methods in context

• questionnaires

  Benfield= large sample- 25,000 students given standardised questionnaires in 3years following graduation to establish their level of pay. Despite women achieving better results in education they end up being paid less than men doing same jobs - reflect gendered subject choices that affects girls leading them to choose subjects leading to lower paid/status jobs.
• structured interviews

  Farkas+Beron= investigated verbal skills of parents + their children. Vocabulary tests carried out on children ages 3-14 + found disadvantaged backgrounds more likely to have poorer verbal skills leading to poorer educational outcomes - material/cultural deprivation contribute to inequalities. Useful method as quantitative data about particular language - results more clear/comparable, produce data about certain variables. May be biased as researcher imposes their ideas about whats important in language skills, actual abilities of student may not have been understood.
• unstructured interviews

  Lupton= investigate relationship between poor neighbourhoods+ underachieving schools. Found strong correlation between poorer areas + failing schools but also compensatory educational policies had some impact in raising standards for disadvantages students.
• unstructured group interviews

  Willis= carried them out in school to discover why working class children get working class jobs. Studied group of 12 working class boys during last year and half of school and first few months of work. Identified 'lads' and the 'ear'oles'. Found similarities between attitudes and behaviour developed by lads on shop floor at work and in school. Strength= made respondents act naturally can take into account body language/interactions-rich data. Time consuming/required considerable skill. Findings not generalisable/representative.
• non-participant observation

  Troyna+Hatcher= explored racism in childrens lives, carried out observation in mainly white primary school urban areas. Focused on 10-11yr olds - reflected on behaviour/interactions. Found where black students minority racism/harassment= more likely. Not participating meant researchers could watch body language/behaviour carefully - high valid results. Presence of researcher= Hawthorne effect-behavoiur chnaged.
• participant observation

  Wright= explored racism in 3yr study of 4 inner-city primary schools. Carrie out in/out classroom observations + also used interviews. Found most teachers seemed committed to ideals of equality but theres still discrimination. Children of different backgrounds experienced school differently. By participating in day to day life she created a naturalistic research setting- more valid results but teachers, students, etc couldve changed behaviour - Hawthorne effect. Social desirability bias- she seen as an authority figure.
• experiments

  Rosenthal+Jacobsen= carried out field experiment on Californian primary school. informed school they had special test that would reveal which child will be 'spurters' or children with particular academic abilities. In reality just normal IQ test. Teachers gave test to kids + researchers randomly picked 20% of sample and falsely told teachers they were spurters - 1 year later nearly 1/2 those labelled as spurters had made most gains.
• case studies

  Wilkin= researched possible effects of extended schools, whereby schools' preschool/after school activities are established. Researched perceived impact of extended hours of schooling on students, families, communities, teachers. Positive impact on student attainment,attendance, behaviour, education/learning was enhanced. Rich,valid results but not representative/generalisable.
• longitudinal research

  Roulstone= investigated role of language in early educational outcomes, specifically how young communicate in first 2yrs + how it prepares them. Used large complex data from longitudinal study. Found despite strong influence of social class children early language made important contribution to their performance. Carrying out research over long time illuminates long term effects of language use in first 2yrs rather than a 'snapshot' view. But very time consuming, danger of sample attrition- leave school/move away.
• qualitative secondary data


  Best= carried out content analysis of sex roles in preschool books and found their school reading schemes portrayed 'traditional' stereotypical roles. Used these findings to raise awareness/reduce sexism/stererotypical views of females in kids books/media. Danger of her interpretating book in biased way as she has feminist view.