Global Studies
Bruzzese
Date: submitted to Brian Walsh (Global Studies Path Faculty Coordinator) and Mia Wood (Assessment
Coordinator) on December 23, 2013
Instructor: Anna Bruzzese
Course: Sociology 15, Religion and American Society
Section: 0722
Social Justice Path SLO 1: Students will be able to define globalization and key concepts related to
globalizing trends.
Social Justice Path SLO 4: Students will be able to analyze the diverse consequences of globalization
including its impacts on various social formations (e.g. identity, culture, art, communities, media, markets,
nation-states, among other examples) and/or the environment.
How were students assessed?
The students were assessed using a combination of class discussion and multiple choice
questions (embedded in the final exam).
The issues of globalization were discussed throughout the course, but most explicitly when we
talked about the topic of immigration and religion. We defined globalization and talked about how
religion is affected by global processes and how it can affect them.
Some of the questions we tackled in our class discussions were:
- What are the most important ways religion has been affected by globalization?
- How have globalization and resultant cultural diversity contributed to the rise of liberal
theologies? How have they contributed to fundamentalist movements?
- What are the most important ways religion has affected globalization?
Multiple choice questions related to the intersection between globalization and religion:
1. The Roman Catholic Church has been facing a dilemma of choosing between defending the
self-interests of the poor and sacralizing the interests of the affluent industrialized countries.
This has become a special dilemma for the church because
a. modern technology has changed the way rich and poor countries relate to one another.
b. Roman Catholic theologians are for the first time becoming aware of global inequalities.
c. the constituency of the Roman Catholic Church is now multicultural, with large memberships
from Africa, Latin America, and other third world regions.
d. most Catholic theologians are white females with no interest in poverty or oppression.
2. What is the difference between transnational and autocephalus churches?
a. Transnational churches encourage and promote globalization, while autocephalus churches
oppose globalization of religion
b. Transnational churches are global in nature; they stretch across national boundaries.
Autocephalus churches are not organizationally linked to congregations in other countries.
Transnational churches are conservative in nature, while autocephalus churches are more
liberal.
d. Transnational churches have been at the forefront of missionary projects, while autocephalus
churches have not.
c.
Results for the multiple choice questions:
N= 30
Question 1: 57% success rate
Question 2: 70% success rate
How were assessments used? In other words, how does your assessment reflect that your
course maps to one or more CSUN Path SLOs?
The material covered in this class includes globalization and an extensive discussion of how
religion is affected by global processes and in turn, how it can affect them. These elements map
directly onto Global Studies Path SLOs 1 and 4.
How have you emphasized the Path theme in your course?
Through a discussion of issues pertaining to the relationship between religion and globalization.
Based on your experience and professional judgment, how well do think your students know the
purported significance of a thematic GE program? In other words, do they make thematic
connections between your course and other courses (in or outside the Path) in the GE program?
I did specifically talk about the Path and other classes available to students in it but I am not sure
if any of them were enrolled in any other Path classes, and so I don’t know if they made this kind
of connection to other courses in the Path.
But more generally, many students did make connections between my class and other courses in
the GE program because my course SLO has to do with being able to distinguish the sociological
perspective from alternative ways of looking at religion and so this skill was emphasized and
assessed throughout the semester.
For example, in their participation observation assignment, two of the questions were: What have
you learned about the sociological approach to religion as a result of this exercise? How does the
sociological perspective differ from alternative ways of looking at religion?
The goal of this approach was to have students specifically reflect on the course SLO, in addition
to demonstrating their competency in this regard. The assessment result was a 71% success
rate. As this was a written assignment, what got in the way of some of the students’ performance
were their deficient reading and writing skills.