Education: the research context

• Sociologists study many different issues in education, such as classroom interaction, pupil cultures, teacher labeling, parental choice
• Sociologists need to be aware of the particular characteristics of education, since these will affect their choice of research method and its effectiveness
• There might be problems using covert participant observation to study pupil subcultures, simply because it would prove very difficult for a researcher to pass themselves off as a pupil
• There may be difficulties in using written questionnaires to discover the opinions of parents who are illiterate when studying parental attitudes to schooling
• Sociologists can identify five main groups and settings in education whose distinctive characteristics may make them easy or difficult to study: pupils, teachers, parents, classrooms, schools
• The researcher's own personal characteristics, such as their own experience of education, may make researching certain educational topics easier or more difficult
• Studying young people


  • Power and status differences
  • Ability and understanding differences
  • Vulnerability and ethical issues
• Power and status differences

  Children and young people generally have less power and status than adults, which makes it more difficult for them to state their attitudes and views openly
• Ability and understanding differences

  Pupils' vocabulary, powers of self-expression, thinking skills and confidence are likely to be more limited than those of adults, particularly when trying to express abstract ideas
• Vulnerability and ethical issues

  As a result of their more limited power and ability, young people are more vulnerable to physical and psychological harm than adults, which raises special ethical issues for the researcher
• Child protection laws such as the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act, 2006, operate a vetting and barring scheme on adults working in schools, which may delay or prevent researchers from carrying out their research
• Organisations such as Unicef, Barnardo's and the National Children's Bureau have developed special codes of practice for researching children and young people
• One advantage of studying pupils is that because they are required to attend school, sociologists will know where to find their target research group
• Researching teachers


  • Power and status differences
  • Impression management
• Power and status differences

  Teachers have more power and status because of their age, experience and responsibility within the school, and the nature of the classroom reinforces the power of the teacher
• Impression management


  Teachers are used to being observed and scrutinised, and they are often highly skilled at manipulating the impression that other people have of them
• Teachers may be reluctant to answer certain questions honestly because they will be aware that any critical comments they make about the school where they work could affect their career prospects
• Head teachers may try to influence which staff are selected to be involved in the research and these may not be fully representative of all teachers in the school
• Researching classrooms


  • Closed social setting
  • Highly controlled setting
  • Impression management
• Closed social setting


  The classroom is unusual in being a closed social setting with clear physical and social boundaries
• Highly controlled setting


  The classroom is a highly controlled setting, with the teacher and the school controlling classroom layout and access, as well as pupils' time, activities, noise levels, dress and language
• Impression management


  Teachers and pupils are very experienced at concealing their real thoughts and feelings from each other, which may also be concealed from the researcher
• Classroom


  • Teacher and school control layout, accents, pupils' time, activities, noise, dress and language
  • Young people rarely experience this level of surveillance and control in other areas of their lives
• The behaviour that the researcher observes may not accurately reflect what those involved really think and feel
• Teachers and pupils are very experienced at concealing their real thoughts and feelings from each other
• Classroom


  • Fairly small, confined social space with room for perhaps thirty or so people
  • Comparatively simple social settings with just two social roles - teacher and pupil
• Access to classrooms


  • Controlled by a wide range of gatekeepers including head teachers, teachers and child protection laws
  • The more gatekeepers there are, the more difficult it is for researchers to obtain and maintain access
• Young people in school-based groups

  • May be insecure about their identity and status
  • May be more sensitive to peer pressure and the need to conform
  • This may affect how they respond to being researched
• It may be necessary to supervise pupils when they are filling in questionnaires, especially if done in class, in order to prevent peers from influencing one another's answers
• In group interviews, the true attitudes of individual pupils may be hidden behind the dominant attitudes of the peer group
• Researching schools


  • There are tens of thousands of schools of many different kinds in the UK
  • If using observational methods, researchers are unlikely to have time to investigate more than a very few schools, risking unrepresentative research
  • Using large-scale surveys or official statistics may overcome this problem but lose the insight from detailed observation of a single school
• Researchers can easily identify their research population as the state publishes lists of schools, their locations and types
• Schools


  • Closely scrutinised by the media, parents and politicians
  • Highly marketised with parental choice and competition between schools at its heart
• There is a great deal of secondary data publicly available about schools, often produced by the schools themselves
• School records are confidential so researchers may not be able to gain access to some of this data
• Schools may be reluctant to share data that could present a negative public image, such as attendance figures or records of racist incidents
• Official statistics on examination performance should be treated with care as schools may make changes to the curriculum to improve their results
• The law requires young people to attend school, making them a 'captive population' for researchers
• Schools' primary role is to educate pupils, so heads and teachers may see involvement in research as interfering with this
• The legal duty of care that schools have towards their pupils may restrict researchers' access