What Do Sociology Departments Do to Increase Students’ Social Capital?

The following table is taken from our latest research brief, Social Capital for Sociology Majors: Applied Activities and Peer Networks, which is based on our 2012 longitudinal study, Social Capital, Organizational Capital, and the Job Market for New Sociology Graduates.

This table summarizes the activities listed on six sociology departments’ websites that provided easily retrievable information on  activities beyond the classroom. We share this information to provide a sense of the substance behind the survey response of sociology department chairs that their departments provide “a great deal” of emphasis on application and peer networks, and to provide other departments with examples of how they might organize their own websites if they wish to promote these types of activities. Please click on the table to view it at full size.

Sample of Sociology Departments’ Websites Promoting Career Information

Job Market for New Sociology PhDs Is on the Upswing

Are you a recent doctoral degree recipient in the sociology profession? What has been your experience with seeking positions at the assistant or open rank level? Have you interviewed for academic sociology positions whose preferred expertise differs from your area(s) of study?  Do your experiences match our findings? Share your thoughts and stimulate a discussion with others in the field through our blog.

 

Findings

Results from ASA’s fourth job market survey suggest that the job market for recently-graduated sociology PhDs is improving, with the number of available jobs approaching pre-Great Recession years. In 2011, we saw a larger number of open specialties being advertised in the ASA Job Bank than in 2010, and almost 90 percent of advertised positions were for assistant or open rank professorships. The 2011-2012 Job Bank survey also quantified the top five most-frequent and least-frequent advertised areas of specialization in position advertisements, and enumerated the types of non-sociology academic departments that advertised for sociologists in 2011.

The findings from the 2011-2012 study are cause for cautious optimism among new sociology PhDs, though we note that the “overhang” of unplaced or under-placed sociology scholars resulting from the Great Recession (since 2008) is likely to create challenging conditions for recently-graduated PhDs in the field.

New Findings on Women Sociologists with Children

Mothers!  What has been your experience with timing childbirth in relation to the pursuit of tenure? What difficulties or challenges have you faced in trying to balance teaching and research with parental duties? How favorable have you found your institution’s work-family policies to be in trying to maintain that balance?  Our latest research brief, Mothers in Pursuit of Ideal Academic Careers, uses data from the Research and Development Department’s PhD+10 Survey to examine whether gender and parental status influence the likelihood of attaining “ideal” versus “alternative” careers among sociologists. A snapshot of our findings includes: 1. Most women have their first child before receiving tenure; 2. Mothers are more likely than fathers to use work/family policies; 3. Mothers in sociology appear to be as successful following an ideal career track as their male colleagues; and 4. Mothers in ideal careers are more likely to be satisfied with both careers and family than mothers in alternative careers.

The brief is expected to renew some ongoing questions about career decisions and outcomes for women in the sociology profession, and we welcome your thoughts in opening up a dialogue. Please take the time to discuss this issue with your colleagues.

The full report can be accessed here in .pdf format.

“Apps” for Sociology Research

We in the ASA Research and Development Department call your attention to Wiley Publishing’s free iPhone and iPad app, Sociology Spotlight, which allows users to view information about various sociology professional conferences, peer-reviewed journal abstracts, a sample of freely-available journal articles, and other material of interest. We invite our readers to discuss how they have used apps for mobile devices in their studies or research, including, for example, e-books. Students: to what extent have you used e-books in your coursework? Instructors, professors, researchers, and practitioners: to what extent have you assigned e-books in your courses or have you used information-gathering  smartphone apps?

ASA’s Bookstore offers a number of e-books, including a research brief published by the Research Department. ASA e-books are available to ASA members at a member price.

Experiences of Sociology Graduate Students with the Academic Job Market?

As the Research Department prepares to launch its latest survey of academic departments’ outcomes with search and interview processes for assistant and open rank faculty positions advertised in 2011, we welcome graduate or recent graduate students seeking jobs in academia to discuss their own experiences with search processes. For those who have sought positions within the past year, have they been predominantly at the assistant or open-rank level? Has a position for which you applied or interviewed been cancelled or suspended? If your training is in sociology, have you applied or interviewed for positions in academic departments outside of sociology? How closely have your areas of expertise matched the areas of specialization sought by the departments to which you’ve applied?

Several past research briefs and projects by the Research Department have surveyed the landscape of the academic job market and experiences with hiring assistant or open-rank level faculty, including our 2010 Job Bank Study. For the results from the first part of our latest Job Bank study (an audit of all positions posted in ASA’s Job Bank in 2011), click here.

 

The Impact of Cross-Race Mentoring on PhD Careers

A new research brief, “The Impact of Cross-Race Mentoring for ‘Ideal’ and ‘Alternative’ PhD Careers in Sociology” is now available on our website. As always, we invite your comments and questions.

Improvements in the Academic Job Market

Moving Towards Change: Findings from the 2010 Job Bank Survey is now available on our website. In it, we discuss what happened to the jobs available to newly minted PhDs that were advertised through the ASA in 2010. This year, we also compare specializations requested by employers to the academic interests of our student membership, as indicated on membership forms. Have a read and feel free to post your comments here. We are always interested to hear what you may be interested to learn from these surveys in the future.

ASA Membership Over the Last Decade

We’ve posted a new research brief on the website that examines changes in characteristics of members of the American Sociological Association between 2000 and 2010, including age, education status, employment, gender, and race and ethnicity. Download “A Decade of Change: ASA Membership From 2000 – 2010” to learn more.

How to use the Bachelor’s and Beyond Dataset in Methods Classrooms

Here are some examples of ways in which the dataset from the ASA publication, Launching Majors into Satisfying Careers: A Faculty Manual and Student Dataset, can be used to teach undergraduates data analysis. These were developed by Central Michigan professor, Dr. Mary Senter, our colleague on the Bachelors and Beyond Survey and co-author of the manual.

Click on the following topics to view a sample assignment:

• Hypothesis Testing
• Means
• Crosstabs
• Analysis of Variance

We would like to hear from other faculty members who have used the publication (even if not the dataset) in their classrooms. Feel free to post comments, questions, and links to your own materials.

Note: all comments are publicly visible. Do not include personal information if you wish to remain anonymous.

Click here to view an excerpt of Launching Majors into Satisfying Careers.

Photo by vlasta2

Teaching Quantitative Skills to Undergraduates

In September, the ASA released Launching Majors into a Satisfying Career, a faculty manual and student dataset, which includes a variety of easy-to-access resources for sociology faculty and their undergraduates in an effort to help prepare students for navigating a difficult job market by increasing the likelihood that they will satisfying careers using their sociological knowledge and skills. Included in the handbook is a dataset based on the Bachelor and Beyond survey, ASA’s longitudinal study of baccalaureates and ideas for ways in which it can be incorporated into the curriculum.

Click here to view class exercises using the Bachelor’s and Beyond dataset. (Created by our co-author, Mary Senter, of Central Michigan University).

We would like to hear from faculty members who have used (or will be using) this dataset in their classrooms. In what ways are your students using this data? Post your comments below.

(Note: comments are publicly visible. Do not include your name if you wish to remain anonymous).