Miguel Centellas on Teaching Introductory Sociology

Professor Miguel Centellas came to sociology as an outsider. Originally, he entered academia to study political science. He was interested in democracy, and especially interested in the one that was emerging in the country where he was born: Bolivia.  

Miguel moved to the United States at the age of 10. And though he would grow up to become a dedicated scholar and the type of teacher you wish you’d had in college, his interests weren’t always academic. The way he describes it, his career in higher education was totally “accidental.”

Falling in Love with Learning

“My vision for what you did in life was narrow. I grew up in a GM town. If you didn’t go to college you worked in the factory.” And Miguel had no desire to work in the factory. He attended Central Michigan University for his undergraduate work, pursuing higher education mainly because “It’s what you were supposed to do.”

But once he was there, two things happened: he met a cranky old professor and he began to see the world from a new perspective.

The cranky old professor was Dr. Ted Zolty, one of Miguel's first college teachers. “It was the first time I met someone who was an intellectual from a blue-collar background. Most of my other teachers before him were dry, boring—and he was anything but. Rough around the edges. Sarcastic. Swore in class. He interested me in ideas I didn’t know I was interested in.”

Dr. Zolty was the first professor who introduced Miguel to his own curiosity, but he wasn’t the last. He mentions history and anthropology professors who helped him learn new perspectives and new ways of thinking.

These professors stuck with Miguel. To this day, he tries to do for students what they did for him: spark their curiosity and teach them how to change the way they think and look at things.

Through college, Miguel fell in love with learning. He went on to earn a PhD in comparative politics from Western Michigan University and to conduct fieldwork in Bolivia. He taught political science for a while at several institutions, including the University of Mississippi and Jackson State University (a historically black research university). But with his interdisciplinary training, he eventually switched his focus to sociology.

Becoming a Sociology Professor

In 2015, he returned to Ole Miss and began to teach his very first sociology classes.

“My first class was sociology 101. I knew I wanted to teach the way my professors had taught me as an undergrad. I wanted to bring in my love of music and pop culture. I was old enough not to be hip, but I was plugged in enough to connect to my students. I had so much fun with the foundational ideas and topics. 101 is a great class because you’re offering a little bit of everything to students. You’re trying to make an impact on their lives.”

This Miguel excelled at. His RateMyProfessor page is filled with praise from past students. They’ve noted that he “makes class fun,” “he’s very engaging,” and “you can tell he enjoys teaching.”

His secret? He subverts a major assumption that he believes to be pervasive among college professors and in the textbooks they use.

“The assumption is: the purpose of the class is to make more majors. As an outsider, I don't feel it's true or fair. I need to meet students where they’re at. Most won’t be majors, and that’s okay.”

Focusing on What’s Important in Introductory Sociology

In response to this, Miguel has made it his mission to create an introductory sociology course that gives students tools they can use, regardless of what they major in or what profession they will pursue.

“Rather than try to get them to drop what they’re doing, I try to make what I’m teaching relevant to what they’re doing.”

Miguel truly believes that introductory sociology can have a lasting impact on all students—whether they’re nursing majors, business majors, or science majors. And that’s because he sees the skills the course offers as being incredibly useful outside the classroom, in job interviews, at the office, even navigating intimate relationships.  

So what is it that’s so useful about sociology? For Miguel, it all comes down to the sociological imagination.

Harnessing the Sociological Imagination

In Miguel’s opinion, the priority of any intro-level sociology course should be to foster the sociological imagination—a term first introduced by sociologist C. Wright Mills to describe the ability to think sociologically, to be mindful of “the interplay of man and society, of biography and history, of self and world.” (Mills, 1959)

In order to do that, students have to learn to switch perspectives, to step outside of themselves and their lived experiences and embrace the diversity of social realities that make up any society.

“The sociological imagination gives you empathy. It teaches you to think outside of the box, put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and see yourself from the outside. It gives students a new way to think, a new way to talk to each other, and a new way to see the world.”

The sociological imagination unlocks a deeper understanding of the self, of others, and of the social spheres we all move through. Developing the ability to see the world sociological can truly help students navigate the social world. That includes forming and maintaining relationships in different social settings, like work, school, and at home.

Why Students Need to Learn Perspective-Taking

For Miguel, the sociological imagination isn’t just something that he thinks students should have. He sees it as a necessity.

“Teaching students how to think sociologically has to be done. The social landscape is completely altering. There’s so much change. Political polarization. Globalization of the economy. Work. AI. There’s a radical transformation happening in real time. The kids in college today are going to have to navigate a world that’s going to be different when they leave than when they entered. Sociology can help them make sense of the world. It can help them navigate and adjust to shifting terrains.”

It’s a compelling case for why it’s important to teach sociology. But there’s an issue. Most students aren’t convinced it’s important to learn sociology.

Survey Says: Students Don’t See the Point

We surveyed over one hundred sociology instructors from across the country. Our sample included instructors who taught at 4-year schools, 2-year schools, public universities, and smaller private colleges. They each had their own unique experiences to share. And yet, when we asked them what the biggest challenge is in teaching sociology, the response was virtually unanimous.

Students don’t think sociology is relevant to them.

So how can we fix the problem? Miguel has some insights from his formal studies on pedagogy and his experiences in the classroom.

Getting Students Onboard

“First, most professors are never actually trained how to teach. We’re thrown in front of classrooms, handed a stack of papers and are told to grade them. Secondly, we know very little about our students. It’s mind blowing to me that as social scientists many of us don’t even collect data to evaluate how effective we are. How do we know what we’re doing is working? There’s not a lot of real oversight, accountability, or quality control.”

Miguel believes these issues are contributing to the bigger problem instructors are trying to overcome. But he's found success in engaging students by meeting them where they’re at and relating the core content of the course to their personal lives.

Miguel believes all instructors can become more effective by taking this approach. Over the past several years, he’s been working with us at Soomo Learning to build a new sociology webtext around these ideas. Something that any instructor can use—regardless of their level of training, where they teach, or whether their course is online, hybrid, or face-to-face.

Developing a New Resource for Everyone

The webtext, titled Sociology: You Are Here, combines Miguel’s perspective with Soomo’s interactive courseware. It’s written to resonate with all students, to provide them with new ways of thinking about the social world, and to give them tools to help navigate it.

One way we’re accomplishing this is through inclusivity. Our videos, images, and examples are all crafted to make the content more relatable to students’ lives.

“I want this book to be inclusive in the most abstract and broad way possible. There’s a lot of controversy around sociology being presented as radical social activism. But being inclusive means not only including liberal voices and points of views but conservative ones too. All people are equally welcome, equally valuable and important in society. We can’t ignore neurodiversity, religious cleavages, or the urban-rural divide. I want all students to feel seen and valued regardless of their identities.”

In addition to being inclusive, the webtext will also connect to students through an original video series, comparison polls that will show students how their opinions compare to their classmates and larger populations, and a recurring feature called Follow the Data.

This feature, placed in every chapter, will help students develop data literacy skills by giving them opportunities to use sociological data to question common assumptions about the social world.

‍Sociology: You Are Here is currently slated for release in February 2025. If you’d like to sign up to be a paid reviewer or to receive early access, please contact us directly at support@soomolearning.com.