Sociological Paradoxes and Graduate Statistics Classes. A Response to 'The Sociology of Teaching Graduate Statistics'

This article presents a response to Timothy Patrick Moran's article "The Sociology of Teaching Graduate Statistics." In his essay, Moran argues that exciting developments in techniques of quantitative analysis are currently coupled with a much less exciting formulaic approach to teaching sociology graduate students about quantitative analysis. The author mentions that to begin to remedy this problem, Moran suggests they infuse the teaching of statistics with theory, history, and debate, coupling this "substantive" approach with the technical training that now appears to their primary interest. The author finds much to applaud in his proposal. She mentions that the classes Moran describes are much more fun to teach and more like the statistics/methods training she received as a graduate student. She believes that implementing Moran's methods/statistics curricula will require more than a change in how they teach statistics. It will require some fundamental changes in how they think about "basic" graduate training in sociology. (Contains 2 footnotes.)