Methods in context

• Practical issue:

  The many different school types in the UK may undermine the representativeness of any sociological sample.
• Practical issue:

  Finding similar schools to compare may be difficult - no one catchment area is the same.
• Practical issue:

  Sociologists may be excluded from some school settings, for example, management meetings.
• Practical issue:

  Governors and heads may deny permission for sociological research if they suspect that the findings may result in criticism or bad publicity.
• Practical issue:


  Schools are data-rich environments - they have a legal obligation to produce statistics on a range of processes in which sociologists are interested.
• Practical issue:

  Some school data may be unavailable due to confidentiality.
• Practical issue:

  Some schools - for example, prestigious private schools - have more power to say no to sociological research.
• Bhatti:


  When interviewed Asian parents she deliberately employed Asian female Interviewers who could speak and interview parents in Urdu or Punjabi in order to make them feel more comfortable and trusting of the interviewers, thus increasing the validity of the data collected.
• Interviews:

  • Unstructured - gives opportunity to build rapport and use Versthen (Weber) -> higher validity + preferred by interpretivists

  -> Positivists argue it is unscientific

  • Structured - high reliability, produces quantitative data -> prefers by positivists
  • Ie. Sharpe’s study of changing aspirations in girls
• Problems with interviews:

  • T: Social Desirability effect
  • T: Demand characteristics
  • P: Time and resources
• Documents in education:

  • Ie. Hey’s study of Girls friendships in schools
  • P: saves time, effort and money
  • E: Public domain - no focus on individuals
  • T: Objectivity - most documents are written with a particular audience in mind
• Surveys:

  • Postal can reach more but P: has very low response rate
  • E: Loaded/emotional questions
  • Positivists like them; they produce quantitative data
  • Interpretivists dislike; imposition problem -> closed questions limit choice and negatively effect validity
  • E: Few ethical issues because there is little contact between researcher and subjects
  • E: confidentiality and anomanity upheld
  • P: quicker than other methods
• Classrooms are closed settings -> researchers could be seen to be intruding.
• Teachers know how to act as they want to be preserved, they do it everyday and will most certainly do it in front of a researcher.
• Observations:

  • T: Hawthorne effect - if people know they are being observed they will change their behaviour - impacts validity
  • E: consent in covert observations is not obtained
  • Ethnographic
  • P: expensive
  • Ie. Willis’ study
• Rosenthal + Jacobson:

  • Fake IQ tests that labelled certain students as ’late bloomers’, and the teachers began treating them this way which caused their grades to improve
  • Labelling and self fulfilling prophecy
  • Pygmalion effect - ‘halo’
  • Field experiment - controlled natural environment
• Elliot:

  • Brown eyes / blue eyes
  • Field experiment
  • E: Created hostility between the children
• Official stats in education:

  • P: Data about students not accessible - breaking confidentiality
  • E: manipulated data from teaches - to ‘look good’
  • T: One dimensional
• Longitudinal studies: Where subjects are studied over long periods of time.
• Secondary data: Information complied by others - Ie. state produced stats, letter, diaries and other personal documents
• Primary data: Collected by the researcher themselves - Ie. questionnaires, interviews, observations etc.
• Gate keepers: Access to schools/pupils/teachers is restricted -> DBS checks are needed and they cost.