Methods in Context

• Fields (1987): study of pupil's experience of sex education had refusal rate of 29% - mainly from parents withholding consent
• Hargreaves et al (1967) : teachers were suspicious of the researcher, thought it was an attempt by the government to undermine their authority.
• Goffman (1959): people present themselves differently depending on who is watching them.
• Rutter (1979):

  1. collected large amounts of data
  2. correlated achievement, attendance and behavior
  3. data limited and superficial
  4. no explanations for the correlations