OVERVIEW:
Your final exam is a culminating activity to help you explore, expand, and take stock in what you’ve learned in our course. There are a variety of approaches summarized below.
Final exam period! Submit your final exam according to the guidelines.
Your final (essay) exam asks you to include material from all of our lessons. It requires that you can quote directly from all chapters and readings we have studied. You will need to link to discussions, other materials, and connect ideas. The essays are interesting! But to prepare, your work at taking notes, collecting key materials to be ready for the exam are key.
HOW LONG IS THE ESSAY EXAM?
AND WHAT ARE THE OTHER GUIDELINES AND REQUIREMENTS?
Your exam will:
→ Be single-spaced, 4 – 6 pages long;
→ Have a references section that follows a consistent bibliography format, such as ASA or APA.
→ Have a witty or meaningful title for each essay;
→ Follow all the instructions and respond to questions clearly and directly;
This final exam is due no later than 6/26. I have left the deadline as late as possible–but there are no more days left after that!
EXAMINATION QUESTIONS
REQUIRED QUESTION: Recall our work on discussion boards engaging with photography as another kind of evidence. You can review your posts on DB11 part 2 and in DB11 on work and family. You can review class programs and discussions of photography and how to read photography. In that context, examine one of the photo essays below, and select a single image within the essay to focus on. Cut and paste that image into your essay response, and be sure to label it.
Your short essay will introduce the photograph including the context it was in (i.e. what the photo essay was about and what the specific photo was about). The introduction should also include a theme that will be developed using the steps below. That theme must relate to our reading on “Who Cares” by Joan Tronto: The article is posted with our course materials.
You will then present what you see as the meaning or significance of the image and how it links to or represents five concepts we have studied in this class. After your introduction, you’ll start by writing about what specifically you see in the image. This might involve explaining more about the photo essay story–what it was about might link to big ideas in the class. Write about how the image is framed and how that helps guide what you are seeing. Write about what you understand is the context of the image–that is what are the social circumstances that you understand to be the context.
And then write about how you think it is significant to ideas studied this semester. Your essay will include at least five quotations from Cohen or other readings: Those quotations should come from at least TWO chapters from Cohen and at least one quotation from Tronto.
Your conclusion should return to in what way you see photography as a tool for thinking about the sociology of families.
Photo essays for your selection:
https://psmag.com/economics/rise-extreme-daycare-working-24-hour-children-school-93860
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a8254375/abortion-gynecology-birth-nurse/
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/24/black-midwives-photo-essay
Refugees Fleeing Violence in Central America Hope for Asylum in Mexico
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/coronavirus-parenting-photos/
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS (select three):
2. KEY CONCEPTS LINKED TOGETHER: Using material from at least four chapters, identify six concepts that are related in a specific, important way (that you name and discuss) to the themes of the course and the book: Most key concepts are listed at the end of the chapters, though more appear in the chapters and in our discussions. Your answer should start by saying what terms you selected, and how they relate to each other as a group, and demonstrate how they are linked to a major theme. One of the tasks in this assignment is to be able to express what you see as a major theme or themes to the course. If you are struggling, you will likely get good ideas for this by looking at Chapter 1 and 13. The body of your essay will discuss these concepts. Your conclusion should return and defend why these concepts are important and linked.
3. FAMILY IN THE INSTITUTIONAL ARENA: The title of our book is The Family; the title relates to the way that family in the institutional arena (see pp 8-9). Explain what Cohen means by saying that one of the important approaches to the family is to see how it functions as an institution, using examples from at least four chapters. Conclude by answering why recognizing family’s function in the institutional arena is a valuable lens by giving examples of the consequences (i.e. benefits) of recognizing family get relied on as an institution that supports other institutions (such as the market!).
4. IDEAL FAMILY: What is the ideal family? Use material from at least four chapters to develop your answer and to support your claim. Conclude by discussing how your response relates to the conservative, liberal, and critical perspectives described in Chapter 13. Top essays will return to ideas from our first video lecture, “Families as they really are” and how “family” can be used as a political football ie. for moral entrepreneurs.
5. THE TOP CHANGE: There is one major social change from the 20th century that comes up repeatedly in our study of the family. Identify what it is–and, using examples from at least four chapters, discuss the significance of that social change. Remember to provide a conclusion! You are welcome to run your idea for “one major social change” by me! Just email, and we can talk. I won’t tell you the answer, but I will help you get there!
6. ANALYZE THIS: Read this quotation from a November 2023 Council on Contemporary Families report gender and COVID (link to full report here) that summarizes what the report accomplished and how it focused on policy ideas (aka policy prescriptions):
“The briefing papers in this symposium demonstrate that gender inequalities grew across numerous domains during the COVID-19 pandemic, with potentially long-term consequences. They emphasize that the pandemic created conditions – such as school and daycare closures –in combination with the absence of supportive family care policies and the presence of workplace and gender norms that push care on women and paid work on men, that exacerbated pre-existing inequalities in the United States. At the same time, the authors point out that the pandemic revealed several avenues for how to reduce gender inequalities (e.g., fathers’ remote work; investment in care infrastructure; paid parental leave) and each paper provides clear prescriptions for how we can mitigate the damage inflicted by the pandemic. Such recommendations are vital if we truly hope to reduce gender inequalities in work and family life moving forward.“
Focus on at least TWO policy ideas from these papers; explain what they are and indicate how you think these ideas are supported or contradicted in material we’ve studied. Be sure you are using material from at least four chapters to discuss this.
7. KIDS TODAY MEETS SECOND SHIFT MEETS GENDER. Please read this short news article about a new study about children and their parents’ supervision of online activities.
“More unpaid work — the hidden cost to moms of their kids’ online lives,” Washington Post, 9/2/2023, by Erin Blakemore.
In a short essay, discuss the interlocking dilemmas of “kids today” (and the irony of that statement), work on work/family issues, care work and the second shift, and gender issues in families that are reported in this article. Finish with your original, grounded ideas about how to address the problem(s) raised in the article. Be sure that your essay includes quotations and concepts from at least four chapters in Cohen. Remember that the news article should be included in your bibliography.
It is due on June 26. Good luck! I really appreciate your thoughtful engagement of the ideas presented. Keep going.
Additionally, the two files are what the exact textbook is that was referenced in the assignment details above.
