SOCIAL SKILLS, SOCIAL-RESEARCH SKILLS, SOCIOLOGICAL SKILLS - TEACHING REFLEXIVITY

Training in social research methods is a central part of undergraduate and postgraduate education in sociology, social and cultural anthropology, and social psychology. Yet, the model of research skills which informs this teaching is impoverished in important respects. Although social and communication skills are managerially and epistemologically important to successful research, they are absent from most research methods courses. In this paper I argue for the inclusion of these skills in methods training, and discuss some of the implications of doing so. I also touch upon the more general relevance of such skills to teaching sociology. The teaching of social and communications skills is suggested as one avenue that deserves further exploration in the pursuit of greater sociological reflexivity.