Haleemah Quadri

Sociology Past Paper

(a) Explain what is meant by the term ethnocentric curriculum. The term ethnocentric is that belief that someones ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and others arent, therefore an ethnocentric curriculum would be curriculum that is based in a way that subjects taught in schools are biased towards one particular culture. (b) Suggest three ways in which Marxists see school as being similar to the world of work. In school pupils are encouraged, through various sanctions, both positive and negative, to conform to the existing hierarchy. Schools reward punctuality, hard work and obedience and discourage creativity and critical awareness. This is very similar to the world of work, the same way employees require rewards and promotion to be able to perform better in their job, is the same way students require rewards to make them want to achieve the best grades. It is also based on competition, in schools, students compete against each other in order to be put in the top set and impress their teachers and principle, similarly in the world of work, employees compete against each other in order to achieve the best position and impress the employer. They believe schools do not create equality or help to develop creativity between students, for example, some teachers may tend to focus less on ethnic minorities, similarly in the world of work, there isnt always equality too, the employer might treat certain staffs different to how others are treated. (c) Outline some of the ways in which the labelling process may lead to educational under-achievement for some pupils. Students from ethnic minorities may experience labelling by teachers in schools, these teachers may unconsciously judge them and apply a negative label, for example unruly, disruptive or difficult to control. They would then reinforce this by acting upon it perhaps by regularly disciplining them in an attempt to regain the control that they perceive is threatened by the presence of the student, or by giving them detentions. This might make the students react to their perceived mistreatment in such a way that is in accordance to the original label, although creating a self fulfilling prophecy. Labelling will then result to underachievement and mean that the student achieves fewer qualifications than whites as they may become demoralised by this and refuse to work hard. (d) Assess the claim that gender differences in educational achievement are primarily the result of changes in wider society.

(a) Explain what is meant by the term hypothesis. The term hypothesis is basically a proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigations, for example by research.

Haleemah Quadri

Sociology Past Paper

(b) Suggest two advantages of using official statistics in sociological research. One advantage of using official statistics in sociological research is it is easy to find. Researchers are able to find it in the public libraries and on the internet; sociologists dont need to provide such a big amount of money since it is cheap. Another advantage of using official statistics in sociological research is it is highly valid and mostly accurate information especially for the hard statistics because they have the same definition. For example: birth rates and death rates. (c) Suggest two problems that researchers may face when actively participating in the group they are studying. Influencing the behaviour of the group: The group might change the way they act just cause they know theres someone else that is in the group, for example, if a researcher was studying a group of young kids, they might not fully open up and will act differently to how they would act in their normal group. Possibility of having to participate in illegal acts: A researcher might face the danger of having to participate in illegal activities just to make it look believable to the group, for example, if a researcher was studying a gang group, there is a high chance that they would have to participate in activities such as theft. (d) Examine the extent to which practical issues are the most important influence when selecting research methods and a research topic.