Global interconnectedness and multiculturalism in undergraduate sociology courses in the USA

Abstract

This study attempts to explain a process of inserting global transnational elements into an undergraduate sociology course. After a review of global themes covered in introductory sociology textbooks, the author administered two projects (Global Multiculturalism and Sociology of Wal-Mart) in an undergraduate sociology course. The current study reports the techniques used within these projects called the Multi-Phase Class Activity of Globalisation (MUPCAG) model used in General Sociology classes, student reactions related to them, and the significance of the projects in terms of teaching and learning. The MUPCAG model was to enhance students’ understanding of global multiculturalism and interconnectedness, in particular, students’ critical thinking about the issues of globalisation. It was observed that students showed more flexible and diverse approaches when exposed to concrete concepts, such as commodity chain, global city and global intersection in class discussion.

Keywords:

• global interconnectedness
• multiculturalism
• undergraduate sociology courses
• MUPCAG

Notes

1. It has been starkly demonstrated in the global finance crisis since 2008.

2. The number of international students who enrolled at universities in the US rose to 723,277 during the 2010/11 academic year (Institute of International Education, 2012).

3. This study posits that global connectedness is embodied in the processes of immigration, the increased role of MNCs including Wal-Mart and global use of information technology (Anderson & Taylor, 2011; Kendall, 2012). Global commodity chains refer to ‘worldwide networks of labor and production processes yielding a finished product – that form a tightly interlocked “chain” extending from the raw materials to the final consumer’ (Giddens, Duneier, Appelbaum, & Carr, 2012, p. 251). Global multiculturalism means that multiculturalism has gone global (Pieterse, 2004), which implies that ‘multiculturalism as a perspective recognising the cultural diversity and promoting equal standing for all cultural traditions’ (Macionis, 2012, p. 65) is found in many places on earth to be embedded in political and economic agenda.

4. The MUPCAG model which is constructed by the author is based on findings and teaching skills from several studies (Amoore & Langley, 2001; Davis & Robinson, 2006; Goldsmith, 2006; Stanley & Plaza, 2002; Valdez & Halley, 1999).

5. In the university where the author currently works, the male student enrolment is 44% of total and female 56%. The ethnic minority population makes up around 9.7% of whole student body and international students 3.8%, respectively, as of 2011 academic year (from consultations with Intercultural Affairs and Institutional Research Office).

6. In the first phase, the instructor asked students to read the related chapters so that the class lecture and reading reinforce each other. In the next phases, the instructor reminded students how each phase was linked to others and that each had different levels of difficulty in comprehension.

7. There has been a tendency to understand multiculturalism with a psychological concept of flexibility (Bennett, 1998).