Secondary Souces 🥫 Flashcards
What are secondary sources?
A source which has previously been published by another researcher and created for another purpose.
— When the original researcher produces their own primary data, some one else using it becomes secondary.
What are the three secondary sources?
- Official statistics
- Documents
- Content Analysis
What are official statistics?
Government collected quantitative data usually produced on an annual basis. This makes it a secondary source.
— eg. crime statistics, birth rates, death rates.
EVALUATION: Official Statistics
PRACTICAL STRENGTH:
+ Quick
— Government gather large amounts of educational statistics that are available.
— This saves the researcher time and money
— The educational statistics available allow the researcher to make comparisons between the achievements of diffierent social groups based on the achievements of different social groups based on ethnicity, gender and social class.
— There is no need for DBS check, which could be construe and time consuming.
PRACTICAL WEAKNESS:
+ Research topics / Access
— The government collects statistics for their own policy purposes and these may not be the same as those of the researcher eg. sociologists are interested in in the relationship between language, social class and achievement, but there are no statistics available on this topic.
— Schools may also be unwilling to share the statistics and data they have for their pupils due to laws and safeguarding responsibilities.
ETHICAL STRENGTH:
+ No harm
— The method is unlikely to cause any direct harm to students.
— This is important to consider as schools have a duty of care to students who are seen as vulnerable young people due to their age.
ETHICAL WEAKNESS:
+ Psychological harm / sensitive issues
— Using statistics is not a suitable method when studying sensitive issues as it does not give the thoughts and feelings of the people who completed the surveys.
— The demand from government bodies for statistics and data from schools has let to increase tests to collect the necessary student data - this can place students under a lot of pressure and can negatively impact their well-being.
THEORETICAL STRENGTH:
+ Representative
— Positivists believe that statistics gathered cover virtually every pupil in the country, they are highly representative. eg. all state schools have to complete a school census 3x a year.
— This collects information on pupils’ attendance, ethnicity and gender as well as the number of pupils receiving free school meals etc.
THEORETICAL WEAKNESS:
+ Invalid
— The researcher has to ask and try to discover how accurate the statistics are eg. have people exaggerated their answers or completed the forms incorrectly?
— Interpretivists argue school data is socially constructed - it may have been falsified or manipulated to protect their reputation and maintain parental support and funding eg. their raunchy or racist incidents.
What are documents?
Documents are mainly qualitative data, but some contain statistical data too.
— eg. reports from the government, letters and diaries
Schools, colleges, local authorities and the Department for Education generate a wide range of public documents.
— As students product a large amount of paper based work, there is the opportunity for the researcher to use personal educational documents.
— Documents cover a variety of issues that interest sociologists eg. racist incidents in schools.
EVALUATION: Documents
PRACTICAL STRENGTH:
+ Access
— Public documents are usually easily accessible for sociologists
— This is due to parental choice, schools make a large amount of information available to the public.
— There is also no need for DBS check
PRACTICAL WEAKNESS:
+ Access / time
— Personal documents can be more difficult to access.
— Individuals may refuse to share their personal documents, due to them being personal eg. individuals may have written a diary with the intention of it to never be seen by anyone.
— Some educational documents are confidential such as teacher personnel files and pupils’ disciplinary records, so sociologists may not be able to access them.
ETHICAL STRENGTH:
+ No need for consent / no harm
— As there are no students involves, the researcher does not require consent or the need to deceive anyone due to the public nature.
— Does not need to consider the physical or psychological well being of the participants because there is no interaction.
ETHICAL WEAKNESS:
+ Sensitive Issues
— Using documents is not a suitable method when researching sensitive issues
— There are more ethical issues with personal documents eg. vulnerability and sensitive topics.
— This can particularly be an issue due to age of the pupils (under 16). In some cases, informed consent may be necessary.
THEORETICAL STRENGTH:
+ Reliable
— Many documents are created in a systematic format, which enables researcher to make direct comparisons.
— Some educational documents can also be used in ways that can be replicated by other researchers.
THEORETICAL WEAKNESS:
+ Validity
— Many personal documents are atypical - as they are written & depend on people being literate to write them.
— Some may not have such skills i.e. working class.
— Some documents get lost or destroyed leading to them being unrepresentative.
What is content analysis?
It is a quantitative method used to systematically measure the contents of qualitative documents.
— eg. best known for analysing mass media material from TV news bulletins to advertisements to books and films.
