Sociology 2007
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education 2007 ISBN 978 1 84482 711 4 All QAA's publications are available on our website www.qaa.ac.uk Printed copies of current publications are available from: Linney Direct Adamsway Mansfield NG18 4FN Tel 01623 450788 Fax 01623 450481 Email qaa@linneydirect.com Registered charity numbers 1062746 and SC037786
Contents Preface Foreword iii v Defining principles 1 Nature and extent of sociology 2 Subject knowledge and understanding 2 Subject-specific skills and other skills 3 Teaching, learning and assessment 4 Benchmark standards 5 Appendix A - Membership of the review group for the subject benchmark statement for sociology 9 Appendix B - Membership of the original benchmarking group for sociology 10
Preface Subject benchmark statements provide a means for the academic community to describe the nature and characteristics of programmes in a specific subject or subject area. They also represent general expectations about standards for the award of qualifications at a given level in terms of the attributes and capabilities that those possessing qualifications should have demonstrated. This subject benchmark statement, together with others published concurrently, refers to the bachelor's degree with honours 1. In addition, some subject benchmark statements provide guidance on integrated master's awards. Subject benchmark statements are used for a variety of purposes. Primarily, they are an important external source of reference for higher education institutions (HEIs) when new programmes are being designed and developed in a subject area. They provide general guidance for articulating the learning outcomes associated with the programme but are not a specification of a detailed curriculum in the subject. Subject benchmark statements also provide support to HEIs in pursuit of internal quality assurance. They enable the learning outcomes specified for a particular programme to be reviewed and evaluated against agreed general expectations about standards. Subject benchmark statements allow for flexibility and innovation in programme design and can stimulate academic discussion and debate upon the content of new and existing programmes within an agreed overall framework. Their use in supporting programme design, delivery and review within HEIs is supportive of moves towards an emphasis on institutional responsibility for standards and quality. Subject benchmark statements may also be of interest to prospective students and employers, seeking information about the nature and standards of awards in a given subject or subject area. The relationship between the standards set out in this document and those produced by professional, statutory or regulatory bodies for individual disciplines will be a matter for individual HEIs to consider in detail. This subject benchmark statement represents a revised version of the original published in 2000. The review process was overseen by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) as part of a periodic review of all subject benchmark statements published in this year. The review and subsequent revision of the subject benchmark statement was undertaken by a group of subject specialists drawn from and acting on behalf of the subject community. The revised subject benchmark statement went through a full consultation with the wider academic community and stakeholder groups. QAA publishes and distributes this subject benchmark statement and other subject benchmark statements developed by similar subject-specific groups. 1 This is equivalent to the honours degree in the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (level 10) and in the Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales (level 6). iii
The Disability Equality Duty (DED) came into force on 4 December 2006 2. The DED requires public authorities, including HEIs, to act proactively on disability equality issues. The Duty complements the individual rights focus of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and is aimed at improving public services and outcomes for disabled people as a whole. Responsibility for making sure that such duty is met lies with HEIs. The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) has published guidance 3 to help HEIs prepare for the implementation of the Duty and provided illustrative examples on how to take the duty forward. HEIs are encouraged to read this guidance when considering their approach to engaging with components of the Academic Infrastructure 4, of which subject benchmark statements are a part. Additional information that may assist HEIs when engaging with subject benchmark statements can be found in the DRC revised Code of Practice: Post-16 Education 5, and also through the Equality Challenge Unit 6 which is established to promote equality and diversity in higher education. 2 In England, Scotland and Wales 3 Copies of the guidance Further and higher education institutions and the Disability Equality Duty, guidance for principals, vice-chancellors, governing boards and senior managers working in further education colleges and HEIs in England, Scotland and Wales, may be obtained from the DRC at www.drc-gb.org/employers_and_service_provider/disability_equality_duty/sectoralguidance/further_and_ higher_education.aspx 4 An explanation of the Academic Infrastructure, and the roles of subject benchmark statements within it, is available at www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure 5 Copies of the DRC revised Code of Practice: Post-16 Education may be obtained from the DRC at www.drc-gb.org/employers_and_service_provider/education/higher_education.aspx 6 Equality Challenge Unit, www.ecu.ac.uk iv
Foreword In 2005, QAA invited the subject community for sociology to review the subject benchmark statement originally agreed in 2000. The British Sociological Association (BSA) convened a small drafting group to review the original subject benchmark statement for sociology. The review group agreed that the original subject benchmark statement continues to serve its purpose and therefore only minor revisions and clarification were necessary. This enabled the review group to take account of changes in the discipline as well as of changes in the regulatory framework of United Kingdom (UK) universities and to propose minor revisions to the subject benchmark statement. The review group met once in November 2006 under the auspices of the BSA with support from QAA. The revised subject benchmark statement also takes into account those documents published since 2000 such as The framework for higher education qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. June 2007 v
1 Defining principles 1.1 Change is intrinsic to social life, and this drives sociology's dynamic character. There is a lasting concern for a number of overarching issues, though these are themselves subject to recurrent re-appraisal. These include: the relationship between individuals and groups social action and social structure biography and history social institutions and culture the underpinnings of social order social inequality and conflict diverse cultural practices, and the causes and consequences of social change. 1.2 Sociology is both theoretical and evidence-based. As a theoretical discipline, its concerns relate directly to the other social science disciplines. Its concerns also relate to those of philosophy and political theory, as well as to practical ethics and to social, public and civic policy. No single theoretical framework should dominate the discipline, and there are numerous, legitimate, sources of theoretical diversity. What is essential to the subject is that students learn to appraise theories and to assess them in relation to evidence. 1.3 As an evidence-based discipline, sociology insists on the scrutiny and evidenced reassessment of everyday understandings of the social world. It is a discipline in which theoretical considerations and epistemological scepticism are combined with an appreciation of the need to establish firm grounds for our knowledge of the social. It employs a wide diversity of research strategies and methods, many of which are shared with other disciplines, and it shares broad generic skills with many other areas of enquiry. Its distinctive ways of knowing and understanding, however, are rooted in sociological perspectives and insights. 1.4 Sociology is a reflexive discipline that aims to develop a critical awareness of the social world. Those who study the social world are, at the same time, members of that world, and sociology aims to encourage self-reflection on the nature of our knowledge of the social. 1.5 Sociological knowledge provides a basis for examining and evaluating social, public, and civic policy. 1.6 Sociology graduates should understand the distinctively social standpoint of sociology and the explanatory value of social analysis. This necessarily includes familiarity with the analysis of a variety of forms of human interaction, from micro to macro, their interconnections and their dynamics. 1.7 Students of sociology should be able to appreciate the use of sociological insights. The systematic connection which sociologists make between the individual and the social is an important expression of this. Understanding the role and significance of theory and evidence in the discipline is also a key element in subject knowledge and innovative thinking in sociology. page 1
2 Nature and extent of sociology 2.1 Sociology is concerned with developing knowledge and understanding of human life and human interactions from a distinctively social perspective. It focuses on the social relations that connect individuals, groups, institutions as well as people and nations. When studying and researching the characteristics, understandings and social practices of individuals themselves, it does so from the standpoint of their connectedness with others in the present. This connectedness is mediated by contexts arising from the effects of social relations in the past. 2.2 Sociology is a core social science discipline and, as such, it feeds into many other areas of study concerning the human world, and learns from them in the development and application of theoretical and methodological approaches to the search for social descriptions and explanations. It maintains a distinctive concern for the social dimensions of human interactions, both in the public and the private sphere. Through analysis and research, it informs debates about society and contributes to discussions with other disciplines, public policy makers and in the public media. 2.3 An understanding of the distinctive social features of human life is largely a product of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but sociology is not restricted to the study of contemporary societies. A sociological perspective is fruitfully employed in historical, cross-cultural and transnational comparative studies of changing forms of human life. Sociology seeks to understand how and why societies, institutions and practices of all kinds came into being, change over time and how they are currently organised, and the likely impact of this on human life and the human environment in the future. 2.4 Specialisms within sociology necessarily change as its objects of study are themselves transformed. The discipline, its conceptual frameworks and research practices alter in relation to the diverse and changing social contexts in which sociologists work. This means that the disciplinary boundaries of sociology and its relations to other disciplines shift, though its core is devoted to the distinctive perspective of 'the social' in human life of individual and collective interactions. 3 Subject knowledge and understanding 3.1 This subject benchmark statement applies to honours degrees in sociology or combined honours degrees where sociology comprises at least 50 per cent of the curriculum in the final or honours year. It will be for providers of higher education (HE) to decide if other degrees they provide fall within the scope of this subject benchmark statement and to determine its applicability to honours degrees where sociology forms less than 50 per cent of the curriculum in the final or honours years. 3.2 Details of the aims, objectives and content of individual programmes in sociology will be found in the programme specifications or other documentation produced by HE providers. However, it is likely that all programmes will address the following areas of sociological knowledge and understanding: key concepts and theoretical approaches that have been developed and are developing within sociology an awareness of social context, of the nature of social processes, and of social diversity and inequality page 2
an understanding of the value of comparative analysis an understanding of the relationship between individuals, groups and social institutions an understanding of the role of culture in social life an understanding of the social processes underpinning social change an understanding of a range of qualitative and quantitative research strategies and methods an understanding of the relationship between sociological argument and evidence an awareness of the distinctive character of sociology in relation to other forms of understanding, such as its relation to other disciplines and to everyday explanations. 3.3 The specifications and criteria set out in this document are intended to provide a broad framework within which HE providers can develop their own sociology programmes. This subject benchmark statement specifies the learning outcomes - the abilities, competencies and skills - that an honours graduate in sociology will have acquired through their study of the discipline. The document does not specify mode of study or the learning methods by which the student is enabled to achieve the outcomes, as it is intended to be used in conjunction with HE providers' own teaching/learning policies. The content of the curriculum through which the learning outcomes are developed will also be the responsibility of individual HE providers. 4 Subject-specific skills and other skills 4.1 At undergraduate honours degree level, students of sociology are expected to develop a wide range of different skills and abilities including the ability to work autonomously, make independent judgements, and the ability to work in groups. These may be divided into three broad categories: i ii iii general cognitive abilities and skills discipline-specific abilities and skills, defined as core capacities within the discipline of sociology itself transferable skills that may be gained by studying sociology. 4.2 The study of sociology enables students to acquire a number of cognitive abilities and skills. These may be acquired in a range of teaching and learning situations, enabling students to develop competence in: judging and evaluating evidence appreciating the complexity and diversity of social situations assessing the merits of competing theories and explanations gathering, retrieving, and synthesising information making reasoned arguments page 3
interpreting evidence and texts developing the ability to reflect on their own accumulation of knowledge. 4.3 The range of discipline specific abilities that students would normally be expected to develop during their undergraduate programme include: the ability to formulate and investigate sociologically informed questions competence in using major theoretical perspectives and concepts in sociology, and their application to social life the capacity to analyse, assess and communicate empirical sociological information the ability to identify a range of qualitative and quantitative research strategies and methods and to comment on their relative advantages and disadvantages the ability to conduct sociological research in a preliminary way the ability to undertake and present scholarly work the ability to understand the ethical implications of sociological enquiry the ability to recognise the relevance of sociological knowledge to social, public and civic policy. 4.4 Sociology students should have access to the opportunity to develop further transferable skills in the following areas: learning and study skills written and oral communication skills in a variety of contexts and modes statistical and other quantitative techniques information retrieval skills in relation to primary and secondary sources of information communication and information technology skills skills of time planning and management group work skills. 5 Teaching, learning and assessment 5.1 The learning process and curriculum should be designed in such a way as to provide evidence that the student has been given the opportunity to attain the required benchmark standards in all areas of performance. The assessments must be designed to enable students to demonstrate that they have achieved an appropriate level of achievement in the required areas. How students are taught and accredited is determined by individual HEIs. Recommendations are, however, made concerning teaching, learning and assessment methods. page 4
5.2 Students studying for an honours degree in sociology should have access to a range of supportive learning resources including: academic staff who are themselves engaged in scholarly activities a range of paper and electronic resources including texts, monographs and journals computing resources including hardware, software and the necessary technical support. 5.3 Student learning is advanced in lectures, seminars, workshops, computing laboratory classes, tutorials, visits to external sites, and group and individual projects. 5.4 There are a number of distinctive features of sociological knowledge which have implications for learning and teaching. As sociology seeks to generalise on the basis of evidence, it is neither purely deductive nor purely descriptive. Theorisation has to be disciplined by evidence, and interpretation has to be guided by the development and testing of theory. Consequently, students should be given the opportunity to acquire capacities of thinking in both abstract and concrete terms, and the opportunity of relating one to the other. Much student learning is in the form of guided study where students will make use of a range of teaching materials and resources, including electronic ones and learn to discriminate between a variety of sources in the public domain. Bodies of evidence often appear to be, and indeed may actually be, consistent with alternative interpretations embodied in rival theories. Sociology students are required to weigh up the relative strengths of alternatives according to such considerations as consistency with evidence, logic, fit with other supposedly established findings, and breadth of explanatory power. Learning situations should provide students with the opportunity to rehearse their own ideas and to revise them. Students should have the opportunity to gain experience of working together in groups and to practice a range of generic skills. Sociological knowledge is often contentious and may reflect current social, public and civic disputes. Accordingly, sociology students need the opportunity to develop awareness of their own values and an appreciation of how alternative values impact upon rival interpretations of evidence. 6 Benchmark standards 6.1 The benchmark standards for sociology may be achieved in a number of ways and are compatible with a diversity of curricula and a variety of modes of assessment. Thus it is not assumed that the benchmarks necessarily map onto specific modules or units within a programme of study. 6.2 This subject benchmark statement has a double function: it enables the performance of individual students to be benchmarked in relation to specific learning outcomes; and it provides a framework within which whole programmes can be reviewed. 6.3 The threshold standard describes the minimally acceptable standards that students must achieve to secure an honours degree. It is necessary to demonstrate achievement in the stated areas of performance by the time the award is made. page 5
6.4 The descriptors of typical achievement describe the expected performance of most sociology students at honours degree level in the UK. Subject knowledge and understanding Typical standard 6.5 On graduating with an honours degree in sociology, students should be able to: describe and examine a range of key concepts and theoretical approaches within sociology and evaluate their application provide an analytical account of social diversity and inequality and their effects understand and evaluate the issues and problems involved in the use of comparison in sociology analyse the nature of social relationships between individuals, groups and social institutions examine the processes that underpin social change and social stability examine a range of research strategies and methods and assess the appropriateness of their use evaluate the relationship between sociological arguments and evidence in a range of contexts analyse ways in which sociology can be distinguished from other forms of understanding. Threshold standard 6.6 On graduating with an honours degree in sociology, students should be able to: describe a range of key concepts and theoretical approaches within sociology recognise patterns of social diversity and inequality recognise the value of comparison for sociology recognise the nature of social relationships between individuals, groups and social institutions recognise the processes that underpin social change and social stability identify diverse research strategies and methods, and illustrate their use in gaining sociological knowledge recognise and illustrate the relationship between a range of sociological arguments and evidence recognise ways in which sociology can be distinguished from other forms of understanding. page 6
Cognitive abilities and skills Typical standard 6.7 On graduating with an honours degree in sociology, students should be able to: assess the merits of competing explanations of human behaviour, social situations and events draw on evidence from a range of sources and demonstrate an ability to synthesise them draw on evidence to evaluate competing explanations evaluate competing explanations and to draw reasoned conclusions. Threshold standard 6.8 On graduating with an honours degree in sociology, students should be able to: recognise contrasting interpretations of events gather and summarise information cite evidence and make judgements about its merits contrast points of view and discuss them. Discipline-specific skills Typical standard 6.9 On graduating with an honours degree in sociology, students should be able to: construct appropriate sociologically informed questions summarise and explain the findings of empirical sociological research, including a critical assessment of the methodological frameworks used select and use appropriate research tools investigate sociologically informed explanations analyse the ethical implications of social research in a variety of applied research settings discuss sociological topics with appreciation of theory, evidence and relevance to current debates and to present the conclusions in a variety of appropriate sociological formats identify and comment on the value of sociological work with regard to social, public and civic policy issues. page 7
Threshold standard 6.10 On graduating with an honours degree in sociology, students should be able to: undertake a preliminary investigation of sociologically informed questions summarise the findings of empirical sociological research including the ability to identify the methodological framework used apply basic research tools in a preliminary way recognise sociologically informed explanations recognise the ethical dimensions of social research identify and select from appropriate sociological sources and present the conclusions in an appropriate sociological format identify and select sociological work relevant to given social, public and civic policies. page 8
Appendix A - Membership of the review group for the subject benchmark statement for sociology Professor J P Eade Professor D W Jary Professor E S Lyon Professor R J Mears (Chair) J Mudd (Secretary) Roehampton University The Open University London South Bank University Bath Spa University The British Sociological Association page 9
Appendix B - Membership of the original benchmarking group for sociology Details provided below are as published in the original subject benchmark statement for sociology (2000). Professor P A Abbott (Chair) University of Teesside Professor J Bailey Dr J Chandler Dr S Delamont J P Gubbay Dr L H Jamieson Dr M Leonard E S Lyon Dr R J Mears C Middleton L Murphy Professor J P Scott Dr H A Thomas Professor F Webster J Mudd (Secretary) Kingston University University of Plymouth Cardiff University University of East Anglia University of Edinburgh Queen's University of Belfast South Bank University Bath Spa University College University of Sheffield Deloitte and Touche University of Essex University of Surrey University of Birmingham The British Sociological Association page 10
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