The Integration of Social Science and Literary Materials: An Approach to Teaching Urban Family Life

A course designed to enhance Human Behavior and Social Environment content dealing with urban family life is described. The focus is on how simultaneous use of sociological and literary material highlights the relationship between the intimacies of family life and institutional forces. This approach, coupled with team teaching by minority and white faculty, reduces tension generated by examination of material that is close to student experience. Anger and myth are minimized, thus freeing students for serious study of the urban family.