The impact of sociological education on students' social relationships and interactions

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the potential for sociological education to form a divide between sociology students and their social circles outside the discipline, and how the former might navigate this divide. Through semi-structured virtual interviews, we gathered the subjective experiences of our respondents and grouped them in similar themes to identify patterns that our respondents highlighted in their sociological engagements with their non-sociology-trained social circles. Our findings revealed that a divide exists because students develop perspectives and accumulated knowledge through their sociological education that are hard to explain, and their audiences are usually less receptive when the former try to unsettle their existing beliefs with alternative views. Students put in a lot of work in navigating the divide to mitigate negative reactions, but continue as they see value in doing so.