Curriculum Intent
Sociology Curriculum Intent
“The difficulty, in sociology, is to manage to think in a completely astonished and disconcerted way about things you thought you had always understood.” (Pierre Bourdieu)
Sociology is the study of society. Everyone brings with them their own life experiences to create a foundation of knowledge and understanding of key institutions such as family, education, criminality and religion but in sociology we re-examine these ‘social facts’ and look at them in a new light. We explore biases that exist in the world that mean that one person’s experience of the world can be dramatically different to another, often on the grounds of gender, social class or ethnicity. Sociology teaches students to be critical of the world and the ideas they are presented with, never accepting anything as fact. Acute awareness of the local, national and international political landscape provides students with a context from which to understand change over time and within different societies.
The sociology curriculum is delivered by subject specialists, expertly placed to deliver core knowledge within the context of the modern world on a local and global scale. Students will be enabled to use their existing knowledge and understanding from geography and personal development to create strong foundations from which they are able to create an increasingly detailed and evidence-based understanding of human behaviour. The curriculum has been designed to cultivate a synoptic mind; students will utilise skills and knowledge of different aspects of their learning alongside examples drawn from their own experiences. Students will understand the significance of conflict and consensus theories, social structure and social action theories, and the role of values in understanding society. Students will explore the role of socialisation and how that impacts on our knowledge experience of the world.
Students will be facilitated to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of sociological concepts, theories, research studies, research methods and ethical issues. Research skills; in design, practicality and analysis; being paramount. Students will be able to compare theories or ideas and evaluate their usefulness in terms of the amount of insight into the workings of society that they provide. Students will be facilitated to explain and analyse sociological concepts through lengthy discussion, both through writing reasoned arguments reaching a rational conclusion and by articulating this process in discussion and debate. Arguments will be evidence based and based on credible, reliable sources of information.
The curriculum has been sequenced to provide carefully chunked lessons that have been planned to maximise student exposure to a number of different sociological approaches and perspectives. Students will be scaffolded to build their knowledge and supported on their learning journey through towards the application of this knowledge. Questioning from teachers and peers in a safe space will afford students the opportunity to deepen their thinking. Students will be able to apply their knowledge to unique situations and are given chances to do so based on current events on a regular basis. Students will have excellent literacy skills and will be exposed to a variety of information sources from news articles and published research. Students are provided regularly with developmental feedback and NA6 study challenges are used to consolidate and further their understanding. Examination style questions will be used throughout but in Year 13 the focus will be on the recall, retrieval and application of year one (12) content.