Sociology
Course Content
Sociology is the study of contemporary society and of people and their behaviour; class, age, race, place, gender. Sociologists look at social issues, cultures, equality, status, norms, roles and so much more. From these they have developed a number of theories, looking at, for example, whether Society determines who we are and how we behave ( Structuralists ), or do people shape and change Society their ideas an actions (the social action view)? Is Society formed by consensus or conflict?
In our introduction to Sociology we shall look at life, from birth, how we are bought up and we learn our ideas and values.
Our first topic is the Family. We shall investigate the functions of the family, the types of families, the issues within the family( Roles, status, demands, etc), divorce, childhood, the ‘dark side’ of the family and so on.
Our second unit is Education. What is it? How is it done? There are gender issues, class issues, race issues, examination issues, issues of status and authority and the concept of failure.
Running through these, but also examined, is the study of Research Methods. How do we know what we know? Which is better, a questionnaire or an interview? Observations ? Samples? Collecting and using data? All of these impact on our knowledge and need to be studied for their effective and effectiveness.
We have a range of textbooks and videos, but we also use the media very widely, ICT, film, the news, newspapers, and magazines.