Collections 4 | Introductory Sociology

The 4th set of Collections covers Introductory Sociology stuff such as culture, identity, socialisation and perspectives.

Although, when all’s-said-and-done it’s just a handy list of posts overing blog material from the past 10 years it’s quite nice to have it all in one place.

The Sociology Show Podcast: Starter Pack

Although I’ve previously posted about Mathew Wilkin’s Sociology Show Podcasts, I thought it might be helpful to draw your attention to a very specific podcast designed to provide students with a Starter Pack of information pertinent to the start of their new A-level Sociology course (or, if you’re listening in America, their new High School […]

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 […]

A Few More Sociology Knowledge Organisers

I think it’s probably fair to say that Knowledge Organisers / Learning Tables have become a well-established part of the A-level Sociology curriculum these past few years and while I’ve only posted one new set of examples over the past couple of years (the aptly-named New Selection) plus a rather-brilliant variation on the theme that […]

Mapping Gender Identities

The classical sociological distinction between “biological sex” and “cultural gender” is based on the idea of a more-or-less fixed binary biological classification (“male” and “female”) and a more-or-less fluid set of cultural characteristics (“masculinities” and “femininities”) that are, to some extent, associated with, or expressive of, these biological categories. In other words, classical concepts of […]

Sociological Insights: A Curated Collection of ASA Videos

The American Sociological Association seems to take a genuine interest in the study of sociology at all levels – from the humble High School classroom to the rarefied strata of postgraduate specialisms – and their latest initiative is the creation of what they’ve called Sociological Insights: “A curated collection of short videos, featuring sociologists sharing […]

Sociology Texts: Another Big Bundle of Free

One of the things we like to do on this blog is discover and post orphaned sociology textbooks – as in texts published sometime this century that have either gone out of print or been superseded by later, bigger, more-colourful, All-Singing-All-Dancing versions – for the benefit of teachers and students in these straitened economic times. […]

Sociology Delivery Guides

At some point around 2015 – presumably just in advance of the new Sociology Specification – the OCR Exam Board burst into action by creating not just the Lesson Elements previously posted and a short-but-useful set of Topic Exploration Packs (which, being OCR, they’ve since deleted so you can no-longer view them unless you’re an […]

Sociology Lesson Elements

This set of resources from the OCR Exam Board is, as you might expect, designed to support teaching and learning for their A-Level Specification. While some of the resources may fall outside the remit of other Sociology Specifications this isn’t to say that teachers of the latter won’t, with a little bit of judicious editing, […]

New Media: The Rise of the Selfie

Sociology Media Specifications have, in recent years, started to focus a little more on the rise of new forms of media, particularly social media like Facebook and Twitter, but one area that’s not particularly well-covered is the idea of Selfie culture – either as a personally-shareable form or, increasingly, as an integral aspect of something […]