Methods In Context Flashcards
How do you ensure power and status when researching pupils?
Structured interviews and questionnaires
Reinforce power differences
How does power and status impact a child’s responses?
They feel inferior, feel as though they cannot open up,
How does teachers power influence the research?
Schools are hierarchical
Teachers can use their power to select which students are used for the research
Maintains good reputation of the school
How can you change the impact of power and status?
Use group interviews instead of one to ones
How is ability and understanding affected by researching pupils?
Self expression and confidence is limited for pupils
Sociologists need to word questions well
Difficult to gain informed consent
Memory is less developed to recall events
How is vulnerability and ethical issues linked to researching pupils?
Physical and psychological harm
No informed consent
Personal data needs to be vital to the research
Gatekeepers
How is laws and guidance related to researching pupils?
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006- requires researchers to be DBS checked, may delay research
What is an advantage of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006?
Can find target research group
they are legally allowed to attend the school
What is apart of methods in context
Researching pupils
Researching parents
Researchers own experience of education
Researching teachers
Researching schools
Researching class rooms
How can parents influence education?
- how they bring their children up
- involvement in schools through parent governors
- parentocracy in marketisation
What affects how active a parent is in their child’s education?
Ethnicity
Class
Gender
What is impression management with parents?
Where parents exaggerate their involvement with their child’s education
Invalid
How is access to parents shown?
- parents - children interactions happens at home, closed off to researchers
- few opportunities to see parents helping children with homework
- parents are physically located outside of school, difficult to research
How can access to parents be helped?
schools could help by sending letters or questionnaires
How can researchers show their own experience of education?
- draw on their own experiences when making hypotheses
- sociologists being used to the environment can dull their experience
- allows empathy
- class, gender or ethnicity can hinder the results
How do teachers have power and status?
- they have a responsibility over the children
- may see researcher as trespasser in their classroom
- researchers may need to do a covert observation
- got access but have low status jobs, teachers may not see them as equals
How does impression management affect the research of teachers?
- they are used to OFSTED inspections and are more willing to be observed
- teachers are good at manipulating the researcher
- researchers can see behind the facade in staff rooms (small spaces could make the researcher stand out)
- use observations rather than direct questions
- headteachers may be biased when selecting their own teacher
How is researching schools impacted by the the schools own data?
- highly marketised with parental choice and competition, a lot of secondary data
- eg league tables
- schools may falsify data to have a good image
How is researching schools impacted by the law?
- the law requires children to go to school ‘captive population’ - the researcher knows where the target population is
- research could interfere with education
- legal care means access is rejected
How is researching schools impacted by gatekeepers?
- headteachers decline access if interferes with education
- discipline would be affected
- children often competent to judge teachers
How is researching schools impacted by school organisation?
- in same sex schools if researcher is opposite gender it may pose issues
- school holidays and exam periods may affect research periods
- size of school makes research complex and time consuming
What is researching classrooms like?
- highly controlled environment, control over clothes, access, language and setting
- class room environment may not actually represent what students think and feel
- pupils conceal feelings and may do the same to the researcher
How do gatekeepers impact researching classrooms?
Make access harder
Child protection laws
How do peer groups impact researching classrooms?
Young people may be insecure of identity or status
More sensitive to peer pressure
May differ the way they respond
