Author Message to Future Instructors

Thank you for considering the adoption of our text. We designed Introduction to the Sociology of Everyday Life to offer an innovative approach to understanding contemporary sociology, while still aligning to the objectives of many introductory sociology courses in the state of Oregon. In this text, we use a multi-level intersectional feminist approach, among a variety of approaches, to frame students’ understanding of the discipline. This book serves as a resource for examining the foundations and principles of sociology, power and social interaction, and inequalities between social groups. The text covers key concepts, real world application activities, and discussions and data relevant to students. Substantively, we embed a variety of contemporary theories throughout the text to reflect current trends in sociology.

We open each chapter with an example that we return to as a framing device throughout the chapter to help students understand the complexity of a social issue or even how broadly we can use sociological perspectives to understand our social world. We return to the chapter opening examples at different points in the text, in activity boxes, through video links, and with discussion questions. These chapter openers draw on local, regional, and national examples, which we think will appeal to not only students in the Pacific Northwest, but across the United States. The boxes titled “Activity” and “A Closer Look” provide you with additional information to share with your students and can be used as in-class activities or assignments. Some of these activities bring the focus back to the chapter opener, while others offer greater depth for students to learn more about a chapter section. We offer discussion questions at the end of each chapter as another way to engage students in course material and to help them start applying what they learn in your course to the world around them.

We organized Introduction to the Sociology of Everyday Life into 11 chapters. The first three chapters serve as a foundation for the discipline. We introduce key concepts, methods, and theories, while highlighting the voices of social theorists and methodological approaches that are not always discussed in introductory textbooks. We aim to show students the diversity of human experiences that contribute to our field and knowledge. For students, the foundation chapters may be useful to return to as they progress through the text and learn more about sociology. Next, we focus on the process of socialization, social interaction, group dynamics, and organizations, then we explore culture and deviance and social control. For the remainder of the text, we focus on elements of identity that often intersect with experiences of inequity. These chapters encourage students to think about their personal connection to social class, gender, sexuality, and race and how they relate to larger social structures. We highlight how our experiences with these identities occur within the context of larger social forces.

This book will address the majority of the content one would expect in Sociology 204, which introduces the central concepts, theories, and methods that define the sociological approach to investigating the social forces that shape our lives. For a closer examination of social institutions, you can continue your learning journey by reading Social Change in Societies and Social Problems, texts written by our colleagues on this project.

We designed this book to embrace an equity-minded approach in to structure, scope, sequence of chapters, and chapter content. We sought to honor the needs and experiences of students who are often underserved in higher education in Oregon. We considered the methodologies of Transparency in Teaching and Learning (TILT), Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and Culturally Responsive Teaching to design meaningful learning pathways for you. You will find rich images and multimedia in addition to written content.

We attempt to incorporate inclusive language, while also reflecting the complexities of social life and academic research. You will see the terms Latino/Latina, Latinx, and Hispanic used within different contexts. We sought to honor the way group identities are experienced as well as identified in research. Latinx offers an inclusive and gender-neutral way to refer to people; however, research shows that only a 4 percent of Hispanic and Latino communities identify as Latinx (Newport 2022 https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/388532/controversy-term-latinx-public-opinion-context.aspx). We use the umbrella term LGBTQIA+ as a way to acknowledge the expansiveness of the community and refer to the community as a whole. Any mentions that do not use the umbrella term are designed to accurately represent the data used in research discussed. LGBTQIA+ is an abbreviation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual. The additional “+” stands for all of the other identities not encompassed in the short acronym.

If what we have described sounds appealing to you and your pedagogical approach to introductory sociology, we encourage you to explore the text. The nice thing about an openly licensed text is that you can customize the text as you see fit, allowing you to adopt some parts and not others, while adjusting it to the needs and interests of your students.

Best wishes,

Jennifer Puentes, Lead Co-Author

Matt Gougherty, Lead Co-Author

About Course Packs

This book includes openly licensed course materials, also known as open course packs, for future educators to review, use, and adapt to their own teaching. An open course pack is an aligned and accessible set of openly licensed course materials that fully integrate with the open textbook. Anyone can retain, revise, remix, reuse, and redistribute them. Best of all, future instructors can build on existing learning pathways that are fully aligned with textbook learning outcomes and content.

Oregon instructors designed each course pack in consultation with an instructional designer and, in most cases, revised each course pack based on feedback from Oregon students and an advisory board of workforce members. In each course pack, you will find a complete course map, an instructor guide, and ancillary materials including assignment prompts, rubrics, and suggested activities.

Open course packs from Open Oregon Educational Resources are designed with an equity lens. This means that they center the voices and experiences of underserved student populations. They are designed with equity-minded pedagogies, including Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT), and Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT), and Open Educational Practices (OEP).

[Link to course pack site]

Licenses and attributions for Instructor Resources

Author Message to Future Instructors by Jennifer Puentes and Matt Gougherty is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

About Course Packs by Open Oregon Educational Resources is licensed under CC BY 4.0.