Goldberg has received recognition for his teaching from students and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, including an Honored Instructor Teaching Award in 2015, a Departmental Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2017, and a Distinguished Honors Faculty Award from the Letters and Science Honors Program in 2018. His pedagogical contributions have been recognized more widely as well. The syllabus for his course on “The Jews, States, and Citizenship” was included in the third edition of The Sociology of Jewry: A Curriculum Guide and Critical Introduction, published by the American Sociological Association in 2007. In 2016, The Chronicle of Higher Education interviewed him about his role in developing a new course on the Wisconsin Idea in response to political attacks on higher education.
Goldberg’s teaching experience includes both undergraduate and graduate instruction, at private and public institutions, in the United States and abroad. He has taught in multiple formats, including lectures, seminars, tutorials, research practicums, and independent study. He has advised undergraduate and graduate students on theses that rely on a variety of methods, and he served as director of graduate studies in his department for three years. His teaching repertoire ranges widely from introductory sociology courses for undergraduates to advanced seminars in politics, comparative and historical methods, and theory for graduate students.
Il ne faut jamais perdre de vue quel est le but de l’instruction publique. Il s’agit de former non des ouvriers pour la fabrique ou des comptables pour le magasin, mais des citoyens pour la société.
It is necessary that we never lose sight of what is the aim of public education. It is not a matter of training workers for the factory or accountants for the warehouse, but citizens for society.
— Émile Durkheim