Sociology - research methods

• Main groups/settings in education

  *Pupils

  *Teachers

  *Parents

  *Classrooms

  *Schools
• Researching pupils - Malcolm Hill (2005)

  He suggests that there are three major differences between studying young people and adults:

  *Power and status

  *Ability and understanding

  *Vulnerability

  These raise different practical, ethical, and theoretical issues that researches need to take into account when researching pupils.
• Young people

  • Generally have less power and status than adults
  • This makes it more difficult for them to express their attitudes and views openly
• Power and status differences

  • Schools give hierarchical power to teachers over pupils
• Formal research methods

  • Tend to reinforce power differences
  • The researcher determines the question not the young person
• Power and status differences between adult researchers and young participants

  Sociologists need to consider ways to overcome
• Ways to overcome power and status differences

  • Group interviews rather than formal one to one interviews
• Some power and status will still remain, whatever research method is used
• Pupils' attitudes to power and status differences between pupils and teachers

  Likely to affect how they relate and respond to the researcher
• Pupils

  • Vocabulary, powers of self expression, thinking skills and confidence are likely to be more limited than adults
  • Limitations in understanding make it more difficult to get informed consent - because the pupil might not understand the way the researcher has explained or presented it
  • Use language in a different way to adults - making constructions of appropriately worded questions demanding
  • Memory is less developed than an adults
  • Not a homogenous group - they are not all the same (Class, age, gender, ethnicity all create differences between pupils)
• The researcher will have to take all of the differences between pupils into account
• Young people

  • More vulnerable to physical and psychological harm than adults
  • Raises special ethical issues for the researcher
  • Researcher should consider whether participation of young people is necessary
• Informed consent

  • Not enough (from parents or teachers)
  • Young person should be aware of what the research entails and give their own consent
• Child protection issues are VERY important
• Researcher should

  Take into consideration whether the pupil (participant) might get stressed
• Gatekeepers


  Controlling access to pupils (parents, teachers, head teachers, local authorities, school boards and governments)
• Child protection laws

  Such as the Safeguarding Vulnerable groups act (2006) which operate a vetting and barring scheme on adults working in schools / childcare settings
• Teachers

  Must be DBS checked in order to work with children in any setting
• Organisations with codes of practice for researching young people

  • UNICEF
  • Barnardos
  • The national children's bureau
• Advantage of studying pupils

  • They are legally required to attend school, so sociologists will know where to find their target research group
• Disadvantage of studying pupils

  • If the target group has anti-school attitudes (many who may truant from school)
  • Children are only in school during the week (school day) and term time
• Researching Teachers - Hill

  Teachers often feel overworked and may be less than cooperative, even when they want to be helpful.

  This may mean that interviews and questionnaires need to be kept short - this would restrict the amount of data that can be gathered.

  However, as educators and professionals, teachers are likely to be sympathetic to educational research.
• Power relationships in the school

  • Not equal
  • Teachers have more status and power because they are older, they have experience and responsibilities within the school
• Nature of the classroom

  • Reinforces power of the teacher
  • 'My classroom' - researcher may be viewed as a trespasser
• Teachers are not independent even in 'their' classroom
• Head teachers, governors, parents and pupils constrain what teachers cannot do
• Cover

  Researcher needs to develop a 'cover' if they intend to carry out covert research - perhaps representing themselves as a supply teacher, or a classroom assistant
• Groups with lower status within the school (supply teacher, classroom assistant) may not be treated as equals by other teachers
• Impression management

  Teachers 'put on a show' for pupils and others by manipulating the impression that people have of them
• Teachers

  • Used to being observed and scrutinised (e.g. in Ofsted inspections)
  • May be more willing to be observed by a researcher as it's something they are accustomed to experiencing
• Erving Goffman (1969)

  'Impression management' - teachers 'put on a show' for pupils and others by manipulating the impression that people have of us
• Social actors

  • Behave differently when acting out a role 'front stage' as opposed to when they are 'back stage'
• Researchers might have to get behind the public face that teachers put on
• Some researchers study teachers in their backstage setting (e.g. the staff room)
• Getting backstage poses problems; the staffroom (e.g.) is usually small, and a newcomer (researcher) will stand out and may be treated with suspicion
• Teachers are aware that they could put their career at risk by answering certain questions or by saying critical statements
• Head teachers may try to influence what members of the staff are picked, could make it not representative of the whole school
• Classrooms

  • Have clear social and physical boundaries
  • Highly controlled setting
  • School and teacher control classroom layout, access, pupils' tasks, activities, noise levels, dress and language
• The classroom behaviour that the researcher observes may not actually represent and reflect what the pupils really think and feel
• In classrooms, teachers and pupils are skilled at hiding true expressions, reactions, thoughts and feelings which would therefore be concealed from the researcher