By Peter Kaufman

I often tell students that I hope
they leave my classes with more questions than answers. This statement may seem
counterintuitive. Our typical model of education is based on the idea that
students’ heads should be filled with knowledge such as definitions, dates, and
all sorts of data. The idea that students would finish their coursework with
more question marks than periods goes against the conventional wisdom of
schooling.

By making this statement I am
suggesting that if students want to take what they’ve learned in class and
extend it into their social worlds then they will need to know how to ask
questions. If they are merely satisfied with the knowledge that has been
instilled in them then they have probably not been challenged intellectually.
More important, or more troubling, leaving a class without any lingering
questions is likely to inhibit their ability to be life-long learners.

On the surface, it may seem rather
simple to ask questions and to some extent this is correct. After all, we all
know what words we use to begin a question: who, what, where, why, when and
how. But in teaching students to ask questions I try to distinguish between
asking questions and asking sociological
questions.

This distinction is crucial because
if we are not asking sociological questions then the answers and explanations
that result will also be non-sociological. Non-sociological explanations are
all too common in our society. Their defining feature is that they have a
singular focus on the individual and a corresponding disregard for the
structural dimensions of the issue. Non-sociological explanations routinely
blame individuals for their actions instead of pointing to larger external
factors. 

Let me try to illustrate this point
with three examples that relate specifically to the lives of students.

            1. Intimate Partner Violence. When we
hear about a typical case of intimate partner violence (female victim, male
perpetrator) the first question that many people ask is: Why didn’t she leave?
Why did she stay in a relationship that was physically and emotionally abusive?
Questions such as these put the blame squarely on the shoulders of the
individual. The not-so-subtle insinuation is that she should not have allowed
this to happen to her. 

As a sociologist, we might ask
different questions: Why did one person think it was appropriate to abuse
another? What is about our society that makes intimate partner violence common?
Do the lack of structural supports (i.e., legal, financial, familial,
occupational, or educational) contribute to individuals staying in unhealthy
situations? Are there social stigmas attached to “coming out” as a victim of
intimate partner violence? These sociological questions shift our focus (and
the implicit blame) from the individual victim to the larger social structure.

 
           2. Academic Motivation. As an educator, one
of the biggest complaints I often read and hear about is students’ lack of
academic motivation. The questions that inevitably arise in these discussions
are focused directly on the students: Why don’t students today want to learn?
Why are students disengaged? Why do they just seem to go through the motions?
Why are they more interested in texting in class than paying attention to the
material that is being taught? These questions assume that students today are
opposed to learning and they often result in negative and
denigrating statements about students. (Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons)

A more sociological question might
ask why should students want to learn? What aspects of the educational process
encourage them to be engaged, excited, and motivated learners? We might also
wonder how they have been socialized to not want to learn, to reject their
natural inclination for curiosity and exploration. Instead of assuming that
there is something innately wrong with today’s students these questions attempt
to pinpoint the educational structures that discourage intellectual
inquisitiveness and engaged learning.

            3.
Student
Debt. The debt for
college-student loans has recently reached the 1 trillion dollar
mark. This staggering
number has prompted a barrage of questions about college. Some of prevalent
questions we hear are: Is college for everyone? Are we letting too many people
into college who just can’t afford to be there? Are some students better off
bypassing the high cost of college and enrolling in vocational training?

 From
a sociological perspective, these sorts of questions are problematic on two
accounts. First, they fail to question why the cost of college has increased so
dramatically over the past twenty years. The cost of higher education has gone
up over 400% since 1985 while the consumer price index has only risen about
100%. And while the cost of attending college has skyrocketed public
expenditures for higher education have not come close to keeping pace. In fact,
in 2011,
state-level financial support fell to its lowest rate in 25 years.   

The second problem with the typical
questions about the student debt—and whether or not college should be
accessible to everyone—is that these sorts of questions have some not-so-subtle
racial and class-based undertones. If college became more selective to only
those who could afford it then low-income, non-whites would largely be the ones
excluded. These individuals would not just miss out on the opportunity to
attend college; additionally, they would miss out on one of the main
opportunities for upward social mobility.

As sociologists Paul Attwell and David
Lavin demonstrate in their book, Passing the Torch: Does Higher Education for
the Disadvantaged Pay Off Across the Generations?, universal access to
higher education reduces economic disparities and has lasting positive effects
across generations. The authors conclude that the open admissions
policies of the City University of New York (CUNY) allowed women from
underprivileged backgrounds the ability to attend college and secure the
cultural and social capital to foster academic success among their children.

The three examples in this post are
intended to offer a taste of what it means to ask sociological questions.
Sociological questions consider the structural dimension of the issue and
strive to understand the bigger picture. We ask sociological questions because
the individual-based, victim-blaming questions that are typical in our society
do not tell us the full story. 

Even if you’ve never asked
sociological questions it’s quite easy to do. Just begin with a typical
individual-based question (i.e., is college for everyone) but before answering
it follow it up with another question (or two) starting with the words why, who,
or how (i.e., if college is not for everyone then who is it for). If you do
this you will be well on your way to understanding the world
sociologically.