Methods - Choosing a research method/Education as a research context Flashcards
What does a sociologist need to consider when choosing a method?
- Practical issues
- Ethical issues
- Theoretical issues
What are the possible practical issues?
- Time and money
- Requirements of funding bodies
- Personal skills and charcateristics
- Subject matter
- Research opportunity
How is time and money a practical consideration?
More money and time = more large-scale in-depth research, such as unstructure interviews with dozens of interviewers
How is requirements of funding bodies a practical consideration?
Different organisations prefer different methods, the government intends to use studies for social policy so prefers quantitative representative data over validity.
How is personal skills and characteristics a practical consideration?
Different methods call for different abilities, such as the ability to like (covert participant observation) or to immediately get along with someone (unstructured interviews).
How is subject matter a practical consideration?
Some subject matters are more difficult to research via certain topics, possibly due to the group not being willing to participate (criminals and interviews) or inability (young children and self-completion questionnaires)
How is research opportunity a practical consideration?
A lack of opportunity or unexpected opportunity may inhibit preparation and methods that take a longer amount of time, like questionnaires. Venkatesh, in Gang Leader for a Day, was contacted randomly so had little time to prepare questions.
What are the possible ethical issues?
- Informed consent
- Confidentiality and privacy
- Harm to research participants
- Vulnerable groups
How is informed consent an ethical consideration?
Participants should consent to taking part and are only able to do so if they are fully aware of the relevant aspects of the research. Additionally, if the study is lengthy, consent should be gained at intervals throughout.
How is confidentiality and privacy an ethical consideration?
In order to protect their actions, participant identities should be kept as secret as possible. Additionally, privacy of participants should be respected and not intruded in on.
How is harm to research participants an ethical consideration?
Research should have little-to-no negative effects on participants, whether that be physical, mental, or otherwise, or short- or long-term.
How are vulnerable groups an ethical consideration?
Specific groups require certain care, and precautions to be taken. Children are especially susceptible to emotional distress so certain methods are discouraged.
What are the theoretical issues?
- Validity
- Reliability
- Representativeness
What is validity?
How true results are to reality, also known as verstehen (‘an empathic understanding of human behaviour’)
What is reliability?
The level that, if the study is/can be repeated, will gain you similar results.
What is representativeness?
Whether the sample represents a typical cross-section of our population, and so whether the results represent the diversity of experiences of the population - this therefore means we can make generalisations about the population.
Give 5 views of positivists.
- Belief in social facts
- Strutural/macro theorists
- Preference for quantitative methods
- Need for reliability and representativity
- Sociology is for social policy
Give 5 views of interpretivsts.
- Rejection of social facts
- interactionists/micro theorists
- Preference for qualitative methods
- Need for validity
- Sociology is for understanding society
What 4 factors influence choice of topic?
- Theoretical perspective
- Society’s values
- Practical factors
- Funding bodies
What is a hypothesis and who prefers it? Give an advantage
A cause-and-effect statement that can be tested by collecting data. Positivists prefer them as they seek to find those cause-and-effect relationships that hypotheses test.
- Gives direction to research that can focus questions
What is an aim and who prefers it? Give an advantage.
A general statement of the topic of research. Interpretivists argue hypotheses impose the researchers explanation onto participants, instead of understanding their meaning
- Can be good for not getting bogged down in a single question
What is the ‘operationalisation of concepts’? What is the issue?
To investigate something, we have to neatly say what is and is not it by giving it a substantive definition. Different researchers have different definitions and definitions can change with time, making it difficult to use secondary sources or track trends.
What are the four essentials of sampling?
- The research population: the group we are interested in investigating
- The sampling frame: a list of everyone we are investigating (needs to be as accurate and complete as possible)
- The sample: a small section of the population asked to participate in the investigation
- The respondents: those contacted for the sample who choose to be in the study
What are the different re[resentative sampling methods?
- Random: sample selected purely by chance
- Systematic: every nth person is chosen from the sampling frame
- Stratified: sample is built based on proportions of stratus (social groups) in the population
- Quota: population is stratified and researcher is given a quota of each to fill
Why might a researcher prefer not to have a representative sample?
- The sampling frame may be unknown - such as for those that have committed a crime
- Potential respondents may refuse, making it unrepresentative
- Interpretivists aren’t concerned with generalisability if they can gain an empathic understanding of something
Outline the non-representative sampleing methods.
- Snowball: researcher contacts key individuals and asks them to suggest others, rinse and repeat until a suitably sized sample
- Opportunity: researcher chooses from those easiest to access
What are the 5 main groups and settings in a school?
- Pupils
- Teachers
- Parents
- Classrooms
- Schools
What are the practical advantages of researching pupils?
+ Pupils are in school all day so are easily accessible
+ Registers are complete sampling frames
+ Schools keep extensive quantitaive data on students
What are the practical disadvantages of researching pupils?
- Laws (such as the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act) and guidelines (such as those laid out by UNICEF) restict what researchers can do
- Children have lower levels of comprehension so may struggle to understand questions
- Teachers may have control over what pupils are chosen
- Pupils may feel uncomfortable telling an unknown authority about personal experiences
What are the ethical disadvantages of researching pupils?
- Low comprehension may compromise informed consent
- Pupils may experience emotional distress or feel forced telling an unknown authority about personal experiences
- More vulnerable to psychological and emotional harm, inibiting stress-inducing methods
What are the practical advantages of researching teachers?
+ May be sympathetic to an academic
+ Used to observation so may be more willing
What are the practical disadvantages of researching teachers?
- Teachers may see researchers as intruding on their authority
- Goffman (1969): impression management
- Teachers are aware that any critical comment will be published so may obfuscate
- Head teachers may try to cherry pick which staff are investigated
- May be overworked and unwilling
What is the practical advantage of researching classrooms?
+ Relatively simple with only two social roles, so fairly straightforward to observe
What are the practical disadvantages of researching classrooms?
- Lots of gatekeepers
- Behaviour is often inorganic
- Peer groups may affect answers/willingness to participate
What are the practical advantages of researching schools?
+ Marketisation and scrutiny = ‘data-rich’
+ Young people are required to be at school so are a ‘captive population’
What are the practical disadvantages of researching schools?
- Data may be falsified or twisted to present better image
- Schools may see research as getting in the way of their ‘primary duty’ of education
- Schools have a legal duty of care that restricts researcher access
- Gatekeepers will restrict researchers from areas that get in the way of their functions or present a bad image
What are the practical advantages of researching parents?
+ Schools have parents contact information
+ Schools may be willing to help researchers get in contact
What are the practical disadvantages of researching parents?
- Parents aren’t in one place, unlike other groups
- Most important interactions with pupils takes place at home
- Goffman (1969): impression management
- Schools may be unwilling to give contact info, and it may not work
How must sociologists consider their own experience of education?
Sociologists are irregular in having spent many years in (and likely enjoying) educational settings so, when making observations or assumptions must consider their irregular perspective.
