This unit aims to enable students to understand:

•	The ways in which we define ourselves and others
•	The possible reasons for football violence.

Activities 1 and 2 in this section are not tied specifically to football. The link with the topic will be through the use of relevant examples to illustrate general points. The first lesson encourages students to reflect on the ways in which their own individual identity is linked to the variety of groups of which they are members. This obviously provides links with similar activities in PSHE and also gives opportunities for students to connect the ideas with their own experiences. Students are also encouraged to think about the effect these groups have on individuals' behaviour and attitudes. This could link to stories and examples from elsewhere in the school, through novels studied, etc.

This develops in the next lesson by asking students to analyse the nature of stereotypes, which is another way of thinking about groups. Again the lesson is a general one and is made specific to football by the follow-up activity, which asks students to reflect on the stereotypes that abound about football supporters. If students have already covered such work through other subjects then a quick recap and selection of discussion points may well be enough to introduce the rest of the activities.

Activities 3 and 4 are more focused on football. They should enable students to refer back to issues of identity, belonging and groups in attempting to explain why football violence occurs. The cards suggest six possible explanations for violence, but students should be encouraged to add in their own. This provides a starting point for whole-class discussion, where the emphasis should be on justifying opinions and trying to test out other peoples' ideas.

The media is used as an example of how bias can affect both the way in which we perceive social problems such as football violence and the nature of those problems. One of the activities refers to Stuart Hall's theory of the amplification of deviance, which was developed to explain how the media could play an active part in shaping reality rather than just reporting it. This distinction is an important one to stress when discussing this issue with students. Hall goes further than claiming that the news affects the way we see events around us and suggests that by manipulating how people perceive an issue, the media influences their response and can directly contribute to an increase in the level of violence.