Sociology

Key Contact:  Laura Pittard lep@gryphon.dorset.sch.uk

Syllabus Information:

AQA Sociology (7192)

• Paper 1: Education and Methods in Context
• Paper 2: Topics in Sociology (Families and Households & The Media)
• Paper 3: Crime and Deviance with Theories and Methods

Course Content

Year 12

Theories and Methods

• consensus, conflict, structural and social action theories,
• the concepts of modernity and post-modernity in relation to sociological theory,
• the nature of science and the extent to which Sociology can be regarded as scientific,
• the relationship between theory and methods,
• debates about subjectivity, objectivity, and value freedom,
• the relationship between Sociology and social policy.

Families and Households

• the relationship of the family to the social structure and social change, with reference to the economy and to state policies,
• changing patterns of marriage, cohabitation, separation, divorce, childbearing, and the life course, including the sociology of personal life, and the diversity of contemporary family and household structures,
• gender roles, domestic labour, and power relationships within the family in contemporary society,
• the nature of childhood, and changes in the status of children in the family and society,
• demographic trends in the United Kingdom since 1900: birth rates, death rates, family size, life expectancy, ageing population, and migration and globalisation.

Crime and Deviance

• crime, deviance, social order, and social control,
• the social distribution of crime and deviance by ethnicity, gender, and social class, including recent patterns and trends in crime,
• globalisation and crime in contemporary society; the media and crime; green crime; human rights and state crimes,
• crime control, surveillance, prevention and punishment, victims, and the role of the criminal justice system and other agencies.

Year 13

Theories and Methods

• quantitative and qualitative methods of research; research design,
• sources of data, including questionnaires, interviews, participant and non-participant observation, experiments, documents, and official statistics,
• the distinction between primary and secondary data, and between quantitative and qualitative data,
• the relationship between positivism, interpretivism and sociological methods; the nature of ‘social facts’,
• the theoretical, practical, and ethical considerations influencing choice of topic, choice of method(s) and the conduct of research.

Education and Methods in Context

• the role and functions of the education system, including its relationship to the economy and to class structure,
• differential educational achievement of social groups by social class, gender, and ethnicity in contemporary society,
• relationships and processes within schools, with reference to teacher/pupil relationships, pupil identities and subcultures, the hidden curriculum, and the organisation of teaching and learning,
• the significance of educational policies, including policies of selection, marketisation and privatisation, and policies to achieve greater equality of opportunity or outcome, for an understanding of the structure, role, impact, and experience of and access to education, the impact of globalisation on educational policy.

The Media

• the new media and their significance for an understanding of the role of the media in contemporary society
• the relationship between ownership and control of the media
• the media, globalisation and popular culture
• the processes of selection and presentation of the content of the news
• media representations of age, social class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality and disability
• the relationship between the media, their content and presentation, and audiences.

Assessment

Students will be frequently assessed by both of their teachers. Each teacher will assess their classes 12 times in Year 12 and 10 times in Year 13. This means that every student will have 24 or 20 assessments throughout the year.

Students will be given assessment booklets in September which will contain every assessment they will complete apart from their PPEs. There will be a range of assessments, starting in Year 12 with 4 and 6 markers, and working up to the larger 20- and 30-mark essays.

Homework

Students will be set at least one Seneca revision assignment each week. They may also be set additional activities such as exam practice, revision activities for assessments, research projects, etc. as their class teacher deems appropriate. Students should be spending a minimum of 30 minutes per week on homework.

Useful information, links, and resources

https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/sociology/as-and-a-level/sociology-7191-7192/introduction

https://www.tutor2u.net/sociology

https://revisesociology.com/

https://www.hectic-teacher.co.uk/