the work can be freely shared with the broader community. This is a
renewable assignment that is designed to enable you to become an agent of change in your
community through the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). For this work, you will integrate the disciplines of Sociology and Mathematics to
achieve SDG #10: Reduced Inequalities. With a focus on Target 10.3: Ensure equal opportunity
and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and
practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard.

Learning Objectives:
Explain the role of Sociology in contributing to the systematic understanding of social reality
historically and comparatively. Summarize the relationship between micro and macro levels of
analysis Demonstrate analytical/critical thinking skills by explaining the inter-relatedness of
foundational sociological concepts Explain the structural aspects of inequalities (stratification) by
describing the significance of diversity in domestic and global context: emphasis on the
intersections of region (urban-metropolitan-rural), culture, race, ethnicity, class, sex/gender, age.
Explain the role of evidence in building sociological knowledge by describing the research
process with appropriate research terminology. Identify and compare methodological approaches
and be able to use basic statistical resources when analyzing social phenomena. Emphasis on
analytical reasoning.

Purpose/Rationale:
This assignment is a collaborative, active learning assignment designed to improve your
analytical/critical thinking skills, community connections and improve awareness of social justice
issues impacting your community.

Instructions:
Part 1: Describe the Sociological Theory/Perspectives that best aligns with how you view the
world. The Theories you will select from are; Structural Functionalism, Symbolic Interaction,
Conflict Theory, and Feminism. Respond to the following in at least 500 words: Which of the
Sociological Perspectives best describe your view of society and why? Be specific and use an
example that illustrates your opinion. Select a social problem or issue you are concerned with (an
example would be childhood obesity) and describe how it could be solved from the perspective of
one Sociological theory. (Hint hint :-) If I chose childhood obesity as my social problem, I could
argue that it could be solved from the Symbolic Interaction theory where we as a community
change the symbols, language around eating unhealthy) Use College-level writing/grammar
Include relevant Sociological terms and concepts AND an example that supports your opinion.
Background on Assignment
Part 2: According to experts, across the United States, the 2.3 million incarcerated Americans
who have a current address at a prison or jail are also designated by the census as residents of the
areas in which they are incarcerated rather than of their home districts, a population redistribution
called prison gerrymandering (Wagner & Bertram, 2020). Because prisons are disproportionately
built in rural areas but most incarcerated people call urban areas home, counting prisoners in the
wrong place results in a bogus transfer of population and political clout from urban to rural areas.
This is what gerrymandering is…. In many cases, rural, predominantly White towns see their
population numbers boosted by population counts from prisons disproportionately made up of
Black and Brown people. Resources: Prison-based gerrymandering in Arizona Lawmaker’s longshot effort to end ‘prison gerrymandering’ Census Bureau will count incarcerated people in the
wrong place once again in 2020 Census, continues to distort democracy Home Stuck With Census
Policy, More States Pass Laws To End 'Prison Gerrymandering' : Code Switch How Prison
Gerrymandering Distorts Political Representation | Time Part 2 Assignment: After reading the
articles and resources on Prison Gerrymandering In at least 700 words: Explain in your own
words how prison gerrymandering works. Explain how prisoners are counted in your state? What
are Arizona’s incarceration rates by race? Where do the people who are incarcerated come from?
What are the potential consequences (the Census count etc) of counting them either from their
home locations or from their prison locations? What is one thing you learned about Prison
Gerrymandering? What are two additional questions you still have about Prison Gerrymandering?
What is one other social problem you would like to further investigate? Use College-level
writing/grammar Include relevant Sociological terms and concepts AND an example that supports
your opinion.

Part 3 Assignment Instructions: The Final Assignment consists of three creative tasks designed to
build critical thinking, practice presentation skills as well as demonstrate College level writing
and research skills. The projects will allow you to research a social issue (secondary research),
analyze the data from your sources, and report the findings in class (this is the presentation) by
recording a video. Please be sure to put together slides to accompany your video. The length of
your video and slide deck will vary, but should be at least 5 minutes in length. Your presentation
should include:

Format Requirements:
Format for student submissions will contain a variety of choices; google doc, Google slides,
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Powerpoint and Video Recording.

Connecting Sociological Theory, Research to a Social Problem is licensed by Kali Andrews,
Maricopa Community Colleges (Arizona) and James Sheldon, Pima Community College
(Arizona) under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-SA)