Methods in Context

Question 1

Hill

Answer 1

Three major differences between studying adults and children: power/status, ability and understanding, vulnerability.

Question 2

Beynon and Atkinson

Answer 2

Gatekeepers may see researchers as inspectors and so steer them away from sensitive situations.

Question 3

Harvey and Slatin

Answer 3

Lab experiment - sample of 96 teachers who were shown controlled photographs of children from different social classes. Lower-class were rated less favourably.

Question 4

Mason

Answer 4

Negative teacher expectations had a greater impact than positive ones.

Question 5

Rosenthal and Jacobson

Answer 5

Field experiment - Pygmalion. Identified 20% of students as ‘spurters’ based on an irrelevant IQ test. Teachers positively labelled spurters; after 8 months their IQ gained on average 12 points whilst others gained 8.

Question 6

Claiborn

Answer 6

Observation - No evidence of classroom interactions leading to teacher expectations.

Question 7

Dewson

Answer 7

Nearly 4,000 questionnaires to students of 14 higher education institutes; wanted to know factors which influenced decision of working-class to go to university.

Question 8

Rutter

Answer 8

Questionnaires - 12 inner London secondary schools. Found correlations between achievement, attendance, behaviour and school size, class size and number of staff. Could not explain correlations.

Question 9

Rich

Answer 9

When adults interview children, the child feels the need to please the interviewer.

Question 10

Becker

Answer 10

Interviews - 60 Chicago schoolteachers. Used personal characteristics to extract niche information on ideal pupil characteristics.

Question 11

Bell

Answer 11

Pupils may view interviewers as teachers in disguise.

Question 12

Field

Answer 12

Study of pupil’s experience of sex and health education in schools had a refusal rate of 29%, mainly due to parents denying consent.

Question 13

Greene and Hogan

Answer 13

In order to improve interview validity with children, interviewers should: use open-ended questions, not interrupt answers, tolerate long pauses, avoid asking leading questions and avoid repeating questions.

Question 14

King

Answer 14

Observation - Allowed children to become familiar with his presence, he avoided eye contact and refused requests for assistance to improve validity.

Question 15

Willis

Answer 15

Group interviews - ‘Lads’ culture reflected working-class shopfloor culture.

Question 16

Lobban

Answer 16

Content analysis - Gender roles in children’s reading schemes meant that historically children’s books portrayed females in domestic roles.

Question 17

Gewirtz

Answer 17

School brochures and prospectuses were useful in understanding how schools presented themselves in the education ‘marketplace’.

Question 18

Sullivan

Answer 18

Questionnaire - 465 pupils in 4 schools studied; researched on cultural capital by asking about habits, concluded that culture only accounts parts of class underachievement and rest is explained by resource gap and greater aspirations of M/C.