Sociology

This article reflects on the authors' experiences during a pilot year of an innovative core curriculum at a state research university and their attempts to create a "collaborative community" characterized by transformative pedagogy. It discusses their students' and colleagues' resistance to their inventive, albeit time-consuming and sometimes noisy, assignments. It analyzes the temptation to give in to bureaucratic inertia and return to an instruction paradigm that prioritizes the transmission of information over the more intensive goals of encouraging students to "claim their education." Finally, they suggest that the development of collaborative communities of like-minded teachers is an important resource in mediating the conflict between transformative pedagogy and bureaucratic practice.