education and methods in context Flashcards
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
-the difference in power is more prominent in schools due to the hierarchal system - teachers may use this power to select students in the research that may make the school look good - formal structured research like structured interviews can make this prominent
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
Q
field experiments and teachers expectations: Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968)
A
- 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
Q
ethical problems: field experiments and teacher expectations
A
- 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
Q
reliability: field experiments and teacher expectations
A
- the experiment that Rosenthal and jacobson did is repeatable but it is difficult to account for individual differences between classes, teachers, and students
28
Q
validity: field experiments and teacher expectations
A
- later studies that used observation contradict Rosenthal and Jacobson’s ideas of teacher expectations (Claiborn 1969)
29
Q
broader view: field experiments and teacher expectations
A
- field experiments look at the labeling process as a whole rhater than isolated instances
