Visual Sociology: Picturing Inequality
As regular readers of this blog will know, I’m a big fan of using graphic material (pictures and illustrations rather than examples of extreme physical violence) to both illustrate sociological ideas and encourage students to think a little more deeply about such ideas and how they can be applied to increase their depth of sociological […]
Chinese Parents’ Involvement in Children’s Education
Regular readers of this blog will be aware that from time-to-time we’ve been able to feature research done by Richard Driscoll’s Sociology A-level students at the Shenzhen College of International Education in China and the latest study to come our way, by Ma Jia Ying, looks at the involvement of Chinese parents in decisions made […]
15 | Youth: Part 4
Although the concept of “youth culture” – a ‘shared way of life’, with its own distinctive roles, values, norms, beliefs and practices, common to young people and different to other generational groups (such as the elderly) – has a certain face validity, it’s not one that has a great deal of sociological currency in contemporary […]
BBC “Analysis” Podcasts
Over the past 10 years BBC Radio 4’s Analysis series has created a range of podcasts “examining the ideas and forces which shape public policy in Britain and abroad, presented by distinguished writers, journalists and academics”. There are over 200 podcasts to trawl through, many of which won’t be of any interest or use to sociology […]
Education and the New Right: The 3 “C’s”
Working backwards in the alphabet, as you do, the second element to Boyd’s (1991) characterization of new Right approaches to education (the first is here if you missed it) focuses on the “3 C’s”: Character, Content and Choice. 1. Character refers to the notion of moral character and, more-importantly from a New Right perspective, how […]
Education and the New Right: The 5 “D’s”
If you want a simple, straightforward and memorable (possibly) way to sum-up New Right approaches to education, you could do worse than adopt Boyd’s (1991) characterisation of the “5 Ds” of the New Right perception of the role of education and training in contemporary English / Western societies: 1. Disestablishment: The school system should be […]
Connecting Walls Collection
CBSC Sociology has been busy creating and posting a huge number of revision Connecting Walls on Twitter and, in the spirit of “pinching other people’s stuff and sharing it with a wider audience”, I’ve pulled all their tweets together into one handy blog post for your – and your students’ – greater convenience. So, if […]
School Climate: A different dimension to differential educational achievement?
The relationship between social class – or socio-economic status (SES) if you prefer – and differential educational achievement is well-known at A-level and students are expected to discuss and evaluate a range of possible factors / explanations for this relationship; these are usually grouped, largely for theoretical convenience, into “outside school” and “inside school” factors, […]
A-Level Revision: Education
As an addendum to the Revision Booklets post, here’s one I missed earlier – an extensive revision booklet for AS Education produced by Greenhead College. As you might expect from a Sociology department consistently ranked as outstanding by Ofsted their approach is: Thorough – the booklet includes a comprehensive set of revision notes. Informative – […]
GCSE Revision Resources
While it’s probably fair to say that teacher-created GCSE revision resources are a bit thin on the ground (and take a bit of finding), there are useful resources “out there” if you’re prepared to do a lot of searching. To save you the time and trouble, here’s some I found earlier (the quality’s a bit […]
Sociology Factsheets: To Buy or DIY?
Like all good ideas, this one is simple but effective. Distil topic notes into key knowledge points, add illustrative examples and brief overviews of advantages and disadvantages, throw in some exam tips and short “test yourself” questions, call it a factsheet and sell it at a very reasonable price to teachers – which is exactly […]
Yet More Sociology Stuff: Education
A few more pdf pages from the inestimable pen of Mark Peace that, in no particular order (and with no particular logic), cover the following: Natural Intelligence Introduction to education Vocational education Private education Class and DEA – inside school factors DEA – Cultural difference theory
Sociological Detectives: Evidence Summary Sheet
To complement the Theory Summary sheet you can combine it with the Evidence Summary sheet that performs a similar function within the Sociological Detectives sim. In this respect it provides: A basic structure for students to follow when making notes about the different kinds of evidence they can use to support or question theoretical explanations […]
Sociological Detectives: Theory Summary Sheet
If you’re using the Sociological Detectives sim you might find this simple Theory Summary sheet useful because it provides a couple of helpful things: A basic structure for students to follow when examining different theories of differential educational achievement. It allows them to record information in a simple, consistent, way. If you’re sharing information around […]
The Sociological Detectives: DEA
In this sim students take the role of “sociological detectives” investigating the reasons for differential educational achievement. Broadly, the sim involves: The accompanying PowerPoint is designed to help you develop this structure and while it’s not essential it can help to both set and explain the scene by introducing the idea of suspects, theory development […]