The Context of Authority and Sociological Knowledge: An Experiential Learning Project
- Resource Type
- Journal Articles
Reports - Descriptive
- Authors
- Waity, Julia F.; Crowe, Stephanie
- Source
- Communications in Information Literacy. 2019 13(1):61-74.
- Subject
- Experiential Learning
Sociology
College Faculty
Librarian Teacher Cooperation
Advanced Courses
Academic Libraries
Poverty
Instructional Innovation
College Students
Student Projects
Information Literacy
Instructional Effectiveness
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 1933-5954
In this innovative project, a social sciences librarian partnered with a sociology professor to embed the "Authority is Constructed and Contextual" frame into an upper-division sociology of poverty course. Students in this course participated in an experiential learning project, collaborating with local children on a participatory photo mapping project to document the children's neighborhood. By working directly with community members in this field experience, the students gained an understanding of the differences between scholarly authority and community authority and what can be learned about poverty from each type of source. Engagement with a local community provides students with a direct understanding of the contextual nature of cognitive authority and can be replicated in a variety of settings.