Schemes of Work for A2 Sociology

Schemes of work for A2 Sociology

You are advised to utilise a range of resources. There are so many available at the moment. Some on line resources are very good, useful textbooks have been identified and articles from Sociology Review provide a rich source of contemporary material particularly for A2.

Teachers might find the following guide useful in terms of planning but I must emphasise that it is just a guide and it is focused on content rather than tasks.

My own experience has led me to conclude that schemes of work are helpful if they are simple and easy to follow.

Unit 4

Social Control

Mass Media

Week 1 / ·  Definitions of the Media
·  Ownership and control
·  Globalisation
Week 2 / ·  The role of the media as a form of social control (introduction)
·  Media content
·  The role of professional
·  News values
·  Agenda setting
·  Newsworthiness
Week 3 / ·  Representation of social groups:
Gender
Ethnicity
Class
Age
Stereotypes
Week 4 / ·  The use of semiological techniques of content analysis could be incorporated as part of the study of the representation of social groups
·  Analysis of studies that have investigated this (quite a lot in Trowler)
·  Moral panics and the role of the media (link with other topics if appropriate)
Week 5 / ·  Media audiences :patterns of usage of the media (social change..internet)
Effects theories:
·  Hypodermic syringe
·  Normative and two step flow
·  Use and gratifications
·  Interpretive
·  Structured interpretation
·  Third phase…Postmodernism
Week 6 / Structure and content of the media:
·  1. Marxist theory of
·  2. What evidence is there to support this? (strengths)
·  3. Criticisms (weakneses)
·  4. Evaluation
Week 7 / ·  1. Pluralist theories
·  2. What evidence?
·  3. Criticisms
·  4 Evaluation
· 
Week 8 / ·  1. Neo Marxist: cultural hegemony
·  2. Evidence?
·  3.Criticisms
·  4. Evaluation
Week 9 / ·  Organisational factors
·  Evaluation
Week 10 / ·  Application of theories to questions about content, effects, power and control, representation of social groups

Crime & Deviance

Week 1 / ·  Definitions of Crime & Deviance
·  Social construction of crime
·  Social reactions to crime & deviance (folk devils & moral panics)
·  Different types of crime
·  Corporate crime
·  Global crime
Week 2 / ·  Measurement of crime
·  Reliability of official statistics
·  Other sources of information such as BCS victimisation surveys and their reliability
Week 3 / ·  Distribution of crime in terms of class, gender ethnicity
Week 4 / ·  As week 3
Week 5 / Theories of crime:
·  Physiological/ psychological
·  Functionalist
·  Sub Cultural theories
·  Durkheim
Week 6 / ·  Strain theories
·  Marxist theories
Week 7 / ·  Neo Marxist theories
·  Left realist theories
Week 8 / ·  Labelling theory
·  Feminist theories
Week 9 / ·  Social control (formal /informal)
·  The Police
·  The Courts
·  Prison
Week 10 / ·  Application of theories to explain social distribution of crime
·  Relationship between wider social issues of power and the criminalisation of some groups

Politics, Power and the State

Week 1 / Definitions of power
·  Marxist
Week 2 / ·  Weberian
·  Functionalist
Week 3 / ·  Feminist
·  Poststructuralism
Week 4 / Theories of the distribution of power
·  Pluralist
·  Elite
Week 5 / ·  Marxist
Week 6 / ·  The State..what is it?
·  Theories of the State
Week 7 / Voting Behaviour
·  Political parties
·  History of voting behaviour
·  Voting and social characteristics (gender, class, age,ethnicity, region)
Week 8 / Pressure groups and New Social Movements
·  Role of PGs (insider/outsider)
·  NSM what are they…defensive/offensive
·  Social characteristics of NSM membership
·  Similarites and differences between OSM and NSM
·  Role of NSM
Week 9 / Theories of NSM:
·  Marxist
·  Postmodernist
·  NSM = end of class ?
Week 10 / ·  Application of theories to explain social distribution of power
·  Relationship between social characteristics and voting behaviour

Unit 6

Society Today

Wealth & Poverty

Week 1 / ·  Definitions of Wealth and Poverty (absolute/relative)
·  Measurements of wealth and poverty
·  Social exclusion
Week 2 / ·  Evidence (research)
·  Patterns in the distribution of wealth and income
·  Relationship between patterns of distribution of wealth and income and social groups
Week 3 / ·  Patterns and distribution of poverty with particular reference to social groups, regions
· 
Week 4 / As week 3
·  Global inequalities
Week 5 / ·  As week 4
·  Summary of causes of poverty and social exclusion and who are the poor?
Week 6 / Theories of poverty
·  Individualistic
·  Research evidence
·  Evaluation
·  New Right (dependency culture)
·  Research evidence
·  Evaluation
· 
Week 7 / ·  Cultural
·  Research evidence
·  Evaluation
· 
·  Underclass
·  Research evidence
·  Evaluation of theory
Week 8 / ·  Conflict theories (Weber, Marx, Feminist) structural
·  Research evidence
·  Evaluation of theory
Week 9 / ·  As week 7
Week 10 / ·  Application of theories to questions about content, effects, power and control, representation of social groups

World Sociology

Week 1 / Defining development
·  Economic
·  Social
·  Patterns of development/ levels of poverty
Week 2 / ·  World development goals
·  Influence of the West/ ethnocentrism
·  Urbanisation
Week 3 / Modernisation theory
·  Interventionism
·  Social engineering
Week 4 / ·  Evaluation of modernisation theory
Week 5 / Dependency
·  History of dependency
·  New forms of colonialism
Week 6 / ·  World systems theory
·  Solutions to dependency
·  Evaluation
Week 7 / ·  World population growth and its impact
·  Gender issues
Week 8 / ·  Modernisation theory
·  Marginalisation
·  Exploitation
Week 9 / ·  Marxist- feminist ideas
·  Radical feminist ideas
·  Postmodern feminist ideas
·  Notion of inclusion
Week 10 / ·  Globalisation

Social Divisions

Week 1 / ·  Definition of differentiation
·  Examples such as Caste system
·  Class
Week 2 / ·  How is class measured?objective/subjective
Week 3 / Theories of stratification
·  Functionalist
·  Research evidence
·  Evaluation
·  Marxist
·  Research evidence
·  Evaluation
· 
Week 4 / ·  NeoMarxist
·  Research evidence
·  Evaluation
·  Weberian
·  Research evidence
·  Evaluation
Week 5 / ·  Interpretivism
·  Postmodernism
Week 6 / ·  Class inequalities
·  Evidence
·  Theories to explain class inequalities
Week 7 / ·  Gender inequalities
·  Evidence
·  Theories to explain gender inequalities
Week 8 / ·  Ethnic inequalities
·  Evidence
·  Theories to explain ethnic inequalities
·  Age inequalities
·  Evidence
·  Theories to explain age inequalities
· 
Week 9 / ·  As week 8
Week 10 / ·  Changes in social divisions
·  Social mobility
·  Conclusions

Please note:

These are not meant to be tablets of stone merely a guide to content. Teachers can move things around to suit their own time allocation. I worked on the notion of 8 hours per week.

As far as resources are concerned I have put together a short list of books that I have found to be quite useful but again there is no one book at the moment that I would say has it all.

I would suggest that teachers use a range of resources. Sociology Review can be very useful especially at A2 and is obviously full of contemporary material. It is a bit “heavy” sometimes and weaker students might struggle but it’s a great way of incorporating “stretch” for the more able. I have put together some ways of guiding students through articles and improving their ability to summarise which I am happy to share.

You should emphasise the importance of higher order skills at a2 (AO2) and try wherever possible to build tasks and activities to encourage the development of these skills. Again I have some ideas on how to do this.