researching classrooms

• Classrooms

  • Highly controlled setting (teachers control classroom layout, pupils time, activities, noise levels, dress and language)
• The behaviour that the researcher observes may not accurately reflect what those involved really think and feel
• Gatekeepers

  Individuals who control access to research settings, including head teachers, teachers and child protection laws
• Gatekeepers

  • The more gatekeepers there are to a particular research setting, the more difficult it is for the researcher to obtain and maintain access
• Peer groups


  Groups of people who are of a similar age or status
• People may be insecure about their identity and status
• People's insecurity about identity and status

  May affect the way they respond to the research due to peer pressure and feeling the need to conform
• Group interviews

  • The true attitudes of individual pupils may be hidden behind the dominant attitudes of the peer group