Counting Tents: Pedagogical Reflections on Faculty–Student Collaboration in a Real-World Project on Homelessness

Abstract

This teaching note describes the design and implementation of an undergraduate research team project to conduct a tent census. Previous studies highlight the importance of real-world research as a part of sociology curriculum. Tents, as a visible sign of homelessness, represent one such contemporary social problem. Our undergraduate research team documented and geolocated tents in the city of Seattle between 2019 and 2020. This project integrated elements of active learning, collaborative learning, and problem-based learning. The strengths of our student research team were experiential learning, greater awareness and engagement in homelessness, and development of research and problem-solving skills. We offer some generalizable “lessons learned” from our assessment of the successes and challenges of a unique tent census project for student learning and engagement. This article concludes with the challenges of these kinds of real-world projects as well as recommendations for future faculty–student collaborations on important sociological issues.