methods in. context Flashcards
issue of power and status when researching school children
studied by malcom hill
children, have less power to state their attitudes and views as openly as they are subordinate to teachers. teachers may use their power to affect who is selected for research.
group interviews as opposed to formal methods may be a good way of eliminating these but wont eliminate this issue as pupils who resent powers of teachers may be less likely to co-operate with the research
issue of vunerability when researching school children
vulnerability of children at school means there are more gatekeepers controlling access to pupils. authorities, teachers ect
child protection. will it harm them. is it necessary to interview the,. dont keep their data for ages
issue of ability to understand when researching school kids
take care in wording questions to be understood by young respondents. limitations in understanding may make it more difficult to obtain consent if the nature of the research is hard to understand
however differences in class, ethnicity and gender will affect the ability to understand more or less
issues of laws and guide lines when researching school kids
safeguarding venerable groups act 2006 requires DBS check
organisations such as bernados and unicef have created speech codes of practice for researching young people
issues of power and status when researching teachers
see their classroom as ‘there own’ see researcher as a tresspasser..
teachers may not be independent in their classrooms and be controlled by heads, governors and parents
issue of ‘impression management’ when researching teachers found by Goffman
teachers put on an impression to manipulate view on them. researches ,ust get behind public face
research in staffroom instead of classroom but the research may be treated like a n outsider in such a small social circle
teachers scared to make criticla comments about school in fear of harm to carrers
what are the two issues that affect researching classrooms
classrooms are highly controlled settings making it difficult to reveal true feelings
- gatekeepers
- peer groups
example of a lab experiment being used to research teacher expectations
mason- teachers given positive negative or neutral reports on pupils. they watched videos of these children doing a test, looking out for the negatively labelled to make mistakes. they were asked to predict each child’s attainment of the end of the year and they found that negatively labelled children has a greater impact than positive
problems using lab experiments to research teacher expectations children
- kids are vulnerable and may not understand the experiment so consent without understanding
- schools are large and many variables affect teacher expectations that cant all be controlled and assessed in a lab experiment
example of feild experiment assessing teacher expectations and labeling
Rosenthal and Jacobson ‘pygmalion in the classroom’ selected sputters at random and told the teachers after the fake IQ test what ones were. at the end of the 8 months, the self-fulfilling prophecy had come true and the randomly identified sputters were doing better than others due to teachers giving them more attention
issues with using feild experiments to asses children
- low reliability. Rosenthal and Jacobson’s study was repeated 242 times within 5 years but not one had the same outcome due to different ages, location,s and classes of the students
- field experiments work best when participants don’t know which is unethical especially for young children whose education is being affected
advantages of using questionnaires to research education
- schools keep readily updated lists of students and teachers that can help provide useful sampling frames
- high response rate if the questionnaires are done in schools
- large quantities of data (ex rutter collected info from 12 inner London secondary schools and made the correlation between achievement, attendance, and behaviour with class size and number of staff
- ## anonymity of questionnaires make students more likely to open up about bullying
disadvantages using questionaries to research education
- schools may not keep lists that reflect researcher interests such as race which may make sampling frames harder to make
- response rate for questionnaires are often low and gatekeepers in schools may be reluctant to allow sociologists to distribute questionnaires due to disruptions to lessons
- children have shorter attention spam than adults so questions have to be brief, limiting the data that can be obtained
- the formal nature of them may be equated with school and put students who reject school to reject questionnaires
disadvantages of using interviews to investigate education
- children may be less articulate or reluctant to talk
- not understand complex questions or concepts
- read body language differently and have a shorter attention span
- (leading to misunderstood or incomplete answers undermining validity)
- if it’s in school is may make participants be reluctant or nervous to answer worrying their answers will be told to teachers or pupils
- interviewer could be seen as a ‘teacher in disguise’ discouraging students from speaking true opinions
- gatekeepers could be reluctant to let the interviewer disrupt class time
- impossible to questify if questions re open ended or in a group interview
advantages of using interviews when studying children
- more successful that written interviews as interwier can keep attention on the interview
- see real emotions nd views form marginalised students or people who have formed anti school subcultures
- higher response rate than questionnaires as kids can miss lessons
