‘Sociology has expanded my worldview as it explores many factors that affect society such as institutional racism in education. It is very thought-provoking to learn about different sociological perspectives.’
‘The sociology of knowledge is concerned with the analysis of the social construction of reality’
Peter L. Berger
FAQs
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Sociology is the study of society and social groups. It links to a variety of subjects including Psychology, Philosophy, Politics, Economics, History and Geography. If you enjoy these at GCSE or are considering them at A Level, you will enjoy A Level Sociology!
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The first ten lessons of the A Level sociology course are introductory lessons; GCSE Sociology students will be familiar with the concepts covered over these lessons, however, we do them to make sure everyone has the same footing and knowledge before continuing with the rest of the course.
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We introduce to new topics at A Level: culture and identity and mass media. These build on prior sociological knowledge whilst also exploring new concepts and theories. We also study education, and crime and deviance. Whilst these topics will be familiar from GCSE Sociology, we cover them in more detail and look at sociologists and theories you would not have covered before including Left Realism and Right Realism.
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When studying culture and identity, we look at how culture might have changed. We look at whether one culture, for example American culture, has taken over or whether cultures have mixed together to create hybrid cultures. In terms of identity, we look at how identity is formed and how it is influenced by social characteristics like sex and class.
In year 12, we also explore education. We look at why statistical girls are achieving more highly than boys in both exams and coursework. We also look at whether teachers label students and how students react to these labels.
Moving on to year 13, we look at mass media, we explore who owners the media and how the media has changed. We also look at different types of media including radio and print media up to the present day where we analysis social media and the impacts it has had. We look at how social characteristics like sex, class, sexuality, disability etc. are represented in the Media.
Also, in year 13 we explore crime and deviance, we look at what social groups commit crime and the reasons why. We also look at the criminal justice system and ask questions such as are the police institutionally racist, and do they focus on certain types of crime e.g. working class crime like assault rather than middle class crimes like fraud.