1
Q
what did Malcom Hill (2005) say about the difference between studying young people and studying adults
A
- power and status
- ability and understanding
-vulnerability
2
Q
power and status: researching pupils
A
- children and young people have less power - making it difficult to go against adults with more power - schools exploit this and may pick students who will present good face of school - structured interviews enhance this effect
3
Q
how can researchers overcome power and status when researching pupils?
A
- group interviews instead of 1-1 interviews
- need to separate themselves from teachers as there may be resentment
4
Q
ability and understanding: researching pupils
A
- pupil’s vocab and ability to express their understanding is often more limited than adults
- sociologists need to be careful how they phrase things
- this makes it more difficult to gain their informed consent
- differences in language and time to answer questions can hold back ability to answer
5
Q
vulnerability and ethics: researching pupils
A
- should they be made aware of what the research entails? Will they understand?
- How long can they be questioned for?
- Is involvement from the child necessary and are they going to benefit from it? guidelines and codes of practice set out by - UNICEF, barbados and the national children’s bureau must be followed
6
Q
power and status: researching teachers
A
- teachers have more power due to their age, experience, and status in the school
- they have legal responsibilities and a duty of care with the young people that they teach
- teachers often see it as “my classroom” and the researcher is viewed as a trespasser
- teachers are not fully independent as they are constraint by parents, governors etc
7
Q
why might a teacher be more or less hesitant to help with research?
A
- teachers often feel overworked and may be less helpful and willing to cooperate
- this may mean that interviews and questionnaires are more likely to be short and restricted, making it hard to analyse the restricted data
- however, teachers are often likely to be sympathetic of the research
8
Q
impression management: researching teachers
A
- teachers are often being inspected and scrutinized by people like OFSTED
- they then may be more willing to participate in research
- however, teachers are used to putting on an act - impression management (Goffman)
- the researcher may have to work extra hard to get the true feelings of the teachers
- it can also be hard as an outsider to get into the small social circles
- to avoid criticising teachers, it may be best to use observational methods
9
Q
researching classrooms
A
- the classroom is a highly controlled setting, something that young people do not experience in any other aspect of their life
- as a result, classroom behaviour may not reflect how the students really behave
- teachers and students are well trained at concealing their thoughts and feelings in a classroom - they may do this with the researcher
10
Q
gatekeepers: researching classrooms
A
- classrooms are one of the very few settings where there are several gatekeepers
- this makes it more difficult for a researcher to access them
11
Q
peer groups: researching classrooms
A
- young people who are more insecure about their identity may be more susceptible to peer pressure, affecting how they respond to research
- it may then be necessary to supervise students when they are filling out things like questionnaires
- in group interviews, some students may fall behind the louder students
12
Q
researching schools
A
- due to the number of schools in the UK, if researchers did observations on all of them, they are unlikely to investigate all of them without them being unrepresentative
- ## using official statistics or large scale surveys can help change this - but they often lack detail
13
Q
schools own data: researching schools
A
- education is often scrutinised and is highly marketised meaning that a lot of the data is produced by schools themselves
- schools are therefore “data rich” and become helpful to researchers
- however, school records are confidential, making it difficult for them to be accessed
- schools with truancy problems may also falsify their records to present a good image or downplay serious issues like racism
14
Q
the law: researching schools
A
- it is a legal requirement for children to attend school
- this means that the researcher is able to know where everyone is, however, it may cause disruption to the regular schedule
- schools have a legal requirement to collect data, which can be helpful but protection towards students may mean there is restricted access
15
Q
gatekeepers: researching schools
A
- gatekeepers like headteachers have the right to turn away a researcher if they think it will interfere
Meighan and Harber (2007):- heads often view research negatively
- Meighan found that when conducting their own research heads thought:
- it is dangerous to involve students in commenting on teachers
- discipline would be adversely affected
- it would be bad for classroom relationships
- children are not competent to judge teachers
Beynon and Atkinson (1984) found that gatekeepers like heads often steer from sensitive topics like teachers controlling a classroom
16
Q
school organisation: researching schools
A
- researchers may be seen as part of the hierarchal system in schools and even seen as the enemy
- in same sex schools, researchers may stand out more, making observation studies harder
- things like exams and school holidays may limit the researchers availability
- size and complexity of school can make it difficult
17
Q
researching parents
A
parents can influence what goes on in education:
- how they bring up their children
- involvement in the school
- marketisation policies
- parents are not easy to study because they are not a homogenous group
- for example, pro-school , middle class families are more likely to answer questionnaires which makes the findings unrepresentative
- parents may not be as likely to give their permission for more sensitive issues
- parents may engage in impression management
18
Q
researching parents: access to parents
A
- most parent-child interactions take place in the home making it difficult to observe them
- because they are outside of the school, parents are more difficult to locate and research
- schools may help send questionnaires home, but cannot guarantee that they will be done
19
Q
what issues may cause a researcher to use an experiment?
A
- teacher expectations
- classroom interactions
- labelling
- pupil’s self concepts
- self fulling prophecy
20
Q
harvey and slatin (1976) - lab experiment for teacher expectations
A
- used a sample of 96 teachers and each of which was shown pictures of 18 students from different social class backgrounds
- the pictures were equally divided in terms of gender and ethnicity - control variables
- the teachers were asked to rate the children on their performance, parental attitudes, aspirations, etc
- found that lower-class students were ranked less favourable, especially by experienced teachers
21
Q
ethical problems : lab experiments and teacher expectations
A
- lab experiments that do not involve real students have fewer ethical problems than those that do
- Harvey and Slatin did not use real students so did not have this ethical problem
- however, studies like charkin et al ( 1975) that did use real students have ethical problems
- young people’s vulnerability means that there is greater risk of deception, lack of informed consent and psychological harm
22
Q
narrow focus: lab experiments and teacher expectations
A
- lab experiments usually only focus on one aspect of teacher expectations e.g body language
- this can be useful as it allows the researcher to isolate and study that variable in more detail
- however, it also means that the wider picture of labelling and self fulfilling prophecy
23
Q
practical problems: lab experiments and teacher expectations
A
- schools are large, complex, institutions in which many variables may affect teacher expectations
- for example, their expectations may be influenced by class size, streaming, type of school etc
- it is impossible to identify, let alone control, all the variables that may influence a teacher’s expectations
- it is difficult to research such a wide scale institution in a small lab setting
24
Q
artificiality: lab experiments and teacher expectations
A
- the artificiality of lab experiment mean that it is difficult to generalise to the real world of education
- it is unlikely that false situations will cause the same reactions as real life teachers and situtions
25
field experiments and teachers expectations: Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)
- Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1966) aimed to investigate if teacher expectations could influence students’ intellectual performance.
- The study took place in an elementary school and at the beginning of the year all students were given an IQ test, which did not
depend upon skills learned in school.
- The teachers were told that this test could predict whether
- Students were identified as potential “intellectual
bloomers” in the academic year to come. However, the children had been assigned randomly to the experimental condition.
-Eight months after the start of the field experiment, the children were all retested with the same IQ test and a change score was computed for each child.
- Generally all children designated as potential bloomers had significantly greater gains in IQ scores than did children who were not identified as bloomers.
26
ethical problems: field experiments and teacher expectations
- experiments like Rosenthal and Jacobson have real-world implications for the development of children, labelled and not and can lead to lack of attention or even being held back
- there are a lot more rights and legal protection for children meaning that an experiment like that would not take place
- the deception that is sometimes necessary for a field experiment is considered unethical - but is important
27
reliability: field experiments and teacher expectations
- the experiment that Rosenthal and jacobson did is repeatable but it is difficult to account for individual differences between classes, teachers, and students
28
validity: field experiments and teacher expectations
- later studies that used observation contradict Rosenthal and Jacobson's ideas of teacher expectations (Claiborn 1969)
29
broader view: field experiments and teacher expectations
- field experiments look at the labeling process as a whole rhater than isolated instances
30
why might a researcher use interviews?
- pupil subcultures
- pupil's experience of health and sex education
- class, ethnicity and language
- gender identity and male gaze
- class and parental choice of school
31
practical issues for interviewing young people
- be less articulate or willing to talk
- not understanding complex questions
- having a limited vocabulary
- have a shorter attention span or poorer memory
- read body language differently
32
how can location affect interviews?
- if the interview takes place in a school, this may affect how comfortable the pupil or parent feels
- school can be a representation of the hierarchal system and make them feel as though they are under authority
- teachers may be put off by other teachers or the head teacher hearing
33
how do unstructured interviews affect interviewees?
- teachers and parents are often on tight work time constraints
- doing the interview in and out of school hours can have problems
- it is important that the interview does not distress the student
34
reliability and validity: interviews
- structured interviews produce reliable data because they are standardised and all follow the same structure
- structured interviews may not produce valid data as young people may not give accurate answers as a response to the formal structure
- students responded better to a more relaxed style
35
access and response rate: interviews
- Powney and Watts note that the lower down someone is in the hierarchal system, the more approval is needed
- schools may be reluctant to allow interviews to happen during lesson time or if it is a certain topic
- may be difficult to get parental consent for certain topics
- the hierarchal structure may sometime work in their favour
36
the interviewer as "teacher in disguise": interviews
- if interviewees have less power than the interviewer, they may try to lie, exaggerate or conceal things which can reduce the validity of the data
- Bell (1981) notes that pupils may see the interviewer as a teacher in disguise
- they may true and "help " by giving socially acceptable answers
- working class parents may see the interviewer as higher and feel that the questions are intrusive
37
how can we improve the validity of interviews with pupils?
- use open ended questions
- not interrupt their answers
- tolerate long pauses
- recognise that children are more suggestible
- avoid repeating questions
38
what are the weaknesses of group interviews?
- pupils and young people are strongly influenced by their peers
- makes it impossible to standardise the results
39
what are the strengths of group interviews?
- they can create a safe peer group environment
- reduces power imbalance between adult and children
- allows us to see the interactions between students
40
structured observation: practical issues
- one example of structured observations being favoured by positivists is the Flanders system of interaction analysis categories (FIAC) - used to measure pupil-teacher interactions quantitatively
- this is done by putting each interaction into pre-defined categories
- Flanders (1970) found that 68% of the time in a classroom is taken up by teacher talking, 20% is students talking, and 12% is confusion
- the simple structure means that they are quicker, cheaper and require less training
41
structured observation: reliability
- things like the FIAC are easily replicated
- generates quantitative data
- easily comparable
42
structured observation: validity
- interprivtivists criticise structured observations for its lack of validity
- Sara Delamont argues that simply counting classroom behaviour ignores the meaning that both students and teachers put to it
43
unstructured observation: practical issues
- it is easier to gain permission to observe them than to interview them
- they can take a while to set up
- personal characteristics like gender, race etc can affect results of the observation
- observations of school settings are limited by loads of things like school timetable, health and safety and the holidays
- due to the busy nature of schools, it may be difficult to get privacy for the observation
44
unstructured observation: ethical issues
- the greater vulnerability of children means that all observations have to be overt
- Delamont points out that all observers see and hear things that may get students in trouble
- there then becomes a dilemma between trust and the legally right thing to do
- it is also important the observation protects people from harm- difficult with highly marketised schools who have a good reputation
45
unstructured observation: validity
- for interpretivist, they focus on the validity of observations - it gives us an authentic view of social actors and the world
- however, the power difference between students and teachers is a major barrier - they may present false behaviour in the presence of the researcher
- observation is the least likely method for this to happen
- teachers may be good at disguising their true feelings
- language differences may make it hard to analyse the data
46
unstructured observation: the hawthorne effect
- it is very difficult to do covert observations in schools as there are fewer roles that the researcher can take
- this means that the observation has to be overt making the hawthorne effect harder to avoid
- the awareness of a researcher's presence may change their behaviour and undermine the validity of the research
47
unstructured observation: representativeness
- most observational studies focus on a small group in one school (e.g willis)
- there are so many school in the UK that it is extremely unlikely that the results represent every student or teachers beliefs
- there also tends to be bias towards one group
48
unstructured observation: reliability
- participant observation studies tend to lack reliability as data is hard to replicate and unsystematic
- the personal characteristics like race may affect how participants react to them
49
what things are studied using official statistics?
- ethnicity, class, gender and educational achievements
- school attendance, truancy and inclusion
- league tables, marketisation and school performance
- gender and subject choice
- education, work and training
50
what are the practical issues of using official statistics for investigating education?
- the data is produced to save time and money of the sociologist - it would be too difficult for the researcher to collect it themselves
- they allow sociologists to easily make comparisons of achievements within class, gender and ethnicity
- because educational statistics are collected at regular intervals, sociologist can make comparisons over time
- statistics about the effectiveness of educational policies may also be useful to researchers
- because of the stigma around certain things e.g free school meals, they sometimes do not get recorded
51
what are the representativeness problems of using official statistics for investigating education?
- some official statistics are highly representative
- they cover data on nearly every pupil in the country, on so many different topics and are therefore extremely representative
52
what are the reliability problems of using official statistics for investigating education?
- postivists favour official statistics because their reliability can be used to test and re test hypothesis and form relationships
- although it is possible for some errors to creep in, they are generally very reliable
53
what are the validity problems of using official statistics for investigating education?
- interpretivists question the validity of educational statistics as they believe they are socially construct and that statistics about certain things are a result of many different factors
- also, schools may manipulate things like their attendance figures to make them look better
54
what things are studied using documents ?
- ethnic, class and gender differences in achievement
- the curriculum
- gender stereotyping in school books
- racist incidents in schools
- special educational needs
55
what are the practical issues of using documents for investigating education?
- public documents are often easily accessible to the public, making them easy for researchers to access
- some files are confidential meaning that they are not able to be accessed
-
56
what are the ethical issues of using documents for investigating education?
- there are fewer ethical issues with public documents and permission is not required to use them
- there are more ethical issues with personal documents as there can sometimes be lack of informed consent
57
what are the representativeness issues of using documents for investigating education?
- some official documents are legally required to be recorded eg racist incidents
- this makes it more likely that we see a representative picture across the UK
- however, not all incidents may be recorded
- personal documents are less representative
57
what are the representativeness issues of using documents for investigating education?
- some official documents are legally required to be recorded eg racist incidents
- this makes it more likely that we see a representative picture across the UK
- however, not all incidents may be recorded
- personal documents are less representative
58
what are the reliability issues of using documents for investigating education?
- many public documents are done is a systematic way, making them easier to compare
- however, deliberate falsifications or accidental mistakes can make this comparison more difficult
59
what are the validity issues of using documents for investigating education?
- documents can provide important insights into the meaning behind teachers and students, increasing the validity
- however, all documents are open to interpretation and the differences can cause trouble in validity
60
advantages of questionnaires - practical advantages
- quick and cheap to make
- no need to recruit and train interviewers
- data is easy to quantify
61
advantages of questionnaires - reliability
- when repeated by another questionnaire, they will get similar results due to no influence of the interviewer and the question is identical
- differences in answers are down to the individuals, not the interviewer
- allow comparison between societies and overtime
62
advantages of questionnaire - hypothesis testing
- useful for testing cause and effect between different variables
- because of this fact to identify causes, questionnaires are preferred by positivists who take a scientific
63
advantages of questionnaires - detachment and objectivity
- positivists also prefer questionnaires because they are detached, objective and an unbiased method
- the sociologists involvement with the participant is kept to a minimum
64
advantages of questionnaires - representativeness
- because questionnaries collect such large amounts of data, they are representative of a large sample
65
advantages of questionnaires - ethical issues
- questionnaries have less ethical issues than other research methods
- although they may ask intrusive questionnaires, there is no obligation to answer them
- there is also high levels of anonymity with questionnaires
66
disadvantages of questionnaires - practical problems
- the data in questionnaires is limited and artificial as participants are unlikely to complete long-winded questionnaires
- it is not uncommon for sociologists to have to offer a prize to take part, which increases the cost
- there can sometimes be postal problems with recieving and sending questionnaires
67
disadvantages of questionnaires - low response rate
- many postal questionnaires find that people do not send them back
- higher response rates can be achieved by a follow-up questionnaire but this takes up time time, money and resources
- more complex questionnaires can only be answered by the highly educated
- those who have more time on their hand s tend to answer more (similar groups of people)
68
disadvantages of questionnaires - inflexibility
- once the questions are set, they are inflexible and difficult to change
- this makes it difficult to explore new topics
69
disadvantages of questionnaires - questionnaires as a snapshot
- they only give a reflection of society at the time that the respondent answers the questions
- they do not give a valid picture of a progressive society
70
disadvantages of questionnaires - detachment
- interpretivists argue that data from questionnaires do not give a valid picture and this can only be done by getting close with the participant
- this lack of contact means there is no way to deal with misunderstanding or what the question means to the individual
71
disadvantages of questionnaires- lying, forgetting and "right answerism"
- it is much easier for participants to forget, lie or misunderstand the question making them less likely to be valid
- they may also feel like they have to lie to give what they think is the "right answer"
72
disadvantage of questionnaires - imposing the researcher's meanings
- a valid
sociology
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