Teaching of family theories is often met with opposition from students (e.g., information is too abstract and not relatable to their personal or professional lives). Our goal in this symposium is to illustrate the importance and usefulness of five distinct theories in family studies and human development: Ambiguous Loss, Conflict, Feminism, Intersectionality, and Queer Theories. For each theory, we present a variety of engagement activities (e.g., individual writing for comprehension, followed by paired or group discussion; case studies) that instructors in various disciplines can easily implement into their classroom teaching of family theories to enhance students' active learning.

Objectives

1. Attendees will learn knowledge about family theories, some of which they know about already (e.g., ambiguous loss) and some of which may me new (e.g., intersectionality). 2. Attendees will learn how to implement various engagement activities for each of the theories into their own classes. 3. Attendees will think critically about their own teaching of family theories and how they can best engage students in their classes.