Sociology Shortcuts Magazine No.2: The Mass Media Issue
The first proper issue of Sociology Shortcuts Magazine (Issue No.1: Risk Society was basically just me doodling around on a new Desktop Publisher to see if I could produce some sort of “magazine format” document with it. Turns out I could) sees an expansion in pagination (as we Media Publishers say. Apparently) and the introduction […]
Augmented Reality: A Variable-Sum Game?
The distinction between digital optimism and digital pessimism is a well-known one in the sociology of the media and comparisons of their respective positions are a fairly commonplace feature of any discussion of the social impact of different forms of new media. This is particularly the case in relation to something like social media where […]
Media Methods and Representations: The Bechdel Test
The Bechdel Test is a very simple type of content analysis, created by Alison Bechdel in a 1985 episode (“The Rule”) of her comic-strip “Dykes to Watch Out For”, that tests how women – and by extension men – are historically represented in Hollywood films. Aside from throwing-up, so to speak, some interesting and frankly-quite-surprising […]
Five Functions of Identity
A great deal of discussion about identity in a-level Sociology can be fairly abstract and concerned with the mechanics of construction: how and why, for example, particular identities are created and assumed. In the midst of all this some relatively simple questions sometimes get obscured – an idea addressed by Adams and Marshall (1996) when […]
Rules of the Exam Game
One of the things that can be difficult to get students to grasp is the importance of exam technique: the idea that what they achieve in their final exam is not just a function of what they know but also of how they express what they know. Exams, in short, are a social process governed […]
Home Office Research Findings
Between 1992 and 2008 the Home Office published around 250 “Research Fundings” – a heady mixture of sociological research, British Crime Survey data, evaluations of crime policies and the like – in a short-form that consisted of 4 – 6 pages built around summaries of: Key Points Methods and Methodology (where relevant) Key Findings Conclusions. […]
Choose Sociology
“My name is Rachel and I’m a non-academic sociologist…” If you’re in any way involved in the process of enrolling students on sociology courses you’ll be familiar with the two basic questions students – and sometimes their parents – ask: What Is Sociology… This is the easier of the two to answer and since you’ll […]
Countdown to Culture
It’s a strange-but-true factette that in the 8 years – and nearly 800 posts – this blog has been active one post has stood head-and-shoulders above all others. Quite why an innocuous little post outlining 7 Functions of Culture should have garnered 30,000-odd views in the 5 years since it was first posted is anyone’s […]
Countdown to Revision
Or, to give it its full title the “Top Tip Revision Countdown List”. This is a short (2-minute) film I put together (and for “put” you should probably read “cobbled”) as a slightly different way of highlighting some of the things students should be doing – and avoiding – when and if they get down […]
Ask A Psychologist
In addition to offering free KS3 and 4 Debate Kits the “I’m A Scientist” web site also features a dedicated Psychology Zone, funded by The British Psychological Society, (other Zones – Health, Helium and Molecule – are available should you be interested), the main purpose of which is to enable students to participate in short […]
GCSE Sociology: Debate Kits
One of the Good Things about Teaching (and, indeed, Learning) Sociology is that it offers up plentiful opportunities for classroom discussion in ways that can be a hugely-beneficial teaching and learning experience. A main downside to building discussions into your lesson plan is, of course, that without a strong structure designed to get students to […]
Foucault and Introducing Sociology?
I always found giving students an “Introduction to Sociology” – whether as part of a recruitment or induction process, first lesson or whatever – something of a chore because it was difficult to: a. Sum-up Sociology in a short, pithy-yet-evocative sentence or two. b. Build on the description I offered to get students to reflect […]
Sociology Magazine No.1: Risk Society:
Some time ago we shelled-out for new Publishing software to replace the tried-and-trusted PagePlus we’d been using for donkey’s years. It’s replacement, Affinity Publisher, was not so much a change as a continuity under another name: Affinity is published by Serif who also published PagePlus (please keep up at the back). To cut a long […]
AQA GCSE Sociology: Core studies
The AQA GCSE Sociology Specification helpfully lists 25 “Core Studies” that it describes as: “A list of readily available classic and seminal texts that will help introduce students to sociology, stimulate their ‘sociological imagination’ and develop their ability to compare and contrast different sociological perspectives”. And while the Spec. is careful to point-out that “These […]
Harry Potter and the Functions of Crime?
Teaching something like Durkheim and the Functions of Crime can sometimes be a little difficult for students to grasp, so one way to make it more accessible might be to teach it by associating it with something more well-known and accessible, such as the Harry Potter books. More-specifically, Jenn Simms has drawn parallels between the […]