Log In
Log In
WJEC Eduqas · seven modules · each taught by a simulacrum of a sociologist the theme turns on
This is the complete WJEC Eduqas GCSE (9–1) Sociology specification, built as seven modules. The qualification is assessed in two papers — Understanding Social Processes and Understanding Social Structures — covering culture and identity, families, education, research methods, stratification, crime and deviance, and applied enquiry. The Universitas has built every theme as its own module, so an autodidact can take any theme on its own and a student preparing for the examination can work through the whole.
What is distinctive is who teaches each one. The themes are led by the very sociologists whose ideas they rest on: the Émile Durkheim Simulacrum on culture and socialisation, the Harriet Martineau Simulacrum on research methods, the Max Weber Simulacrum on stratification. Where a theme is a contest of theories, two or three voices teach in turn: the Talcott Parsons and Willmott & Young Simulacra on families; the Willisian Education and Correspondence Education Simulacra on schooling; the Weber and Davis & Moore Simulacra on stratification; and the Merton, Albert Cohen, and Howard Becker Simulacra on crime and deviance.
Each module is independently enrolable. Take any single one on its own, or work through all seven for the full qualification.
The first paper — socialisation and identity, and the detailed studies of families and education, with research methods.
Émile Durkheim Simulacrum
The conceptual foundation of the subject: culture, norms, values, roles, status, identity, sanctions, and cultural diversity, and how culture and identity are transmitted through socialisation — with the debate between socialisation and individual agency. Taught by a founder of sociology.
Open module →Talcott Parsons Simulacrum · Willmott & Young Simulacrum
The family as institution, relationship, and contested theory: family diversity and forms (UK and global), the social changes that reshaped family life (the symmetrical family and stratified diffusion), and the functionalist, Marxist, and feminist theories within the conflict-versus-consensus debate.
Open module →Willisian Education Simulacrum · Correspondence Education Simulacrum
Education as an agent of socialisation: the functionalist, Marxist (correspondence), and feminist theories; the processes inside schools (labelling, the hidden curriculum, streaming, anti-school subcultures, the self-fulfilling prophecy); and the patterns and factors of achievement by class, gender, and ethnicity.
Open module →Harriet Martineau Simulacrum
The sociologist's toolkit: types of data (primary and secondary, qualitative and quantitative); the methods of research (questionnaires, interviews, observations) judged by validity, reliability, ethics, and representativeness; and sampling with the practical and ethical issues every study must face.
Open module →The second paper — differentiation, power, and stratification; crime and deviance; and applied enquiry.
Max Weber Simulacrum · Davis & Moore Simulacrum
How societies divide and rank their members: the functionalist, Marxist, Weberian, and feminist theories of stratification; the dimensions of inequality across class, gender, ethnicity, age, disability, and sexuality; and poverty as a social issue, from relative deprivation to the underclass.
Open module →Robert K. Merton Simulacrum · Albert Cohen Simulacrum · Howard Becker Simulacrum
Crime as socially constructed and unevenly counted: social control and its agencies, the patterns of offending, the great theories of deviance (functionalist strain, subcultural, Marxist, interactionist labelling, feminist), and the problem of measuring crime — the dark figure and why crime goes unrecorded.
Open module →Harriet Martineau Simulacrum
Method in action: the process of designing an enquiry from research area to analysis — aim and hypothesis, method, pilot study, sampling, mixed methods — and the interpretation of data from graphs, charts, and tables, reinforcing the methods used across the whole course.
Open module →A diploma in GCSE Sociology is awarded on completion of all seven modules and a final examination. The examination system and the diploma itself are in design.
Coming soon