Methods in context Flashcards
What is the question structure for methods in context? Is it always the same?
What is the task structure(give example)?
What is the most important thing to do when answering the question?
How should you do this(which questions should be asked)?
-YES. There is an item with some info about a sociological study in education followed by a task.
-E.g. Applying material from Item A & your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the strenghts and limitations of using <research> to investigate <topic>.
-Contextualise!!
-General advantages and disadvantages of a method can be useful, but you should contextualise the method:
Who? What? Where?
Who is being researched ?
What is the topic?
Where is the location?
What particular characteristics do these people, subjects and places have that might influence the effectiveness suggested by the method?</topic></research>
How would you research the hidden curriculum? Where does it take place?
What are there likely to be restricting access? What type of issue is this?
What type of data might the ‘hidden’ nature of the hidden curriculum prove difficult to gain?
-This is something that takes place within schools, so access to students or teachers is required.
-There are likely to be gatekeepers for researching within a school, particularly being the headteacher.
-This would be a practical issue relating to most plausible research methods for researching this topic.
-The ‘hidden’ nature might be a barrier to gaining valid data.
What aspects of the hidden curriculum are part of official policy? What elements are harder to uncover?
Who are unlkely to speak in interviews? What method would be preferred? Who may be more likely to engage in interview?
-Aspects which may be imposed by official policy include; promoting British values, encouraging good timekeeping skills.
-The controversial elements are harder to uncover.
-Teachers and managers are unlikely to speak openly about such things in an interview.
-Therefore, the best way to achieve valid data may be through the interpretation of an observer or the opinions of the pupils.
Where are the facts for differential achievement readily available? For which groups?
If the researcher is looking for reasons behind achievement differences is this method as useful?
What are the advantages of this method? Disadvantages?
Who might be in the way of achieving data at home?
What will the research characteristics for the reasons of differential achievement depend on?
-The facts of differential achievement are readily available through official statistics. This data is routinely collected and so it is possible to discover ethnic, gender and class differences in achievement.
-Official statistics become less useful when looking for the reasons behind differential achievement.
-They are arguably reliable.They may also offer some insight about issues such as whether English is a first language, or if there are possible housing problems.
-However, they are not valid and they do not offer verstehen.
-There are also gatekeepers at home-notably parents- who might be unwilling to contribute to this sort of research. The issues might be sensitive and therefore difficult to access. Parents and pupils may worry about being judged or criticised.
-The research characteristics for the reasons for differential achievement will depend on whether the researcher is considering in or out of school factors.
When trying to research the characteristics of anti-school subcultures who might prevent research from taking place?
What might schools not want to admit preventing research from taking place?
What issue regarding concepts add to the difficulty in completing the research(bring in examples)? What type of methods would struggle with this? Why?
-Gatekeepers might prevent the research from taking place.
-Especially as schools would tend to not want to acknowledge the existence of anti-school subcultures in their midst.
-Operationalising concepts such as ‘anti-school’ and ‘subculture’ would make some research methods problematic, including questionnaires or interviews.
-The people being interviewed might not understand the terminology or might not recognise what a sociologist would see as an anti-school subculture.
What type of observation faces practical issues? Name the reasons for student possible disengagement.
What is the term given to this factor?
How might group interviews experience a similar reaction?
What possible issues regarding student participation can happpen in regard to interviews or questionnaires.
-Overt observations would be problematic because pupils would not behave as they normally would.
-They would be likely to associate the researcher with school and authority, which might then lead them to hide bad behaviour, or be very hostile. They may even play up more during to having an audience.
-This would be an example of the Hawthorne effect.
-Group interviews might see pupils try to impress their peers with anti-school messages.
-In interviews or questionnaires pupils might exaggerate their deviant behaviour in order to impress or shock, or may disguise it in fear of punishment.
Where can sociologists find endless detail regarding policy? Explain what else these may contain of value to sociologists?
If used alone what do the policies and laws themselves reveal little about? What are media reports likely to be?
-In documents, from the policies and laws themselves to considerable media discussion of the policies and their impact.
- The policies and laws themselves reveal little about their real intent(e.g. the 1988 Education Act does not mention marketisation).
-Media reports are likely to be politically biased in favour of or against policy.
How can official statistics help gather data regarding educational policy? What are the disadvantages of this?
What process can be official statistics be added in to produced a more informed result of data?
What can statistics be used to support?
What other method faces the issue of bias regarding teachers?
-Official statistics can show(i.e. changes in differential achievement in the wake of a policy being implemented).
-Observing correlation does not prove causation. It would not be a valid conclusion to say the introduction of more coursework caused girls to achieve just because of correlation in evidence.
-Official statistics can be used in triangulation to gain some data that showed grils preferred coursework and performed better than boys on those sort of tasks.
-There is also a risk that statistics can be politically manipulated in order to produce a desirable outcome.
-Interviews with teachers, also have the problem of bias: most teachers dislike most educational reforms.
