Teaching Social Theory

Reading the Dead White Males (Marx, Weber, and Durkheim) of Sociological tradition has always been an interesting thing. But it was a beautiful thing to teach them in an undergraduate class with a barrel pointing at you with questions and doubts. Everyone finds the module boring and keep asking how do you teach social theory? It was a moment to pause and think. I always wanted to teach classical theory not because of my interest in it but because it was interesting to read about Marx, Weber and Durkheim and the way they have explained the social evolution of human history. They are the founding fathers of Sociological tradition and Sociology would be unthinkable without them. The discipline has expanded a whole different way than these people have ever imagined. History might have witnessed unprecedented turn of events but it is experiencing exactly the similar pattern of organization, order and change that these theorists had predicted. Capitalism is sweeping through every nook and corner of the world, and hierarchical structures dominate the bureaucratic offices. However, the point is not how relevant are theories today; rather the point is how to teach theory to an undergraduate class who are unprepared to understand the abstract theorization of social reality. It could begin with contemporary and personal life experiences and gradually go through the abstract things that are intimately attached to the experiences. It may not be called theorization but it is how theory could be taught with relevant experiences and examples from surrounding social and political life. Above all what these theorists were trying to do is to explain what was happening around them in the society – the problem of social order and social change. And today we could put the contributions of these people before the students and ask them to see how relevant they are in explaining the social phenomena and patterns of social relationship. As my first experience shows, teaching theory could really be fun and interesting; what you need to do is just to keep them engaged and talking.