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Methods in context
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- 1QuestionnairesQuestionnaires used to study issues such as. subject and university choice, bullying and experiences of schooling, achievement and parental attitudes to education
- 2Questionnaires Operalisation of conceptsMaking sociological concepts accessible to pupils can be problematic. E.g. difficult to turn terms such as 'deferred gratification' or 'cultural capital' into a language pupils understand. There is a possibility that this may produce answers based on respondents misunderstanding or that questions become too over simplified that they lose sociological value.
- 3Questionnaires Sampling- Schools routinely keep lists of pupils, staff and parents which can be used as a sampling frame.
-Schools may deny access to confidential information, will need to seek permission from parents and the school
-May find it difficult to locate parents for research purposes
-Young people may be open to peer pressure when completing questionnaires and may struggle to interpret questions - 4Questionnaires Access and response rates- Response rates can be low if the questionnaire is time consuming or the topic is sensitive e.g. underage sex. Pupils must be reassured that their anonymity will be safeguarded. This could be difficult with a a detached method.
-If the headteacher supports the research and gives permission for the time to be taken out of lessons then teachers and pupils will feel more pressured to cooperate and complete the questionnaire
-Surveys are often official looking documents and pupils may equate them with school and teacher authority. As a result anti-school subcultures may refuse to take part. - 5Questionnaires Practical issues-Questionnaires are useful for collecting large quantities of information e.g. Rutter was able to gather a range of data on the achievement and class size in 12 inner London schools very quickly. However the data collected is limited and superficial e.g. Rutter's data showed and correlation but did not explain it
-Children have a shorter attention span so questionnaires should be brief. Their life experiences are narrower meaning that they might not 'know the answer'
-Teachers may be skilled at completing questionnaires and recognize the researcher's aims and intentions, may produce invalid data
- Survey methods are particularly useful when researching sensitive issues e.g. bullying - 6Official statisticsOfficial statistics are used to study issues such as - ethnicity, gender, class and achievement; school attendance, truancy and inclusion; league tables and school performance work and training; gender and subject choice
- 7Official Statistics Outline and explain 3 practical issues1. Much of the data is already published saving the sociologists that time and money. For example, the government collects statistics on over 30,000 primary schools and 4,000 secondary schools. This allows for comparisons to be made
2. The definitions used by the government statistics and sociologists may differ e.g. official definitions of pupils social class is based on parental occupation whereas Marxist definitions are based on property ownership
3. Free school meals are not an accurate measure of social class. Not all of those entitled to them are from working class families. Nor are all working class children are eligible - 8Official statistics In addition 2 other practical issues1. Government gather statistics to monitor the effectiveness of their education policies e.g. curriculum, subject choice, inequality etc. these are relevant to sociologists. However some may not be relevant or useful e.g. no statistics exists on the relationship between social class, language and achievement
3. Statistics on social class may only exist in terms of the number of pupils claiming FSM. This may be problematic due to the issue of under-claiming by pupils or their families - this may be because of the stigma. - 9Official statistics Explain how they are representative?They are highly representative - all state schools have to complete a school census three times a year. This collects information on attendance, ethnicity, gender etc. and cover virtually every pupil in the country.
- 10Official statistics Explain the reliability of official statistics1. Can be used to test and re-test hypothesis and discover cause and effect relationships. For example, statistics on exam results showing social class differences in achievement may correlate with statistics on parental income. Positivists may be able to conclude that poverty causes underachievement.
2. Governments impose standard definitions and categories for the official statistics in education. This enables processes to be replicated year after year, allowing direct comparisons to be made.
3. Governments can change definitions. Changing them can make it difficult to make comparisons over time - 11Official Statistics Explain about the validity1. They are socially constructed e.g. truancy statistics are the outcome of a series of definitions and decisions made by teachers, parents and pupils
2. Schools may manipulate their attendance figures by definitions e.g. re-defining poor attenders as on study leave or work experience. Manipulation occurs due to marketisation and the pressure for schools to present themselves in the best possible light to maintain funding and parental support. - 12In what context are experiments used in education?They may be used to study issues such as, teacher expectations, labelling, self-fulfilling prophecy and pupils self concept.
- 13Lab experiments, What did Charkin do?He used lab experiments to investigate teacher expectations by observing non verbal communication. Found that teacher who has higher expectations used more eye contact and encouraging body language.
- 14Lab experiments, problems with Charkins experiment.However, using real pupils in research causes real ethical issues of potential psychological harm and deception. Lab experiments are narrow and only usually focus on one aspect of teacher expectations e.g. did not examine how body langauge affected pupils achievement. Other important and complex variables might be ignored. Lastly, lab experiments are artificial, Charkin used university students instead of real teachers, so it is unlikely they'd behaviour in the same way.
- 15Field experiments, what did Rosenthal and Jacobson do?'Pygmalion in the classroom' - children given IQ tests, teachers given results of the top 20% expected to 'spurt' in the next year (although the pupils were just randomly selected) in order to investigate teacher expectations. Found that the 'spurters' made significant gains in IQ compared to other children, demonstrating the influence of teacher expectations.
- 16Field experiments, issues with Rosenthal and Jacobson's study?This researcher has major ethical implications for the young people may have been held back educationally due to them receiving less attention and encouragement from teachers. On a positive note, the research design was highly replicate with the study being repeated 242 times in 5 years following the original experiment.
- 17What issues are documents used to study?They are used to study issues such as - gender, ethnicity, class differences in achievements; the curriculum; gender stereotyping; racist incidents; special educational needs.
- 18Examples of documents in education include (public and personal documents)Public - school websites, government guidance to schools and colleges, school prospectuses, novels and films about school lie (e.g. Channel 4's Educating series), recording of playground songs and games, media reports, school textbooks and Ofsted inspection reports.
Personal - pupil's written work, school reports on pupils, pupil or teacher diaries, autobiographies, graffiti on school property, notes between pupils, letters from parents, text messages. - 19What are the practical issues of documents?Documents are often easily accessible partly because of government policy emphasising parental choice, schools make large amounts of information open to the public.
- 20Practical issues of documents Gillbourn (1995) studyGillbourn was able to access school policy statements, local authority guidelines and staff meeting minutes in his study of racism and schooling. Gillbourn was then able to make comparisons of the 'official picture' (documents) with observations and interviews he had conducted.
- 21Pratical issues of documents What did Gerwitz do? What did Hey do?Gerwitz (1995) found that school brochures were a useful free source of information about how schools present themselves in the education marketplace. However, it must be noted that personal documents, such as pupils notes, may be more difficult to obtain.
Hey(1997) found that pupils were experts at hiding them from teachers. - 22Ethical issues of documentsFew ethical concerns as most documents are placed in the public domain however,some school documents are confidential so sociologists may not be able to gain access to them. Furthermore, informed consent may not always be obtained e.g. Hey collected girls notes passed in class, from their desks at the end of the lesson or even retrieved them from the bin.
- 23Reliability of documentsMany public documents are produced using systematic format enabling researchers to make direct comparisons. However, deliberate or accidental mistakes when filling in a register may reduce reliability. Some documents can be used in ways that other researchers can replicated e.g. Lobban analysed the content of schooling reading books using the same set of categories, counting the number of times and image fell into each category.
- 24Validity of documentsPersonal documents can provide important insight into the meanings held by teacher and pupils and are therefore high in validity. E.g. Hey found that analysing the notes girls passed to eachother in class offered insight into the nature of the girls friendships - this is because they were spontaneous expressions of girls' feelings and attitudes. However, it is important to note that all documents are open to different interpretations and we cannot be sure if meanings given are true.
- 25Unstructured interviews may used to study issues, such as what?Pupil subcultures; pupils' experiences of health and sex education; class, ethnicity and language; gender, identity and the male gaze; class and parental choice of school.
- 26Unstructured interviews Practical issues (Age)Young people's linguistic and intellectual skills are less developed than those of an adult. Young people may - be less articulate, more reluctant to talk, not understanding long, complex questions or concepts, use words incorrectly or use slang, have a shorter attention span or poorer memory, read body language differently. These factors can lead to misunderstanding or incorrect answers thus undermining the validity of the data obtained. Children have more difficulty keeping to the point
- 27Unstructured interviews Age, practical?It could be argued these are the most suitable method to use with young people as it allows for the researcher to re-word their questions or clear up and misunderstandings
- 28Unstructured interviews Age and attention span (P & W)Powney and Watts (1987) note that children tend to be more literal minded and pay attention to unexpected detailed in questions. Training needs to be more through for interviews which adds to cost.
- 29Other practical issues with unstructured interviews-Schools have very active communication channels - this means that the content of the interviews nay get around pupils and teachers after only a handful have taken place. This can influence responses and therefore validity
-The location of where the interview is conducted can be problematic. They could be off putting, especially in schools
- They can be time consuming, most teachers and parents have a heavy workload - 30Unstructured interviews Reliability and validity- It is difficult to standardise an interviewing style/technique. Interviews may use different approaches when trying to build rapport
- On the other hand, validity is likely to be increased where the interviewer uses techniques that build good rapport is more likely to enable pupils to give truthful and insightful answers. - 31Unstructured Interviews Example of reduced relaibility (Bentley)Bentley (1987) used a very informal approach of showing pupils a 'jokey' image of her with a daughter and maintained a relaxed atmosphere by nodding, smiling and making eye contact. Different interview techniques are likely to produce different results and reduce the reliability and comparability of their findings.
- 32Unstructured interviews Access and response rate- Schools are hierarchical institutions and this can cause problems when trying to interview teachers or pupils.
-There may be reluctance to allow interviews to be conducted during lesson time because of disruption or because the school objects to the research topic
-Parental permission may be required to interview children - the likelihood of permission may vary depending on the topic. - 33Unstructured interviews - Access and response rate examplesPowney and Watts note that lower down the hierarchy the interviewees is, the more approvals have to be obtained e.g. parental consent, head of year etc.
Field (1987) study of sex and health education had a 29% refusal rate. - 34Unstructured interviews The interviewer a 'teacher in disguise'- Power and status inequalities can affect the outcomes of interviews - if interviewees feel powerless they may feel the need to lie, exaggerate, conceal information or seek to please the interviewer.
-Naturally there are power and status inequalities between children and adults (especially in a school environment), the may see the interviewer as a teacher in disguise so they may lie to show themselves in a better light. - 35Unstructured interviews Improving the validity of interviews with pupils (Greene and Hogan 2005)-Use open ended questions
-Do not interrupt children's answers
-Tolerate long pauses to allow children to think about what they want to say
-Avoid leading questions
- Avoid repeating questions (may mean the child changes their answer because they think it is wrong) - 36Unstructured interviews Group interviews with pupils - issues and non issues- Peer pressure may reduce the validity of the research. In a group setting, pupils may be more likely to conform to peer expectations rather than express what they truly think
-The free-flowing nature of group interviews make it difficult to standardise the questions thus reducing reliability and comparability - 37Unstructured interviews Group interviews - Greene and HoganThey are that group interviews are most suitable to use with pupils - they create a safe peer environment and reproduce a small group setting that young people are familiar with in a class. Peer support also reduces power inequalities.
- 38Unstructured observations Practical issues- Schools are complex places and more time consuming to observe than other settings
-Observation of school settings is limiter by the restriction of school timetable, holidays, control over access, health and safety legislation
-May be easier to gain permission to observe lessons than to conduct interviews in school
- Personal characteristics such as age, gender and ethnicity affect the process of observation
-Schools are busy places, researcher may find it difficult to get privacy to record their observations - 39Unstructured observations Ethical issues- A covert approach when studying pupils is not approriate due to their greater vulnerability and limited ability to give informed consent
- Observers could witness or overhear things that may get the pupils in trouble (guilty knowledge)
-Researchers should protect the identity of pupils, teachers, parents and school to reduce harm - 40Unstructured observation About validity- The power difference between adults and children is a major barrier to uncovering real attitudes and behaviour of pupils
-The language that the pupils use may be different ti that of the researcher. This makes it difficult to ensure correct interpretations of pupils meanings were made understood.
-Teachers may be quite skilled at hiding their true feelings and altering their behaviour. - 41Unstructured observations Hawthorne effect-It is problematic to conduct covert research in a school environment because there are few 'cover roles' the researcher can adopt
-The presence of the researcher may influence behaviour and efforts must be made to reduce this e.g. King(1984) politely refused to help pupils with their work and sometimes hid in the 'Wendy house' - 42Unstructured observation Representativeness- The scale of the education system is vast. Observational studies often only focus on a small number of pupils in a single school e.g. Willis (1977) studied a group of 12 boys
-Observations are unlikely to produce representative data as they are usually small scale due to the time taken to familiarise self with the setting, building rapport and trust with participants. - 43Unstructured observations Reliability- Data is usually unsystematic and hard to replicate e.g. Hammersley had to write notes on the back of the newspaper
-Personal characteristics of different researchers may evoke different responses e.g. Wright found that as a black female she was met with some hostility by some white teachers - 44Structured observations Practical issues - ExampleOne example is the Flanders system of interaction analysis categories (FIAC) - used to measure pupil-pupil and pupil-teacher interaction quantitatively. A standard chart is used to record interactions as three seconds interviews, placing each observation in one of pre-defined categories, meaning that observations can be easily converted in to quantitative data
- 45Structured observations Practical issuesStructural observation methods are simple, quicker, cheaper and require less training
- 46Structured observation Reliability and Validity- Techniques such as FIAC are easily replicated and standardised (R)
-Findings are easy to compare to other studies over time (R)
-Structured interviews lack validity. Delamont argues that simply counting classroom behaviour and classifying it into pre-defined categories ignores the meanings that teachers and pupils attach to it.
Información
- Descripción
- Questionnaires, Official Statistics, Experiments, Documents, Unstructured interviews and Observations
- Creado por
- Catherine Rayner
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