Sociology

Our Curriculum Intent

Sociology at The Howard aims to ‘bring out the best’ by developing students who have an understanding and awareness of the factors which can lead to diversity and difference in life, culture and society.  The broad curriculum gives the students to opportunity to engage in learning about content which analyses individual, group, local, national and global contexts of the social world. 

Students will explore a broad range of topics from Crime and Deviance to Education and Families.  Students will be given the opportunity to build a deep level of understanding about the factors which influence life chances and outcomes for a range of individuals and groups both in the national and global context.  They will also investigate trends based on social differentiation including the impact of class, gender, ethnicity, age and locality.

Students will be encouraged to critically evaluate a range of views on society and social change and compare and contrast influential factors on the shape of the social world.  They will reflect on legal, political, economic, religious, social and cultural influences on our society and the norms, values and trends historically and of the present. 

Students will be encouraged to think, write and speak like sociologists – using sociological research to inform arguments and to help them draw conclusions.  Students will learn how sociological research is gathered and be able to evaluate its usefulness based on methodological, ethical and theoretical considerations.