EPQ advice

[OldWivesTale]

My dd has just started A levels and is taking English lit, sociology and RE. She also has to do an EPQ and is in the process of deciding on a topic/question. She decided that she would like to do something along the lines of capitalism / the American Dream in Arthur Miller's plays - Death of a Salesman, All My Sons and The Misfits maybe. She's not doing any Miller at all on her A level syllabus but they are covering capitalism / communism as part of sociology - I'm not sure in how much depth though. Her tutor has told her that she can't do anything to do with capitalism in Miller's work because that would be overlapping with the sociology course. She's told her that she could do western perceptions of communism but she's not allowed to discuss Capitalism or Karl Marx ( as they "cover" him in sociology) as part of this.

All of this sounds bizarre to me. Surely if she's effectively choosing to do a literature paper she can look at capitalism in relation to those specific plays? And surely if she's doing western perceptions of communism then that's not possible without also discussing capitalism and Karl Marx?

Any sixth form teachers or anyone with EPQ knowledge that can give advice? It seems to me that her tutor is being a bit literal with her interpretation of not overlapping content. Or maybe I'm wrong?

Anyone?

I only know what I have read on MN, but I know they don't like overlapping content.
Suggest you also post on Further Education where the 6th form parents hang out.
If it's her tutor telling her though she'll need to listen won't she, as the tutor marks it (is that right?)

I think the school is just playing very safe (it would be awful if your DC had invested a lot of effort into the EPQ to have it rendered inadmissable).

DD had a similar issue in that she was told her EPQ topic was "Too similar" to something in her A Level, whereas DD thought she was looking at a topic that wasn't covered in her A Level and was only slightly linked to ones that were. I guess the argument might be that the EPQ work material might come into the category of wider reading/understanding for the A Level.

I guess the thing is she doesn't need to pick capitalism as a main topic (if it is covered as a main topic in sociology).
She could pick something related but not covered in sociology eg (and I'm making this up here) gender roles, racism, portrayal of class? Though then maybe the plays would need to change too?

Hi, I line manager the EPQ co-ordinator at my school as part of my Ho6 role. The issue with her writing about capitalism and/or communism is that this would need to include a discussion of the key terms and thinkers involved, and this would lead to a direct link to the sociology A Level. However, if she looked at it from the point of view of a question more specifically based on a literature focus I.e. ‘What are the key themes in Miller’s work?’ or ‘What literary techniques did Miller use to project key themes in his work?’ rather than say ‘How did Miller portray capitalism?’ then she could reduce the direct link to capitalism and at this point I personally would approve the title despite her doing sociology.

OK, thanks everyone. It looks like she's going to have to choose something different then, I think.

So, do you think that if she did the "key themes of Miller's work" and then talked about his criticism of capitalism / the myth of the American Dream/ the American family etc - then that would be OK? I just find it hard to get my head around as so many subjects overlap in reality.