1. What is Society
and Culture?
Jodi Arrow, Vice President
Society and Culture Association

2. What Is Society and Culture?
 2 Unit Stage 6 Course, since 1983
 HSC External Assessment – 2 hour exam (60%) and
Personal Interest Project (40%)
 About 4000 students per year – 400 schools
 Multidisciplinary course drawing from sociology,
anthropology, communication, cultural studies, media
studies, philosophy, psychology and social ecology
 NOT General Studies!

3. The Nature of the Course
 The study of the interaction of persons, societies, cultures
and environments across time
 Enables students to develop an understanding of:
 Themselves
 Their own society and culture
 The societies and cultures of others
 Conceptually based course that fosters skills of
independent thinking and research to develop the
qualities of effective citizenship

5. Objectives of the Course
 Knowledge and Understanding
 Identity, cultures, interaction of the concepts across time
 Continuity and change and research methodologies
 Skills
 Conduct social and cultural research
 Communication
 Values and Attitudes
 Social justice, intercultural understanding
 Informed and active citizenship
 Ethical research practices
 Lifelong learning

6. The Nature of Society and Culture

7. The Role of the Concepts
 Tools for organising and understanding the content
 Fundamental course concepts are persons, society,
culture, environment and time
 Four other basic concepts: gender, power, authority and
technology
 Concepts are the metalanguage of Society and Culture
 Highly abstract and conceptual course – challenging for
less able students

8. Micro/Macro
 Central concern of the course
 Synthesis of personal experience and public knowledge of
the micro and macro worlds
 Important that students can relate the reading they do in
class to their own personal experience
 Validates and values students’ own personal experiences,
and everyone has something to contribute
 However, important that students don’t just ‘tell stories’
about their own lives, and reach a synthesis of the two

9. Macro/Micro

10. Social and Cultural Literacy
 Another central aim of the course, the development of
Social and Cultural Literacy
 Reflection of the values and attitudes objectives
 Not directly assessed, but essential for achievement of the
aims of the course and underpin the content
 Central premise: the demonstration of cultural relativism
and overcoming ethnocentrism
 Making better citizens!

12. Research Methodologies
 Key component of the course; separates Society and
Culture from most other Stage 6 subjects
 Students not only learn the theory of conducting research,
they become field researchers themselves
 Research methodologies employed in all sections of the
course, most notably in the Personal Interest Project
 Develop skills in planning, applying and analysing primary
research instruments

13. Quantitative and Qualitative
Research

14. Ethical Research
 Students are expected to conduct research ethically –
applies to primary and secondary research
 Gaining participant consent and maintaining confidentiality
 Critical awareness of the students’ own bias/perspective
 Not conducting research that poses a threat to the
participant or student, or school or wider community
 Not conducting research that places the student at risk
 Main ethical concern in recent years – proliferation of
uncritical online research (eg, surveys on facebook!)

15. Preliminary Course – Year 11
 120 indicative hours
 The Social and Cultural World – 20% of course time
 Personal and Social Identity – 40% of course time
 Intercultural Communication – 40% of course time

16. The Social and Cultural World
 Introduction to the course
 Interaction between the concepts of persons, societies,
cultures, environments and time; and gender, power,
authority and technology
 Introduction to the process of research
 Cross-cultural study – compare Australian culture with an
overseas culture
 Amish, Maasai – popular cross cultural studies

17. Personal and Social Identity
 Socialisation, development and coming of age of
individuals in a variety of social and cultural settings
 The process of socialisation, growing up and coming of age
 Theories of development – Maslow, Piaget, Erikson,
Kohlberg
 Adolescent development and influences on development
 Rites of passage and coming of age in different cultures
 Cross-cultural study within Australia – Yolgnu popular,
using the films Yolgnu Boy and/or Ten Canoes

18. Intercultural Communication
 How to facilitate better communication across cultures in
different parts of the world
 Communication – effectiveness, role of gender, class and status,
verbal and non-verbal communication
 Role of communication in maintaining social control
 Intercultural Understanding – using a comparison with another
country
 How to recognise and deal with intercultural misunderstanding
 Popular cross-cultural studies include Bali, Japan, Vietnam,
India, China

19. HSC Course – Year 12
 Core
 Personal Interest Project – 30% of course time
 Social and Cultural Continuity and Change – 30% of course
time
 Depth Studies – TWO of the following – 20% of course time
EACH
 Popular Culture
 Belief Systems
 Equality and Difference
 Work and Leisure

20. Social and Cultural Continuity and
Change
 20 of the 60 marks in the HSC exam
 Process of research and research methodologies
 The Nature of Social and Cultural continuity and change
 Detailed country study of continuity and change
 Applying theories of social change – usually Functionalism,
Conflict Theory and/or Evolutionary Theory
 Applying methodologies for hypothesising about the future
 Popular country studies – Japan, India, Vietnam, China
 Examined using objective response & short-answer questions

21. Depth Studies
 Two sections in the exam – either answer a question in
parts OR an extended response
 If answer Question in parts for Depth Study A, must
attempt extended response for Depth Study B
 Each to the value of 20 marks, spend approximately 40-45
minutes on each section
 Expected length of response of approximately 800 words
 Changes to the exam after 2008 consultation on the role of
the PIP in assessment

22. Depth Studies
 Can appear deceptively simple, especially Popular Culture
and Belief Systems
 For students to achieve, they must ensure that they are
combining personal experience with public knowledge
 It is not sufficient to just ‘tell stories’ about their own
belief system etc
 Importance of valid and credible secondary research
 Emphasis is on specific examples, evidence to support and
application of course concepts

23. Personal Interest Project
 Often the most challenging but also rewarding part of the
course for students
 Develops independent research skills
 Students become experts in their field
 Excellent preparation for university
 Externally assessed – marked by the Board of Studies
corporate marking process out of 30
 Best PIPs from each year collected in the State Library

24. What is the PIP?
 Approximately 5500 word project, externally marked
 Must be personal – a topic of a student’s own choice
(within reason)
 Must be related to the Society and Culture course
 Must demonstrate the synthesis of personal experience
with public knowledge
 Based predominately on primary research methodologies
 Must include a perspective different to the student’s own –
a cross-cultural component, and a continuity and change
component

25. Topic Choice
 Students must choose their topic in conference with their
teacher
 Must avoid topics that are unethical or have the potential to be
too controversial – must discuss with Principal
 Something they are interested in (or personally affected by)
which has a clear relation to the course
 Should be original in either topic choice, execution or analysis
 Narrow is better – allows for more depth
 Students should seek to explain why a phenomena occurs rather
than simply describing it

26. Examples of Topics
 Some of the prize-winning PIPs from 2011 HSC:
 ‘Rise of the Tiger Cubs’
 ‘Gaga vs Gillard: the Rise of Raunch Culture and the Demise
of Female Political Identity’
 ‘Sikh Gender Roles’
 Quality over Quantity: ‘Only Children’ in Society
 List of all prizewinners at www.scansw.com.au
 Popular topics often come from: issues of identity, belief
system, forms of popular culture, subcultures, racial issues
& multiculturalism, body image

27. Components of the PIP
 Must demonstrate consistent application of course
concepts
 Must be clearly communicated
 Methodologies must be applied ethically and consistently,
and should be appropriate to the topic
 Students need to demonstrate awareness of the
limitations of their work and analyse their own process
 All subject matter should be clearly relevant

28. Research for the PIP
 Secondary research crucial for fulfilling the ‘public
knowledge’ component
 Trend towards students using the internet (including
Wikipedia!) as their main source of information
 Should be relying upon books & academic journals
(Sociology, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Media Studies)
 Students still plagiarise, especially from the internet, in
spite of the All My Own Work requirements

29. Primary Research
 Students must conduct a range of primary research
methodologies
 Generally, 4-5 is a good number of methodologies – must
be manageable, but demonstrate their skills
 Questionnaires are popular – should be conducted in paper
form or in a controlled online environment (eg, Survey
Monkey), sample size of at least 50
 Interviews and focus groups – libraries can be useful sites
to conduct these
 All methodologies must be reliably recorded

30. Issues with Research
 Content Analysis – confused with secondary research
 Observation – not adequately recorded or implemented
correctly
 Use of the Internet
 Interviews over email or on MSN
 Surveys conducted on online forums like
www.boredofstudies.com
 Focus groups – as above

31. How Can Libraries Help?
 Access to online databases and journals
 Provision of basic sociology books, like Sociology Australia
by Bessant & Watts (1st year University level is perfect)
 Wide range of books/journals on contemporary social
issues, especially regarding Australia
 Wide range of periodicals – Guardian, New Internationalist
 Gently steer students towards genuine, face-to-face
primary research and away from online focus groups or
questionnaires!

32. How Can the Association Help?
 Our journal, Culturescope – 3 editions per year, resources,
articles and teaching strategies
 The ‘Best of’ Culturescope series – $20-$30 each, one for
each Preliminary and HSC topic (although these will be
updated soon)
 Our website – www.scansw.com.au
 Details for membership, Culturescope resources, extracts
from past Prize-winning PIPs
 Dear Pippa – pippa@scansw.com.au - Advice line for
students and teachers

33. Other Helpful Resources
 Heinemann Society and Culture (2nd Edn), by Bernie Howitt
& Robin Julian, Heinemann, 2009
 Society and Culture Preliminary and HSC, by Leaver et al,
Thomson, 2007
 Society and Culture, by Fleming & Fleming, Excel