Using a Research Article to Foster Moral Reflection and Global Awareness in Teaching About Religion and Politics, Theory Testing, and Democracy in the Muslim World

Abstract

Encouraging students to reflect on their ethical principles and to develop a global outlook have been identified as key pedagogical goals in recent national reports on higher education. This article shows how instructors can use a current article from the American Sociological Review (ASR) to facilitate moral reflection and global awareness. The ASR article, with its focus on the political implications of moral cosmologies of Muslims, its cross-national methodology, and its non-western geographical focus, is well suited to these pedagogical goals. We offer active learning exercises designed to promote ethical examination and global understandings in an introductory sociology course, a theory course, and an upper-level course on political sociology, sociology of religion, or globalization.