Researching teachers

• Practical issues

  • Access = professional qualifications, how invasive the method is, topic of research
  • Relationship between teacher and researcher
  • Teacher's reaction to being observed
  • Sample size
• Ethical issues

  • Social sensitivity = distressing topics
  • Protection from harm
  • Deception = methods create false relationships between teachers and researchers
  • Confidentiality
• Theoretical issues

  • Validity = accurate reactions of teachers
  • Reliability = teacher's actions likely to be repeated by others
  • Values = sociologist's values influence interactions with teachers
  • Representativeness = are teachers going to give information about all pupils?
• Topic areas for studying teachers

  • Anti and pro-school subcultures
  • Setting and streaming
  • Labelling
  • Racism/sexism
  • School policies
  • Behaviour in class
• Methods

  • Unstructured interviews = establishing a rapport and probing
  • Covert observation = seeing teacher's reactions/behaviours first hand
  • Questionnaires = gaining a large sample of teacher opinions
  • Secondary sources = seeing how teachers portray student behaviour