Structure, agency and method
KS5 · 35 minutes · Weigh structural and interpretive explanation.
Answer by: Type. You can change method or take a break at any time.
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Our learning goal
Weigh structural and interpretive explanation.
Your turn: Choose one thing you would like to understand by the end.
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My lesson notes & project
Full teaching script
- Today: Structure, agency and method. Our goal: Weigh structural and interpretive explanation.
- Take one idea at a time. Pause after each sentence; ask for repetition whenever you need it.
- Structural theories (functionalism, Marxism) explain behaviour by the shape of society — institutions, class, norms pressing on the individual. Interpretive theories (symbolic interactionism) start from the meanings people build in interaction. Methods follow: positivists prefer large-scale quantitative data for reliability, interpretivists prefer depth and validity through interviews and ethnography. Good sociology reads the numbers and the meanings together, and always asks who defined the categories being counted.
- Together: choose one example from the explanation and show how it works. What do you notice?
- Your turn: Take one social statistic and write both a structural and an interpretive explanation.
- Reflect: what made sense, and what would you like explained differently?
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