Sociology GCSE

[theophilus]

Any thoughts or recent experience of studying for GCSE in Sociology(AQA

board); daughter choosing options and currently favours this over History

I would actively discourage a child of mine from doing an applied subject that should not be examined below degree level over a standard facilitating subject.

agree with talkinpeace - history much, much more useful than sociology which shouldn't imo be offered for A-level let alone GCSE

Thank you 'talkinpeace' and 'basildon bond'; kind of thought that might be the case

I disagree. I studied Sociology to A-level (albeit many years ago) and it has given me a knowledge and understanding of how history and culture impact people and society.

OP, this is a GCSE, I assume it is one if many that your DD is taking, so what do you fear will happen if she takes Sociology over History?

I took sociology as a GCSE, when I was doing a year of retakes. It was engaging, challenging and interesting. I enjoyed studying it.

Thank you 'Dianethediabolist' and 'MaggiemaggiemaggieMcGill';

My daughter has tasked me with trying to gauge opinion from somewhere, as she is somewhat of two minds over the choice; and as she would be starting from scratch with Sociology, making such a choice is going to be based on hunch without input such as yours.

It really depends on the child. I would have discouraged dd- highly academic, likely (we thought at the time) to want to go to a good university, very motivated to do her best in any subject. But if ds- unsure of himself, not at all engaged in his studies, very negative about education- were to be attracted to any subject that might just get his attention, he would have my blessing.

I don't quite understand that cory, the non academic comment.
My ds1 is doing sociology GCSE. He is also doing the standard core subjects, triple science, ICT, Business, French, History and geography.
And Spanish as a twilight subject.

I don't see why he should have been discouraged from taking a subject that interests him.

The problem with taking social science at school is not that the subject is not hard enough or intrinsically not academic enough but that you really cannot pick more than a very trivial understanding of it over a 2 year course if you are doing it with lots of other subjects. Thus is teaches you what sociologists look at but does not teach you how to do sociology. History is taught all the way though and so by the time it gets to KS4 children can actually start to have some interesting thoughts, i would do sociology as well as history but not instead of

DD is taking Sociology from scratch based on a trial lesson in Y8 and loves it - she is taking History & Sociology instead of my preferred choice which would have been History & Geography and in retrospect I'm glad I let her study a subject she's genuinely enthused by.

However I wouldn't have been happy for her to do Sociology as the sole humanity (not even sure if this was possible) as I'd have worried this might limit her future options. (I'd have been fine with her doing Geography & Sociology as well).

If she wanted to do it at degree level, I'd dissuade her from taking it at A-level in favour of a rounder range of subjects before specialising. But clearly - going by notfluffy's experience - it can also be a perfectly good choice at A-level with the right combo of other subjects.

notfluffy i think even though many subjects are oversimplified at GSCE they still manage to teach something about the methodology
so science teaches about experiments, deduction, testing, prediction
history teaches "how do we know?"

Thank you all for your observations; DD ( decision day,in this case!) is in 2 weeks;

I shall post which way she chooses

Your comments have been very constructive

Conscious this thread is from 2013, but I find myself/ DD in the same situation as the OP with a choice between History (favoured by DH and me) and Sociology (towards which DD is leaning).

A few salient facts:
DD not massively academically motivated, currently predicted/targeted 7s in most subjects;

School offers 9 GCSEs only. RE is compulsory so she only gets 3 actual choices, of which this would be her only other humanity, alongside 2 x science, an MFL and one practical subject

We are a very politically-engaged family and have a daily print newspaper delivered (yes it is the Guardian, however did you guess?). DD has never before shown an iota of interest in current events or the subjects to be covered in the sociology course: crime, social stratification, families and households and education.

She was all set to do History until idiot DH pushed her towards it as an alternative to the practical subject on the options evening.

I was interested to read some of the responses to the original thread and would be grateful for any insights, especially if you have DC studying Sociology yourselves.

How important is the EBac for Uni applications? The school are quite laid-back about it.

I do also think the curriculum of the History course - which includes the Depression and Civil Rights movement in the US, the history of medicine and the Cold War - would also give her an invaluable grounding in the origins of so much of what's happening in the world right now.

Am I over-thinking this? Does it really matter? Is Sociology still regarded as a 2nd tier subject at GCSE/A Level? (I'd be all for her taking a degree in it)

(Regular poster NC'ing to protect DD's anonymity!)

EBac doesn't matter.
There are no 'easy' GCSEs under the new system.

Talk to her about your concerns about how interesting she would find it, but let her make her own decision.

It depends what else she is doing.

If you have the solid 'core' or 8 or 9 academic subjects, then I think doing 'one for fun' (or two, depending on how many free choices available) is a good thing.

History is, I think, the more useful subject. The terminology of 'facilitating' subjects has been formally dropped since this thread was started, but that doesn't mean the concept is dead. But despite that, I think that doing one subject just for the joy of doing it is also important.

I think there is a lot to be said for having a fun subject, GCSE can all get a bit dry at times, school can be a bit dry full stop in the GCSE years.

Obviously 'fun' depends on the child.

I wouldn't worry about the Ebacc, @MetroMadame, that's not really a thing despite government attempts to make it so.

But I have to say, personally, I think your DD's History course sounds brilliant! The Depression, Civil Rights movement and history of medicine seems like a really interesting selection and if she has a good teacher could be very engaging.

Thank you all!

@TeenPlusCat @thing47 I'm reassured that the EBac isn't important (tbf the school also said it was a govt thing). I agree the history course sounds brilliant, and we have been talking to DD about the pros/cons. To give her credit, she's even listening for a change.

@meditrina @sashh I completely agree with the 'one for fun' theory, but she's already got that with her practical subject, so this is one of only 3 actual options she has, alongside the MFL. So this would be her only humanity aside from compulsory RE.

I'm trying not to let my own feelings cloud my judgment, and ultimately should probably step away and let her make her own decisions but she's only 13 so it's hard!

(If she was at all interested in social affairs that would be different of course )

I did it for GCSEs 7 years ago and loved it! I took history too but value my sociology gcse over it by far. It was a bit of a risk choosing it as I had no idea what it was really about but it ended up being the only subject I ever truly enjoyed. I despised school but always looked forward to sociology. It is incredibly interesting.