Courses

Sociology (KS4)
Sociology (KS5)

Sociology GCSE

Course Code:
Exams from: 2019 onwards Specification code: 8192 QAN code: 603/0798/5

Sociology is the study of people and communities and how they are structured. We look at different institutions in society that serve us such as education, the legal system, family units, and the mass media. We learn about different critical perspectives and philosophies including fuctionalism, marxism, feminism, post modernity and more.

Assessment:

Paper 2: The sociology of crime and deviance and social stratification

• The sociology of families

• The sociology of education

• Relevant areas of social theory and methodology

  Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes

  100 marks

  50% of GCSE

Paper 1: The sociology of families and education

• The sociology of crime and deviance

• The sociology of social stratification

• Relevant areas of social theory and methodology

  Written exam: 1 hour 45 minutes

  100 marks

  50% of GCSE

Sociology A-Level

Assessment:

• Unit 1: Education

  • Functionalist Perspectives

  • Marxist and Neo-Marxist Perspectives

  • Feminist Perspectives

  • Perspectives of the 'New Right'

  • Postmodernity

  • In School Factors and Structures

  • The Winners and Losers of the Education System

  • State Intervention and Government Policies

• Unit 1: Research Methods In Context

  • Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methods

  • Representativeness

  • Practical Considerations When Conducting Research

  • Ethics

  • Positivism and Interpretivism

  • Validity

  • Interpreting Data

  • Surveys, Questionnaires, Observations and Experiments

• Unit 2: Families and Households

  • The relationship of the family to the social structure and social change, with particular 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

• Unit 3: Crime and Deviants

  • 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

• Unit 4: Mass Media

  • Ownership and Control

  • Traditional Media and New Media

  • Globalisation

  • Hegenomy and Pluralism

  • Representation (Race, Gender, Disability and the Working Class)

  • News Construction and Sourcing Truth

Careers and Industry Connections:

Our teacher on this course is a fellow of the RSA (The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce). We also have partnerships with social scientists at the University of Hertfordshire.

Sociology can open up careers in the social sciences and could include job roles such as social researcher, market research analyst, marketing executive, social worker, paralegal, community health worker, public relations specialist, diversity manager. It can also support careers in advertising and market research and with the civil service, the Police, and local and national government.