Sociology- Using questionnaires

Sociology- Using questionnaires

1. Uses: Might be used on a wide range of educational issues: to explore how home background affects educational achievement, by looking at matters like the income, educational qualifications and attitudes to education of parents: pupils' subject choices or what pupils and parents think about their local school. The anonymity and detachment of questionnaires, particularly if identity protection and confidentiality can be guaranteed, may be of benefit in overcoming embarrassment or apprehensiveness when exploring highly personal or sensitive issues, like any experiences of bullying in school, or teacher and peer-related racism.

2. Problems and limitations: Schools are busy places, and they have a duty of care to their pupils and parents. They may therefore be reluctant to grant permission for questionnaires to be distributed, given the time and disruption they may involve and the need to protect the interests of those in their care. Sensitivity is needed with the language used in questionnaires. Younger pupils or people with poor literacy skills, will need to have very simple language used, with short questions, which may limit the amount of depth of information obtained. English may not be the home language of parents. This may make it necessary to use a variety of languages in questionnaires, or to adopt an alternative method, like interviews using interviewers of the same ethnic group as the interviewee.

   • School based questionnaires may be seen as 'official', with pupils or parents feeling obliged to fill them in, or seeing them as a nuisance, or not taking them seriously. Pupils may treat them only light-heartedly, get bored quickly or sabotage them with dishonest or silly answers, or discuss their answers first, so possibly undermining their validity. While those managing institutions like st hools are often able to provide informed consent for questionnaire research to take place, this doesn't necessarily mean those asked to complete the questionnaires have similarly consented. Many people, especially younger students or the less educated, may simply not have a sufficient grasp of what the research is about, or enough interest in it, to give proper informed consent. Professionals like teachers often have stressed and bust working lives, or may simply not have the time or inclination to fill in questionnaires, particularly as they often have a lot of required paperwork to complete.
     • This may mean voluntary questionnaires get a low response rate.