methods in context

• Practical issues with educational staff research

  -access to educational staff may be limited by lack of time they have to commit to assisting with research

  -schools are hierarchal institutions and can only take part when granted permission of their line managers
• Ethical issues with educational staff research

  -unguarded comments by educational staff could possibly affect career progression, so it is important to maintain confidentiality

  -observation of teachers within a staff room can have ethical problems if not all members have consented to taking part
• Theoretical issues with educational staff research

  -teachers or lecturers are likely to associate the presence of an outsider in their classroom with Ofsted inspections and may act in atypical ways to impress the inspector

  -in interviewer research there may be a degree of interviewer bias and teachers may give cautious answers rather than fully express their thoughts

  -the teaching staff put forward to take part in research may be handpicked by more senior staff to give a positive impression of the institution
• Practical issues and student research

  -researchers need to get approval for the research from parents and the school rather than just from participants

  -researchers have to conform to the demands of the academic year

  -researching young children can be time consuming as they have a tendency to sway off topic

  -the department for education may also need to be approached for consent
• ethical issues and student research

  -the researcher must ensure that children do not experience any psychological distress

  -it distracts them from their education and therefore could potentially impede their performance

  -problems with gaining informed consent as young participants may not fully understand the purpose of the research
• Theoretical issues and student research

  -educational consumers of all age groups in schools have relatively low status positions. they have little power which may make it difficult to openly express their views, affecting the validity of their response

  -there may be problems with children expressing abstract ideas or understanding questions based on these ideas, decreasing validity

  -the presence of an observer may produce unnatural behaviour
• Practical issues and parent research

  -practical data protection issues in getting parental addresses and finding ways to approach them

  -research using interviews can be time consuming

  -researchers are unable to observe behaviours when discussing them assisting with homework as this takes place in private settings
• Ethical issues and parent research

  -less ethically problematic as parents can give fully informed consent

  -however still need to maintain confindentiality
• Theoretical issues and parent research

  -parents who are more willing to take part in research will tend to be those that are more involved with their child‘s education

  -socially desirable answers may be given during interviews or questionnaires
• experimental research

  Rosenthal and Jacobson-gave false info about IQ scores to teachers, those who believed to have high IQs performed better (SFP)

  p-may be difficult to gain consent from schools

  e-informed consent couldn’t be gained as participants were young children

  t-artificial situation can lower validity
• Questionnaire

  Sullivan- collected data from 465 pupils in 4 schools using questionnaires

  p-quick and cheap

  e-problem maintaining confidentiality and gaining informed consent from very young ps

  t-socially desirable answers may be given
• Interview

  Willis- used group interviews with the lads who formed an anti school subculture to understand their attitudes towards school

  p-interviews with children must be carefully designed to take into account children’s less developed language skills

  e-interviews must be short and avoid issues that may be sensitive to avoid harm

  t-they may see the interviewer as an authority figure and therefore be unwilling to give true answers
• Observation

  Devine - observed classrooms and playgrounds, sitting down at desks with children to better understand the school from the children’s point of view

  p-time consuming

  e-covert observation mean no consent can be gained

  T-validity may be compromised by the hawthorne effect
• Official stats

  Modood- examined data on the proportion of children achieving five or more GCSEs in different ethnic groups

  p-easily accessible, however info required by socio researchers is not always available

  e-no real ethical issues

  t-validity may be open to interpretation as schools may deliberately manipulate data in order to secure funding
• Qualitative secondary sources

  Hey- investigated friendships among girls in secondary school using the notes passed to one another during lessons

  p-public documents are easy to access, private are not

  e-when using private documents, ethical issues become more significant (public are already in the public domain)

  t-school publicity material is likely to put a positive gloss on the schools image and performance