Available for review. Files have been recovered and checked for integrity; final academic, visual and interactive QA remains unverified. The 189-lesson course plan does not mean 189 lesson packs are available.
Families & Households
What is Sociology?
Distinguish sociological explanation from common sense. Apply norms, values, status and role; link a pattern to a testable question.
Open lesson →How does society shape us?
Explain how an agent of socialisation shapes behaviour through a mechanism. Recognise agency and variation in outcomes.
Open lesson →Sociological perspectives
Compare consensus, conflict and social-action approaches. Interpret one family case through two perspectives and identify evidence needed.
Open lesson →What do we mean by family?
Distinguish family, household and kinship. Apply a stated definition and explain who it includes or excludes.
Open lesson →Is there a ‘normal’ family?
Separate prevalence from judgements about normality. Read a percentage using the correct denominator and recognise diversity within forms.
Open lesson →How do sociologists investigate families?
Compare quantitative and qualitative evidence. Justify a method using validity, reliability, sampling and ethical safeguards.
Open lesson →Why might society need families?
Explain functionalism and Murdock’s four functions. Apply two functions and question whether families are necessary to provide them.
Open lesson →How does the family support industrial society?
Explain Parsons’ functional fit and proposed family roles. Test assumptions about industrialisation, mobility and gender.
Open lesson →Does the family benefit everyone?
Distinguish a contribution from necessity and universal benefit. Evaluate functionalist claims using distribution and counterexamples.
Open lesson →Does capitalism need the family?
Explain Marxist links between family life, capitalism, inheritance, ideology and consumption. Distinguish a theory from established fact.
Open lesson →How does the family reproduce inequality?
Explain how family resources can reproduce class inequality. Distinguish income from wealth and correlation from causation.
Open lesson →Is the family patriarchal?
Apply patriarchy to domestic labour and power. Explain gendered care using a case while recognising differences between households.
Open lesson →Do feminists agree about the family?
Compare liberal, Marxist and radical feminist explanations. Link each diagnosis to change and use intersectionality to qualify generalisations.
Open lesson →Are relationships becoming more individualised?
Explain individualisation and late-modern relationship arguments. Distinguish these from postmodern accounts and evaluate unequal choice.
Open lesson →Can personal relationships explain family life?
Use Smart and Finch to explain connectedness and recognition. Relate personal meanings to material conditions and enduring obligations.
Open lesson →How diverse are families?
Apply the Rapoports’ dimensions of diversity. Distinguish life-course, cohort and period differences without treating culture as fixed.
Open lesson →Has family diversity become normal?
Distinguish prevalence, acceptance and desirability. Evaluate diversity using competing accounts, appropriate denominators and continuity over time.
Open lesson →Why has marriage changed?
Interpret marriage measures, explain two possible causes of change and distinguish postponement from non-marriage.
Open lesson →Why do couples cohabit?
Explain different cohabitation pathways, interpret an estimate with uncertainty and evaluate choice within constraints.
Open lesson →Why does divorce happen, and what changes afterwards?
Distinguish separation from divorce, explain social causes and evaluate varied consequences through specific mechanisms.
Open lesson →How have same-sex relationships changed family life?
Distinguish legal and social recognition, apply personal-life concepts and test claims about equality.
Open lesson →Why do lone-parent families differ?
Explain routes into lone parenthood, interpret the category accurately and connect resources with varied experiences.
Open lesson →How do families connect across households?
Distinguish reconstituted and extended ties, map care across households and evaluate residence-based categories.
Open lesson →Domestic labour
Distinguish paid work, housework and care. Compare conjugal-role arguments and explain how gender expectations shape domestic labour.
Open lesson →Equality in domestic labour
Evaluate claims that domestic labour has become more equal. Compare evidence, measures and explanations, including work and childcare conditions.
Open lesson →Dual burden and emotion work
Distinguish dual burden, emotion work and organising care. Explain why hours alone may miss unequal responsibility.
Open lesson →Decision-making and power
Distinguish visible decision-making from power over agendas and options. Evaluate explanations of unequal influence within relationships.
Open lesson →Money and financial power
Distinguish access to money, management and control. Explain how income, care, entitlements and dependence may shape financial power.
Open lesson →Domestic abuse
Explain sociological accounts of domestic abuse and coercive control. Evaluate evidence limits and avoid explanations that blame those harmed.
Open lesson →Childhood as a social construction
Explain childhood as a social construction. Compare expectations across time and social contexts while distinguishing age from social status.
Open lesson →Historical childhood
Evaluate accounts of historical childhood, including Ariès. Explain how evidence and class differences affect claims about change.
Open lesson →Has childhood improved?
Evaluate whether childhood has improved. Connect protection, education and family policy with unequal experiences and adult control.
Open lesson →Childhood inequalities
Explain differences in childhood experiences and opportunities. Apply intersecting inequalities without treating groups as homogeneous.
Open lesson →Age patriarchy
Explain age patriarchy and adult control over children’s lives. Evaluate agency, dependence and differences between contexts.
Open lesson →Modern childhood
Evaluate competing explanations of contemporary childhood. Relate media, consumption and policy to child-centredness, inequality and risk.
Open lesson →Birth rate
Distinguish birth rate, fertility and family size. Explain UK change since 1900 through economic, cultural, gender and policy factors.
Open lesson →Death rates and life expectancy
Distinguish death rates from life expectancy. Explain UK change since 1900 and social inequalities, allowing for population age structure.
Open lesson →Ageing population
Explain population ageing and its implications for families. Evaluate dependency, care and policy arguments without treating older people as a burden.
Open lesson →Migration globalisation and families
Distinguish immigration, emigration and net migration. Explain population change and transnational family practices, recognising policy constraints and inequalities.
Open lesson →How do social policies shape family life?
Define social policy and distinguish intentions, mechanisms and outcomes. Explain effects on family formation, care and resources using dated, jurisdiction-specific examples.
Open lesson →How do sociologists explain family policy?
Compare functionalist, New Right, feminist and Marxist accounts of family policy. Explain assumptions about care, dependence, gender and class; test their limits.
Open lesson →How far can policy change family life?
Evaluate policy effects across families and distinguish design, access, take-up and outcomes. Use a UK and international comparison without assuming policy alone causes change.
Open lesson →Synoptic challenge
Connect theories, evidence and state policy across the module. Select relevant material and build a sustained evaluative argument.
Open lesson →Timed assessment
Apply knowledge accurately under timed conditions. Interpret an item and sustain analysis and evaluation across the module.
Open lesson →Feedback and mastery
Use feedback to diagnose errors and improve reasoning. Demonstrate retention and transfer through a fresh task.
Open lesson →Education with Theory and Methods
Education as a social institution
Distinguish schooling from education and connect socialisation to unequal opportunity.
Open lesson →Durkheim and social solidarity
Explain shared values and specialist skills without assuming universal agreement.
Open lesson →Parsons and meritocracy
Distinguish particularistic and universalistic standards and examine role allocation.
Open lesson →Human capital and the economy
Explain skills investment and evaluate the link between qualifications and employment.
Open lesson →Marxism and correspondence
Explain how school organisation may reproduce workplace relations.
Open lesson →Resistance and social reproduction
Evaluate Willis's interpretation of resistance and its consequences.
Open lesson →Measuring educational achievement
Interpret attainment gaps using the correct population, measure and period.
Open lesson →Material resources and achievement
Explain how housing, income and study conditions may affect learning.
Open lesson →Cultural explanations of class differences
Evaluate language and parental-knowledge explanations without deficit assumptions.
Open lesson →Cultural capital and habitus
Apply Bourdieu to institutional recognition and unequal advantage.
Open lesson →Labelling and teacher expectations
Explain how labels can affect interaction and opportunity without assuming inevitability.
Open lesson →Grouping and the organisation of learning
Evaluate setting, streaming and access to curriculum.
Open lesson →Pupil subcultures and identities
Explain different responses to schooling and avoid fixed group stereotypes.
Open lesson →Class achievement explanations in combination
Evaluate interactions between external resources and school processes.
Open lesson →Gender patterns in attainment and choices
Interpret gender patterns without treating group averages as innate differences.
Open lesson →Changes beyond school and gender
Explain how employment, expectations and family change may affect educational participation.
Open lesson →Gendered experiences within school
Evaluate curriculum, interaction and identity in explanations of gender patterns.
Open lesson →Gender identities and subject choice
Explain how peer cultures and institutional options shape choices.
Open lesson →Ethnicity and achievement patterns
Interpret heterogeneous attainment patterns and distinguish ethnicity from other variables.
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