SOCIALIZATION–Where does it all begin?
Socialization is the process where individuals become accepted members of society. For this course, we will look at this process on an ongoing basis, starting from infancy and continuing throughout adulthood. Through classroom discussions and various instructional materials, we will find that this social process is in force through constant re-socialization within our own culture and society. Further, we will discuss how early childhood learning influences our adult-learned behavior in responding to our given social environments.
The important socialization agents are family, friends, school, and work. The differences in socialization stem from our race, gender, and social class. A short research paper will be assigned for students to evaluate the socialization of children. Students will be expected to develop questionnaires, and interview children and their child givers, as well as analyzing their research findings for classroom discussions.
In this course, students will learn how to write-up their own questions for the questionnaires, and in learning how to ask these questions during an interview process. There will be role-playing exercises where students will learn to ask each other questions, and to record the responses for further discussions and analysis. As a class, we will determine what information is relevant and what may be important for further research and inquiry.
Grading will be based on class attendance, class participation, and homework and short assignments. Students will discuss their research findings from the questionnaire prepared for this class. There are no exams.
