researching schools

• Observational methods

  • Unlikely to have time to investigate more than a very few schools
  • Risks being unrepresentative
• Large scale surveys or official statistics

  May overcome the problem of limited observation, but may lose the insight that can be gained from detailed observation of a single school
• Education system

  Highly marketised with parental choice and consumption between the schools at its heart
• Secondary data publicly available about schools

  Often produced by the schools themselves, including exam results and league tables
• School records

  • Confidential, so researcher may not be able to gain access
  • Schools may only use good figures to avoid deterring people from attending
  • Schools may downplay incidents
• Official statistics on examination performance

  Should be treated with care
• Schools

  Captive population due to legal mandate, which has advantages and disadvantages for researchers as researchers know where everyone is but it could disrupt lesson
• Headteachers and governors

  • Gatekeepers who can refuse access to the school
  • May view research negatively and steer researchers away from sensitive situations
• Schools

  • Formal organisations with rules and hierarchies
  • Students may see researchers as teachers, while teachers see them as inspections
  • Single-sex schools may pose problems for researchers of a different gender
  • Large scale, highly organised, social institutions with daily meetings and timetables that may affect when research can be scheduled
  • Size and complexity can make it difficult to understand the school's structure and operations