Sociological Practice

Overview

The focus of the program is on sociological practice — applying sociology to current social problems confronting the community with developing sensitivity to multicultural, gender, sexual identity, and age differences.

The M.A. in Sociological Practice at the California State University San Marcos includes courses on theory and methods, critical perspectives on social service delivery, sociological advocacy, and both substantive and skill-based elective seminars. Solidly grounded in social scientific theory and methods, the program prepares students for a range of careers in which professionals are required to provide needed services to clients and to administer and evaluate programs in social services, community agencies, and non-profits. The M.A. program also helps prepare students to continue on to a Ph.D. program in sociology.

Courses in the M.A. in Sociological Practice build upon faculty members’ research and community expertise in the areas of aging and gerontology, critical race, gender, and sexualities, health and mental health, critical criminology and juvenile delinquency, immigration, militarism, social welfare, and family and community studies.

Program Student Learning Outcomes

The Master of Arts degree in Sociological Practice has been designed primarily as a terminal degree for students seeking careers in community college teaching, the human services or criminal justice sectors, or as preparation for advanced graduate study.

Students who graduate with a Master of Arts in Sociological Practice degree will be able to:

• Locate, analyze, assess and skillfully articulate a range of sociological scholarship and discourse;

• Critically apply a range of social theories to the development and assessment of social policies and programs in diverse contexts;

• Deploy advanced quantitative and qualitative research skills to research and theorize critical social problems;

• Demonstrate awareness of multiple standpoints, their social foundations in constructions of difference, inequality, privilege and oppression (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, social class, sexuality, age, abilities, region, nationality), and their implications for social theory and social justice;

• Demonstrate ability to advocate for sociologically informed decision-making.