6. Sociology of Education (SOCL 320)

When it came time to register for courses, I was excited to take this course, especially as an honors course. I was hoping for a deep dive into the components that make up education, and the important impacts that human behavior have on the education system. When I walked in on the first day and we were going over the syllabus, I knew I would enjoy this course based off of the semester-long research project that was accompanying us through our studies. We were tasked with a qualitative research study in which we explored the effects that the Covid-19 pandemic had on primary education.

Because I am a Special Education major, I had decided to find a respondent that was a Special Education teacher, as I was extremely curious as to their specific struggles through the pandemic. My respondent was a 5th grade Special Education teacher, and they really opened my eyes about the real struggles of trying to maintain effective education along with also following IEP goals and objectives, all while doing online instruction.

After my class had gathered their interviews, we all transcribed them and began to decode them. My group specifically was focused on the transition in the Spring of 2020 to emergency remote learning. Our main themes we came across were that there was a greater focus on social health and development over academics, as well as a difficulty with engaging students. You can read more about our findings below.

Overall, this class was very engaging and allowed me to take a deep dive into current events that have impacted our education system as a whole. In the future, I will use the knowledge I gained in this course to really assess my impact as a teacher to my future students.