Plant and plan, care and grow. A hands-on exercise using the (inner) sustainable development goals to teach research methodology to final year sociology students

Abstract

Etymologically, the word seminar comes from the Latin semen, which means “seed”. Inspired by such linguistic archeology this text describes an exercise developed with undergraduate sociology students, who were literally invited to sow a seed and observe its growth over the course of a semester in which they must design a sociological research project. Transversally, the students perceived the exercise of germinating a plant as a metaphor for the development of the research project as a living and dynamic reality, highlighting the beginning, growth and maturation as key moments. Additionally, students emphasized that observing the germination and development of the plant allowed them to critically reflect on the different stages of the research project, while allowing their own inner development, namely with regard to the dimensions of “being”, “thinking”, “relating”, “collaborating” and “driving change”.