Social Issues Group Dialogue: Socio-Economic Status
The final assignment will be an opportunity to demonstrate your abilities to articulate your own perspective on an issue, recognize and make sense of the perspectives of others, and to inquire into a topic.
Topics (choose one):
1. SES & Healthcare
2. SES and the Responsibilities of the Rich & the Poor
3. SES & Government activity in affecting SES status
4. SES & the Price of Privilege
5. SES & the intersection of identities
6. Other topics as approved.
Sharing Your Own Perspective on an Issue (4 points):
Choose one of the topics and corresponding questions below, and share your full response to that question, based on the information you currently possess without doing any additional research or inquiry into the matter. You should certainly do some careful thinking and reflection on the issue, and have that reflected in the first part of your paper.
• Specifically, what is your bottom line, what are the reasons you are using that result in your coming to that conclusion, and what are the values operating most in your perspective? How might various aspects of your own social identity, such as your race/ethnicity, national origin, belief system/faith, family of origin, political orientation, etc., inform your perspective? What are one or two questions that, if you could answer them, would make you feel more confident of your conclusion? Make sure that if you use any terms or phrases that are unclear or ambiguous, you clarify those by defining or explaining them.
Diversity of Perspectives (8 points):
Next, seek out articles, editorials, video clips (such as C-Span), etc. that represent three other perspectives addressing the issue you’ve chosen, and describe those perspectives, using the framework above. No more than one of these can be derived from an interview you conduct.
• What is the bottom line of each of the other three perspectives concerning this issue? What are the main reasons they are relying upon to get to their conclusion, and what might you say are the values informing their perspective? You might need to speculate on this latter part, so make your most informed guess, and justify your decision. What else, other than their value preferences, (such as aspects of their social identity—race, class, gender, national origin, belief system/faith, political orientation, etc.) might be informing their perspective? If they are using abstract terms or concepts in their perspectives, how are they defining them?
o Find a diversity of perspectives, which could mean finding some stories that end up in the same place as you, but by different reasons, as well as stories that are truly divergent (even radically different) from your own.
? Note: When sharing the reasoning of others, as in this part of the final project, it is imperative that we acknowledge that each perspective is held by someone who is as fully human as we are, and that they have come to their conclusions as thoughtful, intelligent, and rational beings. Further, no alternate perspective is a saint because they agree, nor a demon because they disagree with our own perspective. In light of these provisions, make sure that you think critically of every alternate perspective you examine, identifying what makes sense (from their frame of reference) as well as where their perspective is less clear or persuasive.
Analysis and Reflection (3 points):
Finally, explore how your earlier perspective has been informed or affected by your research into the perspectives of others. What surprised you about those other perspectives? How have they helped you to clarify your own perspective on the issue, and how have they raised questions for you concerning your own thoughts and beliefs about the issue?
