Incorporating Sociology into Community Service Classes

Sociologists and instructors who teach about community service share an affinity for understanding and addressing social problems. While many studies have demonstrated the benefits of incorporating community service into sociology courses, we examine the benefits of incorporating sociological content into community service classes. The authors supplemented a community service course at a large public university with sociological theories, concepts, and analyses. Our data suggest that this integration increased student understanding of the social structural factors that adversely affect the populations they served, sharpened student awareness of the various forms of prejudice and discrimination against these populations, enhanced student appreciation of their own privilege within the community service continuum, and facilitated student awareness of how understanding the plight of populations in need makes community servants more capable and humane. We argue that with the rapid growth of interest in community service across college campuses, sociologists are ideally situated to provide beneficial training outside the confines of their classrooms.