Educational Contexts

Educational Contexts

1. Studying children

   • Easy to find but difficult to access
     • Gatekeepers prevent access
       • CRB/DBS checks
       • Child protection laws
   • Vulnerable group
     • Questions need to be simple/easy
   • May be naive/truthful
   • Informed concent
   • Less developed language
     • Miscommunication
       • Easier to amend in interviews
   • Shorter attention span
   • Poorer memory
   • Power/authority of researcher may intimidate students to give 'wanted' answer
     • Anti-school attitudes may make them uncooperative
   • Not used to being watched
     • Impression management
   • Peer group pressure

2. Studying teachers

   • May answer to protect job/family
     • Need to ensure confidentiality to avoid damaging professional image
   • Ethically/legally cannot damage pupils/school
   • Might be too busy for interviews
     • Observations won't take time
   • Stronger language skills
   • Used to being watched/observed
     • Know how to give good impression
   • Backstage context = staff room
   • Peer pressure

3. Studying parents

   • Difficult to access
     • Less able to get addresses/contact details
     • May be more willing to take part if it helps their children
   • Varying language capabilities
   • May be more respectul and less honest
   • Impression management
     • Ensure confidentiality
   • May have personal opinions of school
     • Affect validity
   • Less used to being researched
   • Want to safeguard children
   • Backstage = home

4. Classrooms

   • Easy to find but difficult to access
   • Vulnerable
   • Small + observer is noticable
     • Hawthorne effect
   • Only two observable roles
     • Observations are limited
   • Many classrooms in country --> less representative
   • Frontstage = classroom

5. Schools

   • Easy to find but difficult to access
   • Concerned with public image
     • Limits potentially negative research
     • Institutional impression management
   • Data-rich
     • Limited access
       • Freedom of Information Act 200
         • Need to give requested information
   • Only open for 8hrs/day and 200 days a year
     • Researcher must work around
   • Spatially large + organisationally complex
   • Operate in legal context