{"id":36,"date":"2014-05-27T10:23:58","date_gmt":"2014-05-27T17:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/sociology\/?page_id=36"},"modified":"2025-01-31T09:21:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T17:21:30","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/sociology\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About Sociology"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is Sociology?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n
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The beauty of sociology is that it is everywhere.  We see it on our street corners, on television, in an advertisement, a song, or even in our morning routines. It\u2019s in our families, our friendships, our workplaces, and our sex lives. In fact, no aspect of our social life is unexamined by sociology; it\u2019s a dynamic field of study that is practical and applicable to all of us in myriad ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a discipline, sociology is interested in the social world \u2013 our neighborhoods, our schools, our families, our media, our nation, and more. These social landscapes profoundly impact how we see ourselves and how we see each other. Sociology explores the way in which we interact with one another, construct social meaning, and understand our sense of self. It\u2019s an analysis of our group memberships and a journey through our day-to-day activities. Sociology is dynamic and living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sociology provides us with tools to better understand how societies work; it is also relevant to the problems that we face in our society and the world. With sociological research and data, sociology can help us see what\u2019s working well in a society and what isn\u2019t. In this regard, sociology is crucial in producing and sharing knowledge that makes us more informed citizens. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Tell me the landscape in which you live, and I will tell you who you are”
-Jos\u00e9 Ortega y Gasset<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Our Approach<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The purpose of the Sociology Department is to empower students by educating them to think deeply about the social world and cultivating in them the values, skills, and desire to become engaged citizens of a complex, multicultural world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sociology Program at Bellevue College encourages a deep understanding of the world. Students learn to consider how their social circumstances impact their personal experiences and perspectives. This knowledge broadens understanding, increases empathy, and introduces students to other ways of knowing and thinking, as well as new ways of learning and experiencing the world. Sociology emphasizes \u201coutside of the box\u201d thinking. A great sociology class produces a community of thinkers \u2013 students who can see things from a variety of angles and who consider various ways of seeing the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sociology classes at Bellevue College aim to bridge the gap between “academia” and the larger society (or “real world”). Historically, much of the knowledge created at colleges and universities has remained within<\/em> the walls of the so-called \u201civory tower.\u201d In other words, the intellectual “elites” knew the theories and data about the world, but they didn’t really share it with the rest of the world. We believe it’s incredibly important to share sociological knowledge with mass populations because this information is useful. It doesn’t matter if you become a nurse, a police officer, a plumber, a lawyer, a politician, or a stay-at-home parent – sociological knowledge will help you navigate the world more effectively because you will understand it better. At Bellevue College, we try to make sociology understandable, fun, engaging, practical, and life-changing; we want you to go home and discuss these crucial topics with your family and friends!  We think sociology has very important lessons that can help us all better understand and interact with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Program is deeply committed to teaching. We believe our job is to empower students. As a result, our professors generally teach using a perspective that emphasizes active learning <\/em>and student engagement<\/em>. All classes approach subjects from a variety of angles. We utilize a wide range of teaching styles as well. Since there are multiple ways of learning, multiple ways of knowing, and multiple ways of being, we employ in our courses a combination of class discussion, lecture, group work, individual work, and, when appropriate, experiential learning like hands-on field research and occasionally service learning projects. We like to bring sociology to life with films, activities and exercises, discussions, and lots of examples and illustrations. Our aim is to vary the experiences, as this helps reach a wide range of learners and keeps students engaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We think of our classes as \u201ccollaborative learning communities\u201d in which we all teach and learn from each other. As such, our courses require student engagement. Participation in class facilitates learning; it provides students the opportunity to apply their own perspectives and backgrounds to the course content, thus learning valuable skills and taking students to deeper levels of learning. Participation also enables students to learn about the world from different perspectives, which broadens understanding. Our primary goal is to help students succeed at learning, and student involvement in class is crucial in this. Whether a class is fully on-campus, in hybrid format, or fully online, we expect students to participate and engage with one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contact Us<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Denise L. Johnson, Chair of the Sociology Program, is located in the A-tower, room A100D. She can be reached at (425) 564-5143 and denise.johnson@bellevuecollege.edu<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeff Horn, Dean of Social Sciences, is located in the Social Science Division office, room D110J. For general questions, contact the Social Science Division front desk (room D110) at (425) 564-2331. The Social Science Division is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. during Fall, Winter, and Spring Quarters, and open Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m.- 5 p.m. and Friday, 8 a.m.-12 p.m. during Summer Quarter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The beauty of Sociology is that it appears on our street corners, on television, in a phone call, a poem, or even in our morning routines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":37,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-36","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1213,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions\/1213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/sociology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}