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Sociology

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Meaning of “role” and “function” in sociology of education

Education

Education and socialisation into shared values

Education

Durkheim: social solidarity and specialist skills

Education

Parsons: meritocracy and role allocation

Education

Functionalism: bridge from family to wider society

Education

New Right: market principles and standards in education

Education

Curriculum Modules

Meaning of “role” and “function” in sociology of education Education and socialisation into shared values Durkheim: social solidarity and specialist skills Parsons: meritocracy and role allocation Functionalism: bridge from family to wider society New Right: market principles and standards in education Neoliberalism: competition, choice and performance Marxism: education and class inequality Althusser: ideological state apparatus and legitimation Bowles and Gintis: correspondence principle Willis: counter-school culture and class reproduction Feminist views on gendered socialisation in schools Cultural capital and educational advantage Material deprivation and educational outcomes Class identity, aspirations and achievement Gendered subject choice and achievement patterns Teacher expectations and gendered interactions Ethnicity, language and educational outcomes Institutional racism and ethnocentric curriculum Intersectionality in achievement patterns Setting, streaming and banding: grouping and outcomes Labelling and the self-fulfilling prophecy Pupil identities and pro-school/anti-school subcultures Hidden curriculum: norms, values and compliance School organisation: rules, hierarchies and ethos School policies and exclusion: who is disadvantaged?Selection by ability: policies and consequences Marketisation: league tables, choice and competition Privatisation: outsourcing and profit motives Policies to reduce inequality: aims and limitations Policy outcomes for class, gender and ethnicity groups Globalisation and education policy: pressures and reforms Using contemporary evidence to evaluate education theories

What “methods in context” questions require (AQA)Turning an education issue into aims and hypotheses Choosing qualitative vs quantitative approaches in education Operationalising concepts (achievement, identity, subculture)Sampling pupils, teachers, parents: access and representation Ethics in school research: consent, power and safeguarding Practical barriers: permissions, time and gatekeepers Questionnaires: designing closed and open questions Reliability vs validity in pupil questionnaires Interviews: structured, semi-structured, unstructured Rapport, power imbalance and leading questions in interviews Observations: participant vs non-participant in schools Overt vs covert observation in education settings Hawthorne effect and observer bias in classrooms Experiments: lab, field and natural experiments in education Documents: policies, reports and school records Official statistics: strengths, limits and interpretation Triangulation: combining methods for stronger findings Writing evaluations in context: theory, practical and ethical issues

Sociology vs common-sense explanations Quantitative data: meaning and uses Qualitative data: meaning and uses Primary vs secondary data: strengths and limits Research design: aims, hypotheses and variables Pilot studies and improving research instruments Sampling: random, stratified, systematic methods Sampling: quota, snowball, opportunity methods Representativeness and sampling bias Reliability and how sociologists improve it Validity and how sociologists improve it Generalisability: when findings apply more widely Objectivity and risk of researcher bias Questionnaires: pros, cons and evaluation Structured interviews: strengths, limits and topics Unstructured interviews: depth, meanings and evaluation Participant observation: access, insight and ethics Non-participant observation: detachment and practical issues Experiments: control, causality and ethical constraints Documents: personal vs official documents Official statistics: trends and social construction issues Positivism: social facts and scientific approaches Interpretivism: meanings, verstehen and social action Social facts and their impact on method choice Theoretical considerations when choosing a method Practical issues: time, cost, access and skills Ethical issues: consent, harm, deception, confidentiality Consensus theories: order and shared values Conflict theories: power, inequality and competing interests Structural theories: institutions shaping behaviour Social action theories: meanings and interaction Modernity: key features and social change Postmodernity: identity and scepticism of meta-narratives Can sociology be scientific? arguments for and against Relationship between theory and methods Subjectivity vs objectivity in research Value freedom: meaning and possibility Sociology and social policy: research influencing decisions Social policy problems: funding, bias and political agendas Using theory and methods to evaluate evidence in essays

Defining crime: legal definitions and limits Defining deviance: norms, values and social context Social order: why societies need rules and compliance Social control: informal and formal mechanisms Functionalist explanations of crime and deviance Durkheim: anomie and functions of crime Merton: strain theory and adaptation types Marxism: capitalism, class power and crime Neo-Marxism: hegemony, resistance and crime Interactionism: labelling, stigma and moral careers Becker: labelling and rule enforcers Lemert: primary and secondary deviance Realism: right realism and social control Left realism: relative deprivation and marginalisation Feminist theories of crime: gender and patriarchy Postmodern views: media, consumerism and identity Measuring crime: official stats and the dark figure Victimisation surveys: strengths and limits Self-report studies: strengths and limits Trends in crime: interpreting change over time

Class and crime: patterns and explanations Gender and crime: patterns and explanations Ethnicity and crime: patterns and explanations Youth crime: patterns and explanations Victimisation by class, gender and ethnicity Media amplification and public fear of crime Crime data bias: policing, reporting and recording Over-representation: structural vs cultural explanations Intersectionality in offending and victimisation

Globalisation and new opportunities for crime Transnational crime: trafficking, drugs and organised networks Cybercrime and global digital networks Global inequality and crime: exploitation and profit Media representations of crime and criminals News values and constructed crime stories Moral panics: folk devils and amplification Green crime: defining environmental harm Green crime types: pollution, depletion, species harm Green crime: power and denial in defining harm Human rights: defining rights and abuses State crime: why states break rules Crimes of the powerful: corporate and state harm Neutralisation and state justification narratives Global governance and limits of enforcement

Aims of punishment: retribution, deterrence, rehab, protection Formal agencies: police, courts, prisons and probation Policing: community policing vs zero tolerance Surveillance: CCTV, data and monitoring “Surveillance society” and social control Situational prevention: target hardening and design Punishment and inequality: who is punished and how Prison: functions, effectiveness and alternatives Rehabilitation vs punishment debates Victims: typologies and victim blaming Victim support and restorative justice Evaluate the criminal justice system using evidence

Culture and Identity Families and Households Health Work, Poverty and Welfare

What culture means in sociology Subculture and how subcultures form Folk culture and traditions Mass culture and standardisation High culture vs popular culture Global culture and cultural hybridity Socialisation as a life-long process Primary vs secondary socialisation Main agencies of socialisation How socialisation shapes identity The self: identity as socially constructed Identity and difference: labelling and categorisation Age and identity: youth and ageing Disability and identity: stigma and social barriers Ethnicity and identity: belonging and racism Gender identity: femininities and masculinities National identity and global influences Sexuality and identity: norms and change Social class and identity: lifestyle and status Identity and production: work and role identities Identity and consumption: brands, taste and lifestyle Globalisation and identity: choice, hybridity and tension

Families, households and diversity: key definitions Family and economy: how work shapes family life State and families: policy shaping family patterns Social change and family change: key drivers Marriage trends and explanations Cohabitation trends and explanations Separation and divorce trends and explanations Childbearing patterns and explanations Life course: family experiences over time Sociology of personal life and intimacy Family diversity: lone parent, reconstituted, same-sex, extended Gender roles in the family: change and continuity Domestic labour: measuring and explaining inequality Power in families: decision-making and control Childhood as a social construction Changing status of children over time Birth rates since 1900: trends and explanations Death rates and life expectancy since 1900 Ageing population: causes and consequences Migration and family patterns Globalisation and family life in the UK

Social construction of health and illness Disability: social model vs medical model Body: social meanings and regulation Biomedical vs social models of health and illness Class inequalities in health chances Gender inequalities in health chances Ethnic inequalities in health chances Regional inequalities in health chances Measuring health inequalities: data and interpretation Access to healthcare: barriers and inequalities Healthcare provision: variation and rationing NHS role and contemporary pressures Mental illness: definitions and labelling Social distribution of mental illness Medicalisation: normal life turned into illness Medical profession: power and control Health professions and division of labour Globalised health industry: pharma and private providers Globalisation and health risks: pandemics, lifestyle, markets Evaluate explanations for inequalities using evidence

Poverty: absolute vs relative definitions Measuring poverty: strengths and indicator limits Why poverty persists in the UK Poverty distribution: class, gender, ethnicity and age Wealth inequality vs income inequality Sociological explanations of wealth inequality State responses: welfare policies and debates Private and voluntary welfare: charities and NGOs Informal welfare: family, community and care networks Labour process: how work is organised Division of labour: skilled vs unskilled work Technology and work: automation and control Skill change: de-skilling and re-skilling Managerial control and worker resistance Worklessness: who is affected and why Worklessness and life chances Globalisation and labour markets Precarious work and the gig economy Evaluate poverty solutions: effectiveness and consequences

Beliefs in Society Global Development The Media Stratification and Differentiation

Ideology: what it means in sociology Religion, science and belief: key distinctions Christian traditions in the UK: key features Non-Christian traditions: diversity and change Social change and religion: why beliefs shift Social stability and religion: integration and control Religious organisations: churches and denominations Religious organisations: sects and cults New Age movements and spiritual markets Explaining sect growth and conversion Religiosity patterns: social class Religiosity patterns: gender Religiosity patterns: ethnicity Religiosity patterns: age Religion today: changing significance Secularisation in the UK: evidence and debate Global secularisation vs global religion trends Globalisation and spread of religions Fundamentalism and modern society Evaluate evidence on belief, practice and belonging

Development: definitions and measurement Underdevelopment: meaning and causes Global inequality: patterns and explanations Modernisation theories of development Dependency and world-systems approaches Globalisation: development winners and losers Cultural globalisation and development Political globalisation and development Economic globalisation and development TNCs and development strategies International agencies: roles and influence NGOs: strengths, limits and accountability Aid and development: types and criticisms Trade, debt and development Industrialisation and development paths Urbanisation: opportunities and problems Development and environment: sustainability debates War, conflict and development setbacks Employment as a development indicator Education and development Health and development Demographic change and development Gender and development: inequality and empowerment

Stratification vs differentiation: key distinction Social class: different ways to define it Measuring class: occupation and its limits Gender stratification: patterns and explanations Ethnic stratification: patterns and explanations Age stratification: patterns and explanations Disability and life chances: barriers and inequality Class, status and power: differences Life chances: meaning and how they’re shaped Problems measuring class in a changing economy Gender and social class: overlapping inequalities Changes in inequality structures over time Globalisation and inequality: changing patterns Transnational capitalist class and global elites Social mobility: absolute vs relative mobility Social mobility patterns in the UK Explanations for mobility and immobility Mobility significance for life chances Evaluate evidence on inequality and mobility

Community Lessons

Functionalism – Bridge from Family to Wider Society

Functionalism: bridge from family to wider society

Parsons - Meritocracy and Role Allocation

Parsons: meritocracy and role allocation

Durkheim - Social Solidarity and Specialist Skills

Durkheim: social solidarity and specialist skills

Education and Socialisation into Shared Values

Education and socialisation into shared values

Families, Households and Diversity - Key Definitions

Families, households and diversity: key definitions

Meaning of 'Role' and 'Function' in Sociology of Education

Meaning of “role” and “function” in sociology of education

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