Abstract:

The proposal of this communication is to present a living experience of teaching innovation in which the teaching of Sociology is linked to the research developed in the European project INCASI: International Network for Comparative Analysis of Social Inequalities, of which the teachers are part. The teaching experience is being carried out in the Sociology subject, with first-year students, of the degree of Management and Public Administration, of the Faculty of Law, of the University of Barcelona. The central axis of the work developed by the students is to conduct an exploratory sociological research on one social inequality and observe and devise innovative policies to counteract the inequality gap. Thus, the students carry out a group research on one of the social inequalities of INCASI's own analysis (academic training, employment, labor market, education, family life, migration, etc.), allowing the students to have a direct contact with a real project. Thus, the students can, on the one hand, get in touch with the scientific production and with the members of the project and, on the other hand, to evaluate the outputs of the student’s groups by the Academic Committee of INCASI. The best papers of the students will be published on the European project website.

The teaching-learning objectives of this teaching experience are the following:
(1) relate basic theoretical knowledge of the sociological discipline with a social phenomena research;
(2) practice and acquire various fundamental learning skills, both in the academic context and in the professional context, such as the scientific and technological competences, communication skills and teamwork, all from a reflective and critical position;
(3) become aware of the transfer of knowledge richness of the results obtained in the society investigation through the creation of a website.

The teaching innovation experience is developed in two academic courses: 2017/2018 and 2018/2019. In the first year, the thematic axis on which the project is supported, the exploration of social inequalities, takes place in the European context. In the second year, the same social inequalities already analyzed by the students, will still be followed up in the Latin American context for new groups of students. In this way, the results obtained from the student’s work developed in the first academic year, as well as, the functioning dynamics in the classroom of the analysis of social inequalities investigated, are exposed in this communication.

Keywords:

Social inequalities, Teaching innovation, Theory and research practice, Management and Public Administration, University of Barcelona.