WRITTEN REPORT – SOCIOLOGY – UNIT 1­ YOUTH

The humanities involve the study of human societies and environments, people
and their cultures in the past and the present. (VCAA, 2007) The humanities
framework in Victorian schools establishes a multidisciplinary approach to
understanding the fields of human behaviour, social organization and physical
environments.

Sociology has much in common with the humanities, in that it represents a

cluster of disciplines, which study human society and the dynamics that societies
operate upon (Collins, 1994). In a post-modern context, both Sociology and the
Humanities uses a range of primary and secondary sources to gather evidence,
from recordings, to stories, to everyday objects, to multimedia (Campbell, 2006)

Sociology is however a social science, due its scientific approach to research.

The humanities skill-set, in a classical sense, has been analytic, critical, or
speculative (Hoepper, 2006). The key skills in sociology have tended to
emphasize the use of the scientific method in the study of humanity. Sociological
research is made up primarily of Quantitative and qualitative methods, but also
involves a variety of applied methods and approaches that investigate different
aspects of human societies.

Amid competing methodology students are exposed to the economic, political

and cultural systems central to understanding changes in society. At a time of
social change, new knowledge and identity shifts, sociology can have a wide
range of subject matter, from the analysis of passing encounters between
individuals in the street up to the investigation of world-wide social processes".
(Giddens, 2006).

Sociology provides insights into social change, our identities and social relations
(VCAA, 2005). The study of youth explores the experiences of young people in a
society shaped by social relations undergoing change. Issues relevant to the
current generation include social justice for misrepresented young people, wealth
distribution and apparent range of choices in many young people’s lives,
emerging cultural and ethnic identities, changing media environments, and new
contexts for defining the experience of being young. The overarching theme of
this unit is to examine stereotypes of young people in a context characterised by
a rich diversity in the ways young people live (VCAA, 2005).

The outcome for unit one sociology students is to think about youth and
adolescence as social categories, and discuss the experiences of young people
within the context of social grouping (VCAA, 2005). To achieve this outcome the
teaching sequence is planned around the empirical-evidence, ethnographic
research, and critical analysis of representations found in various media, in the
field, and within institutions. The wide-ranging source material, and variation of
methods it requires allows students in this unit to present, report and discuss the
category of youth in their society through a variety of technologies,
communication activities, formal assessment tasks and higher-order processes.

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The multidimensional structure reflects the outcome and topic by emphasizing

the usefulness of sociological analysis when thinking about social groups
(Babbie, 2003). Recommendations from peer feedback indicated the layered and
multidimensional structure of sequence created too many assessment tasks, with
too heavy a reliance on student motivation. Acting on these observations the
course is based on learning activities that address the knowledge and skills of
the unit, however only four of these twelve tasks are formally assessed.

Using multiple types of research methods helps students frame the social world
in its many forms. Content analysis is used to study ‘youth’ stereotypes found in
the mass media. The research tool is internet search engines ‘google’, ‘yahoo’,
‘bbc news’, ‘flickr’, ‘windows live’. The online platform is used by the students to
gather a range of media material tagged ‘youth’. Students compare the dominant
meanings found in the content by presenting the sources in a summarised form
using a powerpoint presentation. Acting on recommendations from peer reports,
all presentation tasks in the sequence will be modelled by the teacher to indicate
expectations and content. To maintain reflective and practical teaching
opportunities students move from comparing the meanings and the cultures the
media articles represent, to Survey Research. The student as researcher obtains
data from open-ended interviews using newsgathering apparatus. The set of
persons are randomly chosen because they represent the ‘youth’ social category.
Students use the key skills of; a) gathering and using a range of source material
and; b) comparing representations and definitions of youth by forming a critical
response to the dominant meanings given to the categories of youth and
adolescence, and how they may differ from the experience of being young (key
knowledge) (VCAA, 2005). Students are assessed on the information and
knowledge they synthesis in an academic essay on the topic: To what extent is
the online media construction of youth different to the identities and experiences
of young people? Creating a six lesson cycle for the first formal assessment task
allows the students to develop critical readings of the media, compose analytic
inquiry questions, and synthesis complex definitions of youth.

Students research the longitudinal study of English youth in the Granada

documentary series ‘7-up’, and ABC Observational documentary ‘Cunnamulla’,
which is about teens growing up in islolated Queensland town. Research
undertaken by the ethnographic documentaries is analysed by the students who
critically evaluate race, class, gender and geopolitics using the opportunities for
critical thinking and student reflection offered by Socratic questioning. The
teacher models critical thinking with an open mind always encouraging different
viewpoints and deeper understandings through exhibited interest in student
thinking (Paul, 2006). By privileging discussion the teacher creates and sustains
an intellectually stimulating classroom environment and acknowledges the value
of the students in that environment. The questioning tools employed by the film
analysis of ethnographic research leads to the critical framing exercise of a class
debate. Students are now required to work in groups and prepare arguments
based on a sociology ‘youth’ reader that centres around the key knowledge of

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how social differences, such as ethnicity, age, class, rural/urban location and
gender, affect the experience of being young (VCAA, 2005). The debate topic is:
‘the social divisions that shape the lives of older people are also central to the
lives of young people’, the class is divided into affirmative and negative clusters.
The discussion and debate uses critical thinking to make sense of factors that
define and disempowered social groups. They are the tools that lead to insight
and understanding. During disciplined, carefully structured questioning, students
must slow down and examine their own thinking processes (i.e., reflective
thinking). Thoughtful, disciplined questioning in the classroom allows students to
examine their own thinking processes (i.e., reflective thinking). Critical thinking
and discussion allows students to identify key factors that contribute to definitions
of youth and critically analyse ‘youth’ social categories and the various kinds of
power exercised over them (key skills). To formally assess the students insight
and understanding over the five classes a short answer exam based on readings
in the ‘youth’ reader is used in lesson 12. It probes their comprehension of
economic and political influences on the experience of being young by requiring
knowledge of how class, gender, race and location shapes young peoples lives in
specific ways.

Historical method is used by students to investigate the category of youth and

adolescence, and its development in popular culture, amongst various experts, in
government agencies and the media (key knowledge). A cinematic timeline of
‘youth’ is explored by considering the ‘teen’ archetype, be it delinquent, loner,
anti-hero or victim. Young actors from 1950’s Marlon Brando in ‘the Wild ones’ to
‘Rosetta’ played by Émilie Dequennein in 1999, present portraits of different
nationalities, social norms, gender, and class. But across all thirteen post-war
western films the transitionary category of ‘youth’ contains a universal rebellious
spirit in response to power relations intervening in young peoples lives. The
whole-group film analysis breaks into group work to create a twentieth century
teen timeline using the book ‘Flappers to Rappers: Teen culture by the decades’
as a guide for annotating a photographic history of youth. Students will be
formally assessed on their annotated visual timeline. The key question in the
excersise is how the relations between ages creates change or stability in
society, but how change in society explains relations between different ages. To
compare representations and the key factors defining youth (key skills) students
are given the task of using historical method to search for the information and
knowledge about past events related to the categorisation of Indigenous
Australian youth using the Australian national archives and national museum
online collections. The absence of information on Australian indigenous youth
prevent’s students from creating a timeline that is as specific and public as the
American, posing questions about how young people of minority groups in
Australia experience the fundamental rights of educations, transport, health and
recreation. The study of indigenous youth requires ethnographic fieldwork, as it
remains a thwarted sociological study. The higher order thinking in this activity is
reflexive. Students are asked by their six-lesson research task: ‘why study
youth?’

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In the final component of the sequence students use a variety of records to

conduct archival research. The key knowledge explored in this eight-lesson cycle
concerns essentialist thinking about youth such as government policies and
stereotyping. The records used are government education policies and research
groups. Students are informally assessed on how they respond to
institutionalised and academic studies using report writing in research-based and
exam conditions. The key skills addressed include critically analyzing ‘youth’
social categories and the various kinds of power exercised over them. The formal
summative assessment to conclude Unit 1 - outcome 1, is a group presentation
to exhibit the practical key skills of gathering and using a range of source
material on issues concerning dominant ‘youth’ narratives.

The sequence has been arranged using a scaffolding structure that builds
knowledge and skills in a sequential and overlapping design. The learning
environment promotes independence, interdependence and self-motivation. To
connect learning strongly with student communities and practice beyond the
classroom, resources and tasks are chosen for their relevance and practical
application to student needs (DEECD, 2005). Students engage with popular
culture, and the culture of their peers to explore sociological method and critical
thinking in academic assessment. The tasks are compelling in their sequential
flow, providing students with transdisciplinary learning opportunities. To maintain
a shared flow across the class, tasks are modelled by the teacher and specific
timelines are outlined to keep all students on track within their independent
research and inquiries. Key questions shape the learning cycles, providing clear
guidance on project development. Group work is used in communication
orientated assessment tasks and social skills are graded.

Inclusive teaching strategies are promoted by tasks that utilise multiple

intelligences, multiliteracies and multimedia. focusing teaching to meet the
diverse needs of students creates a learning community that is responsive to
changing student needs (DEECD, 2005). Visual research takes he form of photo
analysis, fieldwork, data presentation and cinema studies. Existential ideas are
explored in verbal and written formats, including debtes, discussions and essays
that utilise interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences. Logical, kinaesthetic and
naturalist intelligences can be explored by the students when conducting
fieldwork and class-based presentations due to the autonomy of the tasks.

The content links cultural and linguistic diversity in its exploration of multiple
perspectives and subjective methodology. Communication technology breaks the
dominant language structure into segments of content, allowing students of
different language skills to communicate in multimodal ways. the connections
being made between linguistic and visual design, and the cross-cultural aspects
of meaning making are structured according to the Multiliteracies pedagogy.
Students are challenged and supported to develop deep levels of thinking and
application in a praxis learning environment (DEECD, 2005). Students are

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encouraged to surf-sample-manipulate, loop theories, personalise meaning,

improvise ideas and reinvent categories (Amerika, 2007). To think about youth
and adolescence as social categories, and discuss the experiences of young
people within the context of social grouping learning is based in the students'
own experience (Situated Practice); the explicit teaching of how we make
meaning (Overt Instruction); investigation of the cultural context (Critical
Framing); and remixing content in new forms that the students have themselves
created (Transformed Practice) (New London group, 1996).

Assessment is done at various times throughout the sequence. Formative

assessment is conducted at the beginning of the program using a presentation to
assess students knowledge of theme. A summative presentation is included at
the conclusion of the sequence, thus providing the opportunity for immediate
evidence for student learning. Formative assessment during the sequence is
conducted informally in classroom-based assessment scenarios, such as the
discussions, fieldwork and debates. The purpose of these tasks is to improve the
quality of student learning whilst meeting the student learning outcomes. The
formative group assessments enables the learning objectives to be met in all
knowledge and skill areas in a variety of student centred ways (Angelo, 1993).

Exams and written reports are used as summative assessment to grade the
students learning experience across learning cycles within the sequence.
Research-based writing, test and group presentation offers various methods and
measures of summative assessment data. The twelves assessment tasks spread
over the 26weeks contribute to a comprehensive sequence planned around
progression points in student knowledge and skills that can be marked and
identified to assess learning and monitor the progress being made towards
achieving the learning outcome (Bardes, 2001).

Showing connections between research, representation, mediation, policy and

practice reflects an Australian perspective only relevant to other advanced
capitalist countries. It is not possible to study the social construction of youth
without focusing on specific local contexts. The contribution of ‘young people’ to
society is reflected in the sequence, creating ‘costs’ and ‘benefits’ like the
systems of society (Wyn, 1997). Participation can undermine and advance the
course, social inclusion, supportive structures and engaging resources shape the
process through which the outcome is constructed and reconstructed.

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Sequence Resources

Search engines:
• Google
• Yahoo
• Windows live
• Flickr
• BBC news

Sociology reader:
• Chisholm, L. (1990) Childhood, Youth And Social Change: A Comparative
Perspective. first edition, Falmer Press: Londo
• Irving, T., Maunders, D., Sherington G., & Sorby, J. (1995) Youth in Australia:
Policy Administration and Politics: A history since World War II Macmillan,
Melbourne.
• Livingstone, S. (2002) Young People and New Media: Childhood and the
Changing Media Environment. Sage Publications
• Pujolar, J. (2000) Gender, Heteroglossia and Power: A Sociolinguistic Study of
Youth Culture (Language, Power, and Social Process) Walter de Gruyter:
Barcelona
• Smith, R.S. (2003) Youth Justice: Ideas, Policy, Practice
• Yates, M. and Youniss, J. (1998) Roots of Civic Identity: International
Perspectives on Community Service and Activism in Youth. Cambridge
University Press
• Wallace, C. (1990) Youth in Transition (Explorations in Sociology) University
Of Chicago Press
• Widdicombe, S. (1995) The Language of Youth Subcultures. First edition
Prentice Hall PTR: Boston

Ethnographic research:
• Paul Almond (1964) 7-up. Granada Television
• Michael Apted (1970) 14-up. Granada Television
• Michael Apted (1977) 21-up. Granada Television
• Dennis O'Rourke (2000) Cunnamulla. Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Timeline:
• Rollin, L. (1999) Twentieth-century teen culture by the decades (A reference
gyuide) Greenwood press: London
• Wunungmurra, W. (1998) Dhawurrpunaramirra: Finding the common ground
for new Aboriginal curriculum,in Marsh, C.J (ed) Curriculum Perspectives. Vol.

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8 No. 2
• www.nt.gov.au
• www.naa.gov.au

Youth archetypes:
• The Wild One (1953)
• Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
• Quatre cents coups, Les (1959)
• Shadows (1959)
• Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (1962)
• American graffiti (1973)
• The Exorcist (1973)
• Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo (1981)
• Heathers (1989)
• Clueless (1995)
• Kids (1995)
• Gummo (1997)
• Rosetta (1999)

Government youth policy and research sources:

• www.youthweek.gov.au
• www.youth.vic.gov.au
• www.yarn.gov.au
• www.community.gov.au
• www.facsia.gov.au
• www.ayac.org.au
• www.apo.org.au
• www.sprc.unsw.edu.au
• www.childpolicyintl.org
• www.youthpolicyactioncenter.org
• www.aracy.org.au

Teacher resources:
• Fiona Gontier and Analia Solis (2007) Sociology: A Teacher Guide To VCE
Sociology, Units 1-4
• Macionis, J.J. (2007) Seeing Ourselves, 7th edition. Prentice hall
• Anthony Giddens (2001) Sociology: Introductory Readings. Polity Press
• McCormick, C. and Pressley, M. (1997) ‘Social International theories of
learning and development’, in Educational Psychology: Learning, Instruction
and Assessment, Longman, NY

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Bibliography

Amerika, M. (2007). Meta/data. MIT press: Massachusetts

Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom Assessment Techniques: A

Handbook for College Teachers (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass: San Francisco

Babbie, Earl R. (2003) The Practice of Social Research, 10th edition. Wadsworth,
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Bardes, B. & Denton, J. (2001, June). Using the Grading Process for
Departmental and Program Assessment. Paper presented at the American
Association for Higher Education Conference; Denver , CO.

Campbell, J. & Baikaloff, N. (2006) Towards a global community: educating for

tomorrows world. Spinger, Dordrecht..

Collins, R. (1994) Four Sociological Traditions. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (2005) Principles of

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Giddens, A. (2006). Sociology (5th edition), Polity, Cambridge.

Hoepper, B. (2006) Historical Literacy, in Social Educator, vol.24, no.2

Paul, R. and Elder, L. (2006). The Art of Socratic Questioning. Dillon Beach, CA:
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New London Group. (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social

futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66(1), 60-92.

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (2005) Sociology study design

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http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/essential/discipline /humanities/index.html)

Wagner, M (2005) Teaching humanities in new ways—and

teaching new humanities. Humanist, May-June, Thomson gale.
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Wyn, J. and White, R. (1997) Rethinking youth. Allen & Unwin: Melbourne

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