Key Stages

Key Stage 3 (KS3)

Sociology is not taught at KS3.

Key Stage 4 (KS4)

Sociology is not taught at KS4.

Key Stage 5 (KS5)

Year 12 - AS Sociology

Year 13 - A2 Sociology

AS Sociology - OVERVIEW

2 Modules to be completed in Year 12, examination papers for each to be completed in June.

Module 1: Exploring Socialisation Culture and Identity

• The basics of sociology – norms,values,status, roles
• Types of culture: Diversity of culture in the UK,subcultures/youth cultures, Chavs, Emos,Goths. High culture,popular culture,global culture,globalisation, Mcdonaldisation
• Nature vs Nurture (key sociological debate)
• Socialisation & agents of socialisation: primary (home), secondary(school,media,workplace)
• Formal and informal social control: from jokes to being though of as weird to prison.
• Identity: Who are you? What factors have shaped/influenced you as a person?
• Gender: Differences and similarities between men and women,nature vs nurture,transexuals,crisis of masculinity,new man, metrosexuals,ladettes, girls behaving badly.
• Social Class: Does class exist? What class are you?Can you move up and down social classes?Are there social class systems in other societies? Accent,manners,hobbies,dress- how can you identify someone`s class?
• Ethnicity: ethnic groups and culture, ethnic divisions, hybrids. Why do some white people adopt the mannerisms of black culture? Why do some black people adopt white upper class culture as there own?
• Research methods: How do sociologists do research in society?

Module 2: Topics in Socialisation

The Family (an in-depth study of this important agent of socialization) topics include:

Key concepts and definitions:

• Household,kinship,nuclear family,lone parent,symmetrical family (you will be creating presentations using examples from film,soaps from Simpsons to Eastenders and the Royle Family.
• Monogamy,polygamy,polygny,polyandry – family structures vary from culture to culture. What is acceptable and what is unacceptable?
• Different types of parnerships

Influences on family change:

• Industrial revolution,employment,contraception

Theoretical perspectives:

• Different views of the family as an institution Marxist,Feminist,Functionalist,New Right,Post-Modern

Social class and cultural and sexual diversity:

• In what way does class, culture and sexual orientation have an impact on the family structure?

Politics and the family as a social institution:

• How do the political parties see the family from Blair and Brown to Thatcher and Cameron

Roles,responsibilities and relationships:

• Men vs women
  
• Sociology of housework
  
• Feminists
  

Relationships between children and parents:

• Family instability, the family as an agent of socialisation, the end of childhood, culture of fear, the family in different cultures, is the family a good thing for children?

A2 Sociology - OVERVIEW

2 Modules to be completed at A2

Module 1 Power & Control

Mass Media (an in depth study of this important agent of socialization) students discover just how influential the media is and the ways in which we are manipulated and constructed by it.

Module 2 Exploring Social Inequality & Difference

Students will study inequality in society and look at the reasons that some groups have better life chances than others.