Secondary Sources

Question 1

Who gathers official statistics and give some examples of them?

Answer 1

The government or other official bodies. Eg birth, death, marriages, exam results. Gathered to use in policy making

Question 2

What are the two ways of collecting official stats?

Answer 2

Registration- parents are required to register a birth

Official surveys- eg the census or the general household survey

Question 3

What are the practical advantages of official stats?

Answer 3

Free source with huge amounts of data, saving time and money 
Stats allow comparisons between groups eg educational achievement between ethnicities or gender or class
They are collected over regular intervals so they show trends over time - cause and effect relationship

Question 4

What are the practical disadvantages of official stats?

Answer 4

They might not fit specifically with what the sociologists are interested in eg Durkheim found in le suicide that there was no data on the religion of victims
Definitions may be used differently = misunderstanding

Question 5

Are official statistics representative?

Answer 5

Cover large numbers and care is taken with sampling procedures so it can be generalised.

Question 6

Are official stats reliable?

Answer 6

Yes, compiled in a standardised way

Question 7

What are hard stats?

Answer 7

Births, deaths, marriages, divorces

Question 8

What are soft stats?

Answer 8

Less valid picture. Eg educational stats may not record all racist incidents

Question 9

What do positivists think of official stats?

Answer 9

Durkheim sees them as valuable. Take for granted ‘social facts’. Sociology is a science. Use official stats to test their hypothesis

Question 10

What do interpretivists think of official stats?

Answer 10

They are socially constructed. We should investigate how they are socially constructed rather than taking them at face value.

Question 11

What do Marxists think of official stats?

Answer 11

Serving the interests of capitalism. Part of the ruling class ideology, keeping them in power.

Question 12

What are documents?

Answer 12

Any written text. Eg diaries, medical records, government reports, newspapers, novels

Question 13

What are public documents?

Answer 13

Produced by organisations like the government, schools, charities, businesses. Eg ofsted reports.

Question 14

What are personal documents?

Answer 14

First person accounts of social events or experiences

Question 15

What are historical documents?

Answer 15

Only source of info for researching the past.

Question 16

What are the advantages of documents?

Answer 16

Richly detailed qualitative data.
Verstehen
Only source eg past
Cheap and saves time

Question 17

Disadvantages of documents?

Answer 17

May not be authentic or representative

Question 18

What are the practical issues of using official stats to research education?

Answer 18

You can make comparisons between schools which would be costly and time consuming
Comparisons over time

Question 19

Are official stats of education representative and reliable?

Answer 19

Highly

Standardised definitions and categories

Question 20

Are official stats about education valid?

Answer 20

Interpretivists = socially constructed

Some schools may change or omit truancies and racist incidents

Question 21

Practical issues of using documents in education?

Answer 21

Eg Angela McRobbie and girls’ magazines

Question 22

Ethical issues of using documents in education?

Answer 22

Personal documents and consent

Question 23

Representativeness of using documents in education?

Answer 23

All schools are required to record racist incidents

Personal documents are unique and cannot be generalised

Question 24

Reliability of using documents in education?

Answer 24

Eg attendance registers are in a systematic format but there can be falsifications and mistakes

Question 25

Validity of using documents in education?

Answer 25

Documents can give us insights