YSGOL GWYDDORAU CYMDEITHAS 2017/18 SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Côd y Modiwl / Module Code : SXU 2002

Teitl y Modiwl / Module Title : Contemporary Social Debates

Cynullydd y Modiwl / Module Convenor : Dr Corinna Patterson

Dyddiad Cyflwyno / Submission Date : 08 /01 /18

Asesiad / Assessment : Critical Reflective Diary 100%

4000 words (+/- 10% words)

CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL DEBATES 2017/18

ASSESMENT

N.B. This Assessment is part reflective journal and part empirical essay.

Purpose and aim of the assessment:

The aim of this module is to make you active critical and reflective social scientists. The aim
of this assessment is to help you develop those skills by requiring you to actively engage
with each topic covered in this module through conducting media analysis, analyzing
theoretical frameworks and reflecting on your personal opinions on each topic prior to and
then after finding evidence / information about the topic.

The module is meant to be challenging. It requires you to acknowledge your pre-formed

‘opinions’ on topics and test them against challenging alternative theoretical perspectives
and hard evidence. This can be uncomfortable at times, but is crucial for the development
of critical, objective and reflective evidence-based thinking, for developing your analytical
skills and your ability to empathize with others. This form of assessments:

1. Ensures that you are active learners

2. Makes you have to be critical about what they hear and say
3. Makes you have to engage reflectively about how and where they have formed your
opinions on topics
4. Shows you why evidence is so important
5. Demonstrates to you why you have to be rigorous in your academic research.
6. Shows you why a comparative analysis of theories and evidence is essential.

This assessment method will hopefully show you the importance of objective evidence
gathering from reliable sources and how social science theories can be applied and used to
help understand contemporary issues that are occurring in society today e.g. refugee crisis,
Brexit, power and social control, media representation of issues etc.
 YSGOL GWYDDORAU CYMDEITHAS 2017/18 SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

The structure:
The structure of the journal consists of the following:

 A brief critical and reflective introduction

 Nine weekly subject entries
 A critical reflective analytical conclusion of your learning journey.

Each of your nine Journal entries should contain:

 Summary of Topic:
 Produce a weekly summary of each workshop (lecture and class
contribution / participation).

 A Critical reflective element:

 Did it challenge some of your ideas and attitudes?
 Have the topics or theories inspired you?
 Do you feel you have learnt important things?
 Have you felt disturbed / unsettled by opinions expressed
during the workshops?
 Have your opinions changed in light of the academic evidence
and academic perspectives you have heard during the
workshop and after conducting your own research?
 You should also draw on observations and discussions you may
have had or overheard.

 An academic element:
 You should access news media (television, radio, newspapers)
reports to further your discussions and to help illustrate your
points and to provide examples and evidence where possible. *
Be sure to reference official sources correctly.
 Show Critical Media and content analysis of news sources that
comment and reports on the topics covered.
 You will need access academic literature to further your
understanding of the topics and obtain further evidence and
information.
 Include discussions on the value of various theoretical
perspectives in your analysis of each topic.

Concluding Entry:
You should conclude your reflective diary by looking back at your entries and reflecting on
the journey of your learning process over the course of the module.
 YSGOL GWYDDORAU CYMDEITHAS 2017/18 SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Length of Each Entry

Diary entries can vary in size, some topics may inspire or challenge you more than others
and so you may want to delve deeper into some topics than others; you may have more to
say, evidence to explore and more to critically reflect on. Other topics may be shorter and
less in-depth, but must still contain a mix of reflective and academic content. For example,
some entries may be as little as 300 words, others may be 700 words. It is about quality not
quantity.

You are permitted to write in the first person within your journal when you are reflecting on
your own opinions and learning of each topic, but your critical analysis of the topics need to
adhere to the academic rigor of being evidence-based and objective, i.e.; you may have
formed your opinions on situations prior to the workshops via very little objective evidence
(e.g. newspaper headlines public comment and here-say) and you may reflect on your initial
opinions and feelings on a topic, but you must ensure that you demonstrate that your
knowledge and opinions / feelings that you have formed post-workshop and in your diary
entries are evidenced-based. You do not have to agree with the perspectives you are
introduced to during this module, but you must provide evidence to support your argument,
whether it is in agreement with or in opposition to a theorist’s perspective or in viewing a
situation in less-linear, more complex terms.

Referencing
When discussing news programmes you’ve watched or listened to, newspapers articles
you’ve read, academic books and theorists you’ve read and are discussing, you must, as in
all academic pieces of work, reference your sources.

Active Engagement in Current Affairs:

As this is an active-learning module and assessment, it requires you to engage actively with
current affairs and access daily reputable news media sources such as:

BBC Radio 4 – programmes such as the Today Programme (6-9am).

Channel 4 News 7pm

Channel 4’s Dispatches

Channel 4’s Unreported World.

Newspapers: The Guardian, The Independent, The I, The Times, The Observer.

Academic commentary on-line journal – ‘The Conversation’:

http://theconversation.com/uk
 YSGOL GWYDDORAU CYMDEITHAS 2017/18 SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

General Guidelines:

 If you miss a session – don’t lie and pretend you were there, but do look over the
PowerPoint, watch the documentaries, video clips, read the handouts etc. and
summarize and comment on the session as best you can.

 You can write in the first person

 You do need to reference external sources that you refer to in your diary entries,
such as journals, TV shows, newspapers, academic books, radio programmes etc.

 You do need to include a bibliography.

 You do not need to reference observations and conversations.

 Be careful to make sure that if you do refer to conversations or observations in your

diary, that you maintain the anonymity of the people involved in that conversation /
observation.

 You can express personal opinion – but you should demonstrate that your
considered opinion after critical reflection, is formed through evidence and not
supposition.

 A reflective diary has distinctly different rules from writing a conventional essay –
don’t get them confused!

 You can include appendices if you wish.

 For more helpful advice on reflective writing go to the Higher Education Academy
website https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/resource/reflective-writing-skills

Module learning outcomes:

1. Identify and appreciate some recently emerging debates and questions within the
social sciences.
2. Understand the emergent agendas within the social sciences with reference to
appropriate case studies
3. Appraise the types and uses of evidence or research methods used in the fields of
study, with some knowledge of their limitations.
4. Understand the value of comparative enquiry and analysis.
5. Reflect on the learning process within the module.
 YSGOL GWYDDORAU CYMDEITHAS 2017/18 SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Examples of Diary Entries:

An example of a reflective section of a diary entry:

“The comparison Yates (2004) makes between Goffman’s (1995) exploration of how the
Nazi’s dehumanized Jewish people and rationalized their perspective and treatment of
‘them’ ( Jewish people) to how ‘we’ humans rationalize and justify our treatment of on-
human animals, disturbed me at first. I found it deeply challenging that a correlation was
being drawn between these two situations, but after considering the evidence Yates
presents, I could see how people use the same techniques of rationalization to justify
similarly cruel treatment…”.

Examples of how you might broaden a discussion to make links to theories and / or other
situations.

“I recently read an article in the Independent (Henderson 2015) that reports on Denmark’s
decision to strip refugees of personal possessions such as jewelry etc. This made me feel
very uncomfortable and reminded me of the Nazi treatment of Jewish people. Goffman’s
(1995) theory of the rationalization of ‘them’ and ‘us’ and how those who are considered as
‘outsiders’, as ‘others’ as ‘them’, and are dehumanized and their identities stripped.
However, the complexity of the refugee issue …..”

“We were introduced in week ** to the work of Vandana’s Sheeva via her 2001 Reith
Lecture, which enlightened me to the inequality and environmental consequences of food
production around the world and it inspired me to read her most recent book “Making
Peace with Earth” (2013). I found it echoed much of what Naomi Klein (2008) had argued in
her book ‘The Shock Doctrine’ that we examined in week ** in relation the exploitative
nature of global capitalism…”

Mae cyfarwyddiadau ychwanegol i'w cael ar Blackboard Additional instructions can be found on Blackboard

 NIFER GEIRIAU - nid yw eich rhestr o gyfeiriadau wedi  WORD COUNT – your list of references is not included
ei chynnwys yn y cyfanswm nifer geiriau. in the total word count.
 MAINT FFONT - 12 pwynt  FONT SIZE ~ 12 point
 BWLCH RHWNG LLINELLAU - Dwbl  LINE SPACING ~ Double
 DULL CYFEIRIO - Harvard  REFERENCING ~ Harvard
 Myfyrwyr y Gyfraith - sylwer y gellwch ddefnyddio dull  Law students may use OSCOLA referencing for their
cyfeirio OSCOLA yn eich traethodau. essays.