How cultural deprivation affects the educational attainment of students.

Introduction I will be examining how cultural deprivation affects the educational attainment of students. To gain the best results and produce a detailed analysis of results I take will only examine two ethnic groups, Indian and African Caribbean students. I will then be able to compare educational attainment and discover reasons why the two different ethnic groups have varied educational attainment levels. This is an important area of sociology as it appears to be the case presented by statistics showing how some ethnic groups under achieve compared to others. 2002 GCSE exam results showed how Indian students were among the top performing ethnic groups were as black African Caribbean students had the lowest levels of attainment. The concept of cultural deprivation will have will have many different aspects that I will need to consider. One form of cultural deprivation is that some students may receive less support from family then others for many reasons. Parents have other dedications such as work or look after other siblings. Some students may not need the motivation to do well from the family and may still do well. My aim will be to compare educational attainment of Indian and African Caribbean students. I will then try to establish a link between attainment levels and cultural deprivation. Objectives . Study educational attainment of ethnic groups and establish

  • Word count: 4562
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Sociology Research Paper - To examine how teenage pregnancy affects the teen mothers health and the family

Transfer-Encoding: chunked “To examine how teenage pregnancy affects the teen mother’s health and the family” The researcher has chosen this topic as the researcher from observation has noticed that within the researcher’s community pregnancy in teens are affecting the teenager herself and her family likewise. Teenage pregnancy refers to pregnancy in a female under the age of 20. Lack of awareness about the causes and effects of teenage pregnancy is more often than not, a result of lack of proper communication between teenagers and their parents. Government statistics on female adolescent pregnancies indicate that the total number of annual births changed little over the preceding 10 years, but the number of teenage pregnancies rose 70 percent, from 114,205 in 1999 to 195,662 in 2009. The children of teen mothers are more likely to be born prematurely with a low birth weight, predisposing them to many other lifelong conditions. The hardships do not stop at birth for these children. The children are at higher risk and are usually plagued by intellectual, language, and socio-emotional delays. ________________ This research seeks to examine how does teenage pregnancy affects the teen mother’s health and the family ________________ Aim: To investigate or find out the causes and effects of teenage pregnancy on the teen and her family health wise * To

  • Word count: 4437
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Is the nuclear family in decline?

s the nuclear family in decline? The family have always being seen by most people as the bed rock of the society. In both pre- modern and modern times, the importance of the family in carrying out basic but vital functions of the society has long being valued. Most people belong to at least one family during their life time and see the family as a source of identity, reassurance and safety. Like many contents that are familiar with us, the family is generally looked upon favourably, for example we see most politicians stressing the importance of Family values and associate themselves to being family friendly, even church and other religious leader are not left in preaching the importance of family environment to communal, national and international harmony. The media and adverts even use the happy family to advance their cause. The nuclear family is the smallest family unit and consists of husband, wife and their own dependent offspring. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the nuclear family was the norm and was assumed uncritically that this kind of family was a good thing as it positively provides for the needs of its members and at same time contributes to the society by carrying out basic and vital functions of reproduction. This view, although dominated by persons and Bales (1955) and Goode (1963) were tailored to suit the modern, industrial society (The family 2001). Over the

  • Word count: 4182
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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GCSE Sociology Coursework

Introduction I have decided to study whether boys are more disruptive, in the classroom, than girls. This topic appeals to me because I am still in full time education and find it interesting to analyse the behavioural differences between the two genders and whether this is reflective of recent GCSE results. During my school years experience, I have found males to be more disruptive: calling out; shouting; hitting and physical violence. I think that females are more likely to disrupt the lesson by talking to each other. I would like to study this further; hence my reasons for choosing this topic. Some of the questions I have in my mind at the beginning of my enquiry are whether teaching is biased towards female education. If this is so then this might suggest a reason for high levels of achievement amongst females, in comparison to males. I believe that females out-perform males in schools because they are either more ambitious or more mature. In my opinion, males tend to be less focused and easily distracted, perhaps by females, or just by a lack of interest in the topic at hand. I am going to set

  • Word count: 3108
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Analyse how the family structure has changed over the last 100 years

RESEARCH PROJECT Analyse how the family structure has changed over the last 100 years. The family structure over the last 100 years has changed dramatically in the UK. Societies more relaxed attitudes towards marriage means it is no longer seen as unusual to be involved in a complicated family structure. For example a Reconstituted family, This is when one or both parents have been married before and had children and have remarried to form a new family structure also known as a step family. Families are no longer just nuclear families, this is a family made up of married parents living with their children. Families now have more complicated structures compared to the debateable desired structure; the nuclear family. Other family structures include cohabiting parents, single parent families, same sex parent families and extended families etc. The last 100 years have seen changes in legislation, technology, attitudes and expectations these are all factors that have led to many new trends, three being; the growing number of new types of family structures, more females in highly respected and paid jobs and an increase in divorce rates. It is known that 40% of all marriages now end in divorce. There are many possible causes for this trend, one being the (1949) legal aid act and the (1969) divorce law reform act which made divorce proceedings easier. Another cause could be

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Examine the reasons for the changes in the patterns of marriage, cohabitation and divorce in the last 30 years

Examine the reasons for the changes in the patterns of marriage, cohabitation and divorce in the last 30 years For many people in Britain, and up until very recently, a large part of the population believed that marriage was the basis on which a family life should be constructed, nevertheless over the last two decades these beliefs have gradually changed. An ever increasing number of couples in modern day Britain no longer see that the actual act of marriage has an integral part of forming a long-term relationship and the same may be said for their decision for forming a family. Therefore it would be true to argue that the patterns in marriage are constantly evaluating and changing. For the better part of this century, marriage has been extremely popular, and reaching its peak in 1971, with a total of 459 000 marriages performed, but since then, there has been a dramatic decline, in 1991 only 350 000 marriages were performed (Taylor et al, 1997) and this decrease has continued gradually since, to the extent that in 2005 there were only 283 730 weddings in the United Kingdom (www.statistics.gov.uk - 1). Reasons for these transformations in patterns of marriage may reflect the fact that society as a whole is changing, consequently the norms and values on which society functions are also changing, it is no longer frowned upon to conceive a child outside of wedlock (Taylor et

  • Word count: 2635
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Gender roles/expectations that exists in contemporary Japanese society

AGNE GUSCENKAITE BEKKA program Sociology Final Take Home Exam MANDATORY QUESTION Gender role/expectation that exists in contemporary Japanese society Discuss one gender role or expectation that exists in contemporary Japanese society, please talk about: 1. how/why this role emerged and 2. provide examples of how men and/or women are changing and resisting/subverting this gender role/expectation. In Japan, traditional gender roles are characterised by a strong sense of patriarchy in society, this is a male dominated country with a distinct separation of gender roles. In the family, this refers to the idea that the man is a breadwinner and the woman is a homemaker. At the workplace, there is a strong male dominance in the company hierarchy. Generally, men have more career opportunities, often life-time job and good salary, and women are considered to be temporary employers, expected to stop working after the marriage or childbirth. Working women generally take on non leadership roles, so this reduces the possibility to climb on career steps. Childcare is regarded as the mother's responsibility and the father's domestic role is limited in helping to repair something and playing with children on weekends. Wives spend lot of time inside the house, and husbands - outside. Today this situation is a little bit changing, but still, remains the idea that man stands few steps

  • Word count: 2578
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Sociology and the Family

Sociology and the Family Many sociologists share the consensus that the family unit is an integral component of society. Defined as a body of people living together or close by who are affiliated through kinship ties or marriage, many variations and modifications are evident in Britain today. There has been a distinct evolution of the family unit since the preindustrial period. Functionalists believe the nuclear family thrived with the onset of industrialisation and early capitalism. Before this period, living habits and social structures were vastly different. According to some functionalists, the most common preindustrial family form in Western Europe was the extended family. Multigenerational households cohabited, working by hand and sharing duties. Farming was the predominant occupation with the majority of the population living in the countryside. Before industrialisation took place, approximately 75% of the population worked in agriculture (Porter, 2004). According to sociologists Peter Willmott and Michael Young (1973) “The division of labour was presided over by the husband. He was not just the husbandman. He was the undisputed master” (p. 67). Changes were brought about with the onset of industrialisation, when the development of machines made hand workers redundant. Migration to the cities ensued with the public working for longer hours and smaller wages in

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  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Discuss the view that the modern family is becoming more diverse

Catherine Sweeney "Discuss the view that the modern family is becoming more diverse" For many years society's conception of a normal family consisted of a man and women living together, who are married and having sexual relations. Having produced children together, or having adopted children, this being known as a nuclear family and was claimed as a vital unit in British society. The father would take on the role as the breadwinner; going out to work and providing for his family and the mother's role would be to look after the home, childcare and the domestic chores. The family has often been observed as the cornerstone of society. In the past, present and in all society, it has been seen as the basic unit of social organisation that carries out important roles, such as primary socialisation. The process being that children learn the social norm of their society. This took place in their younger years making the family an important factor of the child's personality. Then there is the personality stabilization which refers to the role that the family play in the process of being able to assist adult family members of emotional support including the sexual assertion, connected to marriage. It was argued by Talbot Parsons (1949) that there are two primary functions within a family, these being irreducible and basic this being the primary socialisation and

  • Word count: 2445
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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Is the modern family breaking down or is it simply changing?

Is the modern family breaking down or is it simply changing? The modern family also commonly known as the nuclear family has had radical alterations to its structure, these have been caused by the various changes in the society such as: cultural diversity, more divorce and re-marriage, there is more cohabitation between couples and more births outside marriages. Also there are same sex marriages, and in the cases of female marriages children are often involved. Family unit is based within a household. In the contemporary U.K diversity can be seen in the household composition, i.e.: in two parent families, both the parents work, one of the parents work, neither of the parents work or it is reconstituted family. Approximately 23% of households consist of a nuclear family, e.g.: a married or cohabiting couple with dependant children. 28% of households are single, with half over and half under the pensionable age, 28% were couple without children, 7% were single parents with children (out of which 90% of the families were female headed). 3% of the households had non-dependant children, 3% had two or more unrelated adults and only 1% were multi-family households. On the other hand, this data isn't too reliable as the cyclical nature of family life means that many children may still have children, i.e.: all non-dependants children now were once dependents. Also, some single

  • Word count: 2330
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Sociology
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