Sociology

Course summary

You will study a range of introductory topics in Sociology in Year 12. Integral parts of the course will be addressed, including theories and the design of the research. Core themes (socialisation, culture and identity, social differentiation, power, and stratification) will also be explored. You will focus on the topic of Education to consider the effects of policies, external factors and internal traits on educational performance and opportunities. In studying the Sociology of Health, you will consider the effect of policies, the social construction of health, models of health, inequalities in the provision of, and access to, health care, mental illness, the role of medicine, and the globalised health industry. In Year 13, you will build upon your knowledge of core themes, key perspectives, and methods through the study of Crime and Deviance and the Media. You will explore social order and social control; the social distribution of crime and deviance by ethnicity, gender, and social class; the media and crime; green crime; human rights and state crimes; crime control; and the role of the criminal justice system and other agencies. You will evaluate the impact of the new media in contemporary society; the relationship between ownership and control of the media; globalisation and popular culture; selection and presentation of news; and the relationship between the media, their content and presentation, and audiences.