Sociology

Subject Overview

Sociology is taught at Key Stage 5 (AS and A Level).

Year 13

• Education and methods in context: You will consider the role of education in society. For example, as part of your studies you’ll look into gender and ethnicity differences in school achievement. You will also learn how to apply your own sociology research methods to the study of education.
• Research methods: You will learn how to conduct your own sociological research, from interviews to reviewing documents and official statistics.

You will also study the following optional topic:

• Families and households: You will study an introduction to the family, perspectives and policies of the family, changing roles in the family, demographics and childhood.

In the second year of the A-level you will broaden your understanding of society:

Year 14

• Crime and deviance with theory and methods: You will learn about criminal and

deviant behaviour, including factors that might lead a person to follow this path in life and how the media portrays them

• Theory and methods: you will expand on your knowledge of research methods and study theory and methods.

You’ll also study the following optional topics:

• Beliefs in society: In this unit you will study: Ideology, Science and Religion, Religion Social Change and Social Stability, Religious Organisations, Religious / Spiritual organisations and social groups and the significance of religion and religiosity in the contemporary world.

What skills will I develop?

• Understand group dynamics and diverse perspectives
• Construct and dissect persuasive arguments
• Collect, manage, and analyse complex forms of data
• Communicate effectively through written and oral presentation

Possible career paths include:

• Crime analyst
• Solicitor or Barrister
• Paralegal
• Law clerk
• Police officer
• Probation officer

• Social service case worker

• Health care service administration
• Human resource manager
• Market researchers and advertiser
• Teacher
• Survey researcher
• Data analyst
• Professor
• And many more!