INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY (PAD 115/ODFeL/PUB/1st)

Course Code: PAD 115

Course Title: Introduction to Sociology

Credit Units: 2 Credit

Year of Study: ND 1

Semester: First

Course Introduction and Description

Sociology is an A’ level course, probably you have just met the field or title Sociologyhere for the first time. Don’t worry, I am assuring you, before you complete this course, your human instincts to explore daily realities that are taken for granted, for example, having culture or coming from families, holding some forms of religious beliefs and going to schools to acquire knowledge, will be sharpened and you will be able to re-questions these taken-for-granted social realities and why they are what they are and how and why they change over time. This course will give you a general background information on Sociology as field of knowledge. You must have learnt about culture, family and religion of people in or outside Nigeria in your previous stages of scholarship. Sociology is more than just the study of culture, religion and family and other social things; Sociology is a scientific inquiry into nature of humans’ relations and institutions human build overtime to support such relationships and how such interplay into producing the nature of the society. The course Sociology summarily deals with human behaviour and actions as a product of cultures (mainly knowledge, language and homesteads, tools, and other material resources people use) and cultural values (such as kindness, love, affections, support, generosity etc.) held by people in societies. People are a product of their environment producing their cultures and institutions such as family, religion, education that emerged overtime. These institutions interact and depend on each other to produce order and sometimes disorder. These institutions and their functions changes or were modified with consequences on people and relationships in the society. Sociology is a broad field of knowledge about human behaviour and actions understood from the scientific angle. Sociology is distinguished from our normative ways of looking at the society, for its emphases course and scientific methods (such as observation, experimentation, comparison and historical analysis) in its study and description of societies. More importantly, sociologists stress the principle of objectivity, factuality and logic in analysis and interpretations of behaviours, social issues and events towards prescribing solutions to them.

At the end of this course, I can assure that you will find knowledge of Sociology handy and helpful in helping you understand cultural issues and how they emanate and affect social relations and the consequences there from. This courseware has nine Modules, which run through the introduction (providing general introduction to Sociology), social group and society, social institutions, culture, socialisation, social stratification, indicators of social class, deviant behavior, to social control.

Course Prerequisites

You are required to have the following to be qualified for this course:

1. 5 credits in O’ level certificate

2. Satisfactory level of English proficiency

3. Basic Computer Operations proficiency

4. Online interaction proficiency

5. Web 2.0 and Social media interactive skills.

Course Textbook(s)

a) Doda, Zertun (2005) Introduction to Sociology. Ethiopian Public Health Training Manual. Available at: http//Sociology.net.

b) Griffiths, Heather (2015). Introduction to Sociology 2e. Available at: http//openstax

c) Pearce, E.B. (2020). Contemporary Families: An Equity Lens. Open Oregon Educational Resources.

d) Rosalind Gottfried (2019). My Sociology: An Introduction for Today’s Students. U.S.A: Routledge.

e) Sociology: Brief Edition (v. 1.1). available at: Creative Commons by-nc-sa 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/

Course Objectives and Outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

1. Define Sociology and relates with its applications in understanding various forms of human actions and the nature of the social structure of our society.

2. Demonstrates the scientific nature of Sociology and its application to defining and explaining the nature of our societies.

3. Become conversant with the basic concepts used in Sociology, such as culture, norms values and social institutions and how they inform our social identity as humans.

4. Discuss the implications of socialisation and its need in our society to enhance our uniformity as humans.

5. Understand the consequences of unbalanced socialisation in humans as manifests in actions such as deviance and why deviance in societies is controlled.

Activities to Meet Course Objectives

The course material is written in a simple, clear and concise manner that will assist and enable you to understand this course very well. Sociology is an interesting discipline, as you will find out in the course of this study. However, it requires you develop interest, concentration and pay attention to the contents of this courseware. To help with your efforts as required, relevant sites and standard references have been provided for you. There will be a lot of chatting and online interaction in this class through WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. There also will be individual assignments and group assignments. All assignments are due at the times slated. No late assignment will be entertained or accepted from you, hence, be very serious with your study. Completion and timely submission of assignments will also serve as part of your assessment. You are expected to read this course material thoroughly and understand very well. You are also expected to have software applications on your mobile phones like WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram, a working email address and a phone number so that you can chats, interact and share ideas with each other. Please do not hesitate to contact me through my email addresses, phone numbers and/or social media platforms. I will like you to succeed in this class and also in your future. Thank you and God bless.