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Sociology > Research Methods - Choosing a method and Education as a Research Context > Flashcards

Research Methods - Choosing a method and Education as a Research Context Flashcards

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Sociology 101 flashcards
1
Q

Define and give examples of primary data

A

Information collected by the researcher for their own purposes.
- Social surveys
- Participant observation
- Experiments

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2
Q

What is an advantage and disadvantage of primary data

A

+ Able to gather precisely the information needed
- Costly and time-intensive

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3
Q

Define secondary data and give examples

A

Information collected by another but which can still be used as it is relevant
- Official statistics
- Documents

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4
Q

Give an advantage and disadvantage of secondary data.

A

+ Quick and cheap
- May not provide exact information necessary

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5
Q

Define quantitative data and give examples.

A

Information in a numerical form
- Official statistics
- Structured interviews
- Questionnaire

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6
Q

Give an advantage and disadvantage of quantitative data

A

+ More reliable
- Less Valid

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7
Q

Define qualitative data and give an example

A

Information that gives a subjective idea of something
- Unstructured interviews
- Letters
- Participant observation

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8
Q

Give an advantage and disadvantage of qualitative data

A
  • More valid
  • Less reliable
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9
Q

What does P.E.R.V.E.R.T. stand for?

A

Practical
Ethical
Reliable
Valid
Examples
Representative
Theoretical perspective

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10
Q

What are five practical issues to consider?

A
  • Time and money
  • Requirements of funding body
  • Personal skills and characteristics
  • Subject matter
  • Research opportunity
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11
Q

How must sociologists consider time and money when choosing a method?

A

If they have limited funds, they may have to do a smaller scale study and/or be restricted to secondary data.

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12
Q

How must sociologists consider the requirements of their funding body when choosing a method?

A

The organisation funding the research may make certain demands, like preferring quantitative data or primary sources

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13
Q

How must sociologists consider personal skill when choosing a method?

A

Certain methods require certain characteristics: a covert observation requires you to be feasibly join that group, unstructured interviews requires gregariousness.

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14
Q

How must sociologists consider subject matter when choosing a method?

A

The information you wish to gather may affect the method you use; more sensitive subject matter may take time for a participant to feel comfortable enough to discuss.

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15
Q

How must sociologists consider research oppurtunity when choosing a method?

A

Some areas may only be temporarirly or rarely possible to research with limited methods, Patrick (1973) was given an ‘out of the blue chance’ to to spend time with a Glasgow gang and was only possible to do patricipant observation.

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16
Q

What are the 5 ethical issues sociologist need to consider?

A
  • Informed consent
  • Confidentiality and privacy
  • Harm to participants
  • Vulnerable groups
  • Covert research
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17
Q

What is informed consent?

A

Participants need to be fully aware of the research so that they can agree to partake both at the beginning and, if lengthy, at multiple intervals within the research.

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18
Q

What is confidentiality and privacy?

A

Researchers need to keep the identity and private information of participants secret.

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19
Q

What is ‘harm to research participants’?

A

Researchers need to be aware of the way their research affects the participant, whether their emotional or physical state or their employability.

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20
Q

What are ‘vulnerable groups’?

A

Certain groups that may be investigated may require a special touch; for example, children are easily influenced so one must be careful.

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21
Q

What is ‘covert research’?

A

Research where the researcher must keep their identity and aims a secret from the subjects.

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22
Q

What are the four theoretical issues?

A
  • Validity
  • Reliablity
  • Representativeness
  • Methodological perspective
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23
Q

Outline the concept of ‘validity’.

A

How closely a method gives a picture of reality or a ‘versethen’ (empathic understanding of human behaviour), many argue that qualitative methods are more valid as they can be more descriptive.

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24
Q

Outline the concept of ‘reliablity’.

A

The feasibility of a method to be repeated and checked, many argue that quantitative methods are more reliable as they can easily be repeated by asking the same questions again.

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25
Q

Outline the concept of ‘representativeness’.

A

Whether the participants in a study can be seen as a typical cross-section of the population so can be used to make generalisations.

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26
Q

Give 5 views of positivists.

A
  • Belief in social facts
  • Strutural/macro theorists
  • Preference for quantitative methods
  • Need for reliability and representativity
  • Sociology is for social policy
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27
Q

Give 5 views of interpretivists.

A
  • Rejection of social facts
  • interactionists/micro theorists
  • Preference for qualitative methods
  • Need for validity
  • Sociology is for understanding society
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28
Q

What 4 factors influence choice of topic of research?

A
  • Sociologists perspective
  • Society’s values
  • Practical factors
  • Funding bodies
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29
Q

How may the sociologist’s perspective affect choice of topic?

A

Perspectives reflect what a person believes and is interested in, feminists are more likely to be interested in domestic violence than a New Right theorist.

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30
Q

How may the society’s values affect choice of topic?

A

Changing trends in society and what they are interested in will affect the individual sociologist’s topic, homosexuality and Humphrey’s Tea Room Trade.

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31
Q

How may the practical factors affect choice of topic?

A

Even if a study is of interest, it may not be feasible to do, like investigating gangs.

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32
Q

How may funding bodies affect choice of topic?

A

Funding bodies may deny or fund certain research topics, such as Tony Sewell’s report on institutional racism.

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33
Q

What is a hypothesis and an advantage?

A

A cause-and-effect statement that can be tested by collecting data.
- Gives direction to research that can focus questions

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34
Q

What perspective prefers hypotheses?

A

Positivists prefer them as they seek to find those cause-and-effect relationships that hypotheses test.

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35
Q

What is an aim and an advantage?

A

A general statement on the topic of research
- Can be good for not getting bogged down in a single question

36
Q

Who prefers aims?

A

Interpretivists argue hypotheses impose the researchers explanation onto participants, instead of understanding their meaning

37
Q

What is ‘operationalisation of concepts’?

A

To properly research something, you have to be able to neatly define it; for example, to research ‘poor children’, we can define them as those eligible for free school meals

38
Q

What is the issue with operationalisation of concepts?

A

Researchers have different definitions for the same thing, making it hard to compare studies.

39
Q

How do the two methodological perspectives feel about operationalisation of concepts?

A

Positivists: necessary for testing hypotheses
Interpretivists: want to understand the actors’ definitions

40
Q

What is a pilot study?

A

An intial study without the results recorded to see what can be changed about the method to make it more effective, such as with Young and Willmott (1962) doing >100.

41
Q

What are the 4 parts of a sample?

A
  • 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 as a representation
  • The respondents: those contacted for the sample who choose to be in the study
42
Q

What are 4 representative sampling techniques?

A
  • Random: sample selected purely by chance
  • Systematic: every nth person is chosen from the sample
  • Stratified: sample is built based on proportions of stratus in the population
  • Quota: population is stratified and researcher is given a quota of each to fill
43
Q

Why might someone want a representative sample?

A

You can make generalisations about the population if your sample is a valid cross section.

44
Q

Outline the non-representative sampling techniques

A
  • Snowball: researcher contacts key individuals and asks them to suggest others, rinse and repeat
  • Opportunity: researcher chooses from those easiest to access
45
Q

Why might someone want a non-representative sample?

A

Practical:
- The sampling frame may be unknown - such as for those that have committed a crime
- Potential respondents may refuse, making it unrepresentative

Theoretical:
Interpretivists aren’t concerned with generalisability if they can gain an empathic understanding of something, so don’t really care.

46
Q

What are the 5 main groups and settings in education?

A
  • Pupils
  • Teachers
  • Parents
  • Classrooms
  • Schools
47
Q

Hill (2005) and the differences between studying adults and children:

A
  • Power and status
  • Ability and understanding
  • Vulnerability
48
Q

How do pupils have different status from researchers?

A

Children generally have less power than adults but this is especially true within the age hierarchy of schools.

49
Q

What are the practical implications of the power of pupils?

A

On one hand, teachers may have power over which students are selected for research so may wish to promote a good school image.

Children may also feel uncomfortable telling an unknown authority about personal topics like experience of racism and gender. Especially true for pupils who have negative perceptions of authority and the school system and may perceive the researcher as an extension.

50
Q

What are the ethical implications of the power and status of pupils?

A

Pupils may experience emotional distress and feel forced to answer when an unknown authority asking them about personal experiences.

51
Q

How might the power and status of pupils affect the researcher’s method?

A

They may have to use more informal methods to avoid reinforcing the power differences or hopefully make themselves not appear as an extension of the school - this could be done through group interviews or unstructured interviews.

52
Q

What is the practical issue with pupils’ ability and understanding?

A

Pupils’ self expression and vocabulary is more limited so they may have trouble expressing ideas, especially difficult given how much of sociology studies abstract ideas like racism.

53
Q

What are the ethical considerations around pupils’ understanding and ability?

A

Sociologists may be unable to explain the research in depth affecting their ability to attain informed consent.

54
Q

How may ability and understanding affect a researcher’s choice of method?

A

Structured interviews may be appropriate as a great amount of thought must be put into constructing appropriate, understandable questions which may be difficult in the moment.

55
Q

How must researchers consider the variation in how students speak?

A

There is a wide variety of ways pupils communicate based on age, class, ethnicity and gender so it may be important to match pupils and researchers who can communicate more effectively.

56
Q

How must researchers consider the variation in how students speak?

A

There is a wide variety of ways pupils communicate based on age, class, ethnicity and gender so it may be important to match pupils and researchers who can communicate more effectively.

57
Q

How are pupils more vulnerable? How might this affect considerations?

A

Pupils are more vulnerbale to psychological and emotional damage due to their more limited power an ability and their susceptibility to suggestion. Researchers have to consider whether the participation of children is entirely necessary and, if so, how they can be comfortably accomodated.

58
Q

Why is getting informed consent for research in schools difficult?

A

You need the consent of parents and teachers, but the informed consent of pupil participants is also important but this can be difficult due to children’s limited grasp of abstract concepts like investigation.

59
Q

How may vulnerability of pupils affect methods?

A
  • Methods that are more stress-inducing for children must be ruled out, for example, long interviews
  • More vulnerability means more gatekeepers means more difficulty maintaining long-term research.
60
Q

Aside from Hill’s (2005) 3 differences, what is important in research into pupils? Why?

A

Laws like the Safeguarding Vulnerabe Groups Act (2006) require you to have checks like a DBS to do research in schools, this can delay research. Additionally, organisations like UNICEF and the National Children’s Bureau have created codes of conduct that limit what researchers can do.

61
Q

What is the biggest advantage to studying pupils? Give a criticism.

A

Pupils have to be at school for most of the time so you know where you’re population and registers make sampling frames simpler.
- This may not be true for groups that are likely to ‘bunk’ such as anti-school subcultures. Pupils are also in school only during the school day and term time, which makes investigating behaviour outside school difficult; things like exams and holidays will also affect when studies can take place.

62
Q

What are the smaller considerations to be made when researching teachers?

A
  • Teachers are often overworked so may require shorter, easier methods like questionairres which restricts the amount of data you gather
  • However, teachers may be sympathetic to researchers as academics so could be willing to help
63
Q

What are the two main considerations for researching teachers?

A
  • Power and status
  • Impression management
64
Q

How do teachers’ ‘power and status’ affect the researcher? What are possible work arounds?

A

Teacher’s hold a level of authority within the school and especially ‘their’ classroom so may view a researcher as an intruding alternative authority.
Covert research could bypass this, however available covers like supply teacher limit the researcher’s status, access and ability to gather information.

65
Q

Why might teachers be more willing to be observed?

A

Teachers are used to being observed by Ofsted and internal inspections.

66
Q

What is the flipside to teachers being often observed?

A

Teachers are accustomed to ‘impression management’ (Goffman (1969)) whereby they put on an act for pupils so the researcher must work to get behind the mask if they want valid analysis.

67
Q

How might school reputation affect research into teachers? How can you bypass this?

A

Teachers may be hyperaware that anything critical they say is recorded so may be reluctant to be fully honest; head teachers may influence which staff participates in research to sway the perception of the school.
- Observational methods over direct questioning may give the researcher more power.

68
Q

How is the classroom a perculiar setting?

A

The classroom is a highly controlled environment whereby actions are rarely organic so behaviour cannot be treated as fully valid and teachers and pupils are experienced in hiding their true feelings.

69
Q

What makes classrooms positive for a researcher?

A

Classroom dynamics are, relatively, incredibly simple - theres only really two social roles: teacher and student. Observation is pretty easy and straightforward.

70
Q

What group make access to classrooms difficult?

A

Gatekeepers control access to classrooms and may stop researchers if they don’t have adequate checks or their research may reflect poorly on the school (if overt).

71
Q

What group may affect the validity of results when researching classrooms?

A

Peer groups may make participants feel the need to conform their answers to the group identity, especially if methods like group interviews are used.

72
Q

What is the dillema when researching schools?

A
  • Use primary methods like observation and only be able to see a few schools
  • Use secondary methods or large-scale surveys and lose detailed insight
73
Q

How is using school’s data beneficial for researchers?

A

Schools are highly scrutinised and highly marketised so are ‘data-rich’ with things like government reports and school policy documents, making research relatively easy

74
Q

What is the issue with schools’ own data?

A

Schools are incentivised to make them selves seem better than they are in a marketised educational landscape - reports of truancy or racism may be falsified or downplayed, respectively. Schools may also make changes in their curriculum to push themselves up in the league tables, invalidating the data.

75
Q

How does the legal duty of schools affect research into them, both positively and negatively?

A
  • Pupils are legally required to be at school so researchers have a captive population; they are also required to collect records on things like behaviour and attendance that could be useful
  • Schools are legally required to educate students so may see research as getting in the way of their primary function; they may also restrict the researcher’s activity due to the duty of care.
76
Q

Meighan and Harber (2007) and gatekeepers:

A

Their investigation into pupils views on teaching elicited views from headteachers including:
- Bad for classroom relations
- Children are not competent enough to judge teachers
- Discipline would be adversely affected
Showing that gatekeepers will restrict researcher activity if it undermines the school’s or teachers’ authority.

77
Q

Beynon and Atkinson (1984) and ‘off limits’:

A

Headteachers will often steer researchers away from more sensitive situations, like classrooms with low levels of control.

78
Q

How does school’s status as an organisation affect researchers?

A

Schools are herarchies and researchers may come to be seen as enemies of all sides: an inspector to teachers, a teacher to students. This damages their ability to gain truthful answers from anyone.

79
Q

How may the personal characteristics of the researcher interact with certain schools?

A

Some schools are single-sex, a different gender researcher may face problems like becoming the centre of attention or students bidding for theirs.

80
Q

Why does the size of a school affect research into it?

A

Schools are large and complex, understanding who does what and when can take weeks or months that will affect the research.

81
Q

Why might a parent be less likely to allow research on their child?

A

The sensitivity of the issue and how much the child stands to gain

82
Q

How is researching parents and teachers similar?

A

Both engage in Hoffman’s ‘impression management’, possibly lying to make themselves look better - invalidating data.

83
Q

How is access to parents difficult?

A
  • Parent-child interactions are important but take place largely in the privacy of the home
  • Unlike most other groups involved in education, parents are, for most of the time, not in schools
  • Although schools keep records of parents numbers and addresses, their willingness and ability to contact them is variable.
84
Q

How must researchers take their own experiences into consideration when researching education?

A

Researchers are exceptional in their extensive expectional in being so used to the environment - going to uni for a bachelors puts them in the 40% and further with a master’s or PHD. Their extensive experience and likely success in education must be considered, especially for any assumptions.

85
Q

How does wider political context affect research into education?

A

It is important for sociologists to remember that education is a hot button issue and their research may become part of a wider political debate.

Sociology (16 decks)

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