Sociology-Education: the research context

Question 1

What are the five main groups and settings in education whose distinctive characteristics may make them easy or difficult to study?

Answer 1

Pupils, teachers, parents, classrooms and schools

Question 2

What are the differences between studying young people and studying adults?

Answer 2

Hill suggests there are three major differences between studying young people and adults. These are power and status, ability and understanding, and vulnerability. These differences raise particular practical, ethical and theoretical issues that researchers need to take into account

Question 3

What is the power and status difference?

Answer 3

Children/young people generally have less power and status than adults, making it more difficult for them to state their attitudes and views openly, especially if they challenge those adults

Question 4

Why is the power and status issue particularly evident in research into education?

Answer 4

Schools are hierarchical institutions that give teachers higher status and power over pupils. Teachers may sometimes even be able to use this power to influence which pupils are selected for research, eg in order to promote a good image of themselves or the school

Question 5

How does the power and status issue affect sociological research into education?

Answer 5

Formal research methods eg structured interviews/questionnaires tend to reinforce power differences as it is the researcher, and not the young person who determines what is asked and how the answers should be given

Question 6

How can sociologists overcome the power and status issue in sociological research into education?

Answer 6

For example, group interviews rather than formal one-to-one interviews may be a good way of doing this. However, it is likely that whatever research methods are used, some power and status differences between researchers and pupils will remain

Question 7

What is a factor that affects the power and status issue?

Answer 7

The pupils’ attitudes towards the power and status differences between themselves and their teacher are also likely to affect how they relate to the researcher, eg pupils who resent teachers power over them may be less cooperative with research, but on the other hand, they may feel empowered by participating in the research and express their true feelings about school

Question 8

What is the ability and understanding difference between studying pupils and studying adults?

Answer 8

Pupils’ vocabulary, powers of self-expression, thinking skills and confidence are likely to be more limited than those of adults, particularly when trying to express abstract ideas

Question 9

How can pupils’ ability and understanding affect sociological research?

Answer 9

Abstract concepts are central to sociological investigation so questions must be worded for pupils to understand. Lack of understanding also makes it difficult to gain true informed consent. Young people also use language in different ways from adults making construction of appropriately worded questions particularly demanding, and young children will often need more time to understand questions. Also young people have less developed memory so may be unable to recall in detail relevant material when asked

Question 10

What is a problem with pupils’ ability and understanding?

Answer 10

Pupils are not a homogenous group-they are not all the same. Class, age, gender and ethnicity all create differences between pupils that a researcher will have to take into account. Eg there are age, class and ethnic variations in the kinds of language that pupils use, such as differences in speech codes. It may therefore be important to match the gender and ethnicity of the young person and the researcher

Question 11

What are the vulnerability and ethical issues in researching pupils?

Answer 11

As a result of their more limited power and ability, young people are often more vulnerable to physical and psychological harm than adults. This raises special ethical issues for the researcher. They therefore should first consider whether the participation of young people in the research is actually necessary and whether they will benefit from it

Question 12

What is a specific ethical issue in research of children?

Answer 12

Consent. It is not enough to obtain informed consent of parents or teachers. Most research guidelines emphasise that the young person too should be aware of what the research entails. However, it may be difficult to explain this to a child, and they may not yet be mature enough to decide whether to participate

Question 13

What are other ethical issues due to the vulnerability of pupils?

Answer 13

Protection issues are very important because of vulnerability eg personal data should not be kept unless it is vital to the research. The researcher should also consider what form the participation will take and any stress that may result eg questioning young children for long periods of time would be considered inappropriate

Question 14

What are ‘gatekeepers’?

Answer 14

The greater vulnerability of young people means there are more ‘gatekeepers’ controlling access to pupils than there are for most other social groups. These include parents, heads, teachers, local authorities and schools’ boards of governors. Generally the more gatekeepers who are involved, the more difficult it is likely to be to carry out sustained research

Question 15

What are the laws on researching pupils?

Answer 15

Child protection laws such as the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 operate a vetting and barring scheme on adults working in schools, which requires researchers to have Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. This may delay or prevent researchers carrying out their research

Question 16

What are the guidelines on researching pupils?

Answer 16

As a result of ethical concerns, organisations such as Unicef, Barnardo’s, and the National Children’s Bureau have developed special codes of practice for researching young people. These take the British Sociological Association’s ethical research guidelines even further in terms of protecting the rights of children involved in research

Question 17

What is an example of studying pupils?

Answer 17

Because they are legally required to attend school, sociologists will know where to find their target research group-unlike with some other social groups they might study. On the other hand, this is not necessarily the case if the target groups is pupils with anti-school attitudes, many of whom ay truant regularly from school. Also, of course, pupils are normally in school only during the school day and term time

Question 18

What is it like researching teachers?

Answer 18

They often feel over-worked and may be less than fully cooperative, even when they want to be helpful. This may mean that interviews and questionnaires need to be kept short, and this will restrict the amount of data that can be gathered. On the other hand, as professionals, teachers are likely to be sympathetic to educational research

Question 19

What areas are looked at in more detail when considering researching teachers?

Answer 19

Power and status, and impression management

Question 20

How can power and status be an issue when researching teachers?

Answer 20

Power relationships in the school are not equal. Teachers have more power and status because of age, experience, and responsibility in the school. They also have legal responsibilities and duty of care to the young people they teach

Question 21

How do classrooms affect researching teachers?

Answer 21

The nature of the classroom reinforces the power of the teachers. Teachers often see it as ‘my classroom’ where a researcher may be seen as a trespasser. However, teacher are not fully independent, even in ‘their’ classroom. Heads, governors, parents and pupils all constrain what teachers may do. Therefore researchers need a ‘cover’ if they intend to carry out covert investigations and this may mean representing themselves as a supply teacher or class room assistant. This gives access, but these groups have lower status in schools so other teachers may not treat them as equals

Question 22

What is impression management?

Answer 22

Teachers are used to being observed and scrutinised, eg in Ofsted inspections. As a result, they may well be more willing to be observed by a researcher since it is something they are accustomed to experiencing. However, because a major part of their role is ‘putting on an act’ for pupils etc, teachers are often skilled at what Goffman calls ‘impression management’-manipulating the impression that other people have of us

Question 23

How does impression management affect sociological research of teachers?

Answer 23

The researcher may have to find ways to get behind the public face that teachers put on

Question 24

What does Goffman say about teachers?

Answer 24

He analyses how, as social actors, we behave differently when we are acting out a role ‘front state’ as opposed to when we are back stage. Some researchers study teachers in their backstage setting eg staffroom

Question 25

What is a problem with studying ‘backstage’?

Answer 25

Getting backstage with teachers poses particular problems. The staffroom is a relatively small social space and, because teaching staff are generally known to each other, a newcomer will stand out and may be treated with suspicion. Teachers will be aware any critical comments they make about their school could affect their career prospects so may be reluctant to answer certain questions honestly. However this may be overcome using observational methods rather than direct questioning

Question 26

How can head teachers affect research into teachers?

Answer 26

Head teachers may try to influence which staff are selected to be involved in the research and these may not be fully representative of all teachers in the school, eg a head may hand pick teachers who will convey a favourable image of the school-another example of impression management

Question 27

Why are classrooms unusual settings?

Answer 27

Because they are a closed social setting with clear physical and social boundaries. Although not as closed as a prison or psychiatric ward, eg classroom is less open than many other settings such as leisure centres or shops.

Question 28

How are classrooms managed?

Answer 28

They are a highly controlled setting. Eg the teacher and the school control classroom layout and access, as well as pupils’ time, activities, noise levels, dress and language while they are in the classroom. Young people rarely experience this level of surveillance and control in other areas of their lives

Question 29

How does the fact that classrooms are highly controlled affection sociological research into education?

Answer 29

As a result, the classroom behaviour that the researcher observes may not accurately reflect what those involved really think and feel. Furthermore, in classroom interactions, teachers and pupils are very experienced at concealing their real thoughts and feelings from each other, another example of impression management, and they may conceal them from the researcher too

Question 30

What characteristics of the classroom make it easy to observe?

Answer 30

They are fairly small, confined space with room for around 30 people usually. They are also comparatively simple social settings: in most cases there are just two social roles in classrooms-teacher and pupil. All this makes classroom interaction relatively straightforward to observe and analyse

Question 31

How do gatekeepers affect classroom investigation?

Answer 31

Unlike many other social environments, access to classrooms is controlled by a wide range of gatekeepers. These include head teachers, teachers and child protection laws. Generally speaking, the more gatekeepers there are to a particular research setting, the more difficult it is for researcher to obtain and maintain access

Question 32

How do peer groups affect classroom investigation?

Answer 32

Young people may be insecure of their identity/status so in school based groups such as classes/friendship groups, they may be more sensitive to peer pressure and the need to conform, affecting how they respond to being researched. This means it may be necessary to supervise pupils when filling in questionnaires in class for example, to prevent peers influencing each others answers. Similarly in group interviews, true attitudes of individual pupils may be hidden behind dominant attitudes of the peer group

Question 33

How are schools researched?

Answer 33

Tens of thousands of schools of many kinds in the UK. If observational methods are used, they are unlikely to have time to study more than a very few of them, risking their work being unrepresentative. Large scale surveys/official stats may overcome this, though here they may lose insight that can be gained from detailed observations. Studying schools would only take minutes to identify their research population eg all schools in a particular area, because the state publishes lists of schools, their location, and the type of school they are

Question 34

What is schools’ own data?

Answer 34

What goes on in education is closely scrutinised by the media, parents and politicians. The education system is also highly marketised with parental choice and competition between schools at its heart. Partly as a result there is a lot of secondary data publicly available about schools, often produced by schools themselves

Question 35

What are examples of secondary data produced by/about schools

Answer 35

Exam results and league tables; figures on truancy and subject choices; Ofsted reports; government inquiries and school policy documents. Schools also produce personal documents, such as reports on individual students

Question 36

Why can it be a good thing for sociological research, that schools are such ‘data rich’ places?

Answer 36

Sociologists may be able to make use of some of these secondary sources in their research. However, school records are confidential and so researchers may not be able to gain access to them

Question 37

Why may other school data pose particular difficulties?

Answer 37

Eg, schools with a truancy problem may falsify their attendance figures in order to present a good image and not deter applications. Similarly, although schools have a legal duty to record all racist incidents, there may be a tendency to downplay such incidents so as to maintain a positive public image

Question 38

Why should official statistics on examination performance be treated with care?

Answer 38

Schools may make changes in the curriculum in order to improve their results (eg entering pupils for easier qualifications) and create the image that the school is improving when in reality there may have been little or no change

Question 39

How does the law affect research into schools?

Answer 39

Law requires young people to attend school in order to be educated (only other major institution to have this legal requirement is the prison system). Having such a ‘captive population’ to study has advantages and disadvantages eg researcher knows where everyone is/should be at any given moment, but as the school’s primary role is education, heads and teachers may see involvement in research as interfering with that role

Question 40

How does law affect the way that schools run?

Answer 40

Schools operate within a particular legal framework. Eg, the law requires them to collect information on pupils’ attendance, achievement etc, and this may be useful to sociologists. On the other hand, the legal duty of care that schools have towards their pupils may restrict the researchers access

Question 41

How do gatekeepers affect researching schools?

Answer 41

Head teachers/governors are gatekeepers with power to refuse researcher access to the school. They may do so if they believe the research will interfere with the work of the school or undermine teachers’ authority

Question 42

What sociologists talk about gatekeepers in research of schools?

Answer 42

Meighan and Harber, who says heads sometimes view research negatively, eg head’s reactions to a research project that Meighan wanted to carry out on consulting pupils about teaching included view such as it’s dangerous to involve pupils in commenting on their teachers, discipline would be adversely affected, it would be bad for classroom relationships and children are not competent to judge teachers

Question 43

What do Beynon and Atkinson note?

Answer 43

Gatekeepers such as heads often steer the researcher away from sensitive situations, such as classes where the teacher has poor classroom control. Some situations and school setting may be ‘off limits’ to a researcher

Question 44

What are schools like as an organisation?

Answer 44

They are formal organisations with rules and hierarchies. Researchers may come to be seen as part of the hierarchy. Eg students may see them as teachers, while teachers may see them as inspectors. In schools where there is conflict, eg between students and teachers, researchers may even be seen as ‘the enemy’

Question 45

How do school’s differ from other organisations in today’s society?

Answer 45

Many schools are single-sex. This may pose problems where the researcher is of a different gender from that of the pupils. Eg the sociologist may become the focus of attention when they might prefer to keep a low profile, eg when conducting participant observation

Question 46

What are disadvantages of schools as an area of research?

Answer 46

Relatively large scale, complex, highly organised social institutions. Have daily and yearly timetables, management structures, meetings schedules etc, and these may all affect when/how a study can be carried out, eg school holidays/exam periods may limit research activities. Also schools’ size/complexity can cause difficulties for researchers, who often comment it takes months to work out where everything is/who does what in each school

Question 47

Why are parents also important to research when investigating education?

Answer 47

They influence what goes on in education, eg by how they bring up their children, by their involvement in school through parent-teacher contacts/parents governors/attendance at parents’ evenings etc, and marketisation policies encourage parents to see themselves as consumers eg in choice of school

Question 48

Why aren’t parents an easy group to study?

Answer 48

For example they are not a single homogeneous group. Their class, gender and ethnicity may all affect how willing or able they are to participate in research, eg pro-school middle class parents may be more likely than working class parents to return questionnaires about their children’s education and this will make the research findings unrepresentative

Question 49

How do parents affect research into pupils?

Answer 49

Parental permission is required for many forms of research with pupils. How likely parents are to give their permission may depend on the sensitivity of the research issue and on whether they can see their children benefiting from being involved. In general, the more sensitive an issue appears to be for parents, the less likely they are to consent to their children participating in research

Question 50

How do parents engage in impression management?

Answer 50

By presenting themselves to researchers in a positive light by exaggerating their involvement in the children’s education. Eg they may lie about whether they attend parents’ evenings or how often they read to their children. If so, this will result in invalid data being gathered

Question 51

Why is access to parents hard, when wishing to research them in order to investigate education?

Answer 51

Many sociologists see parents as playing a vital role in children’s education. However, most parent-child interaction takes place in the home. As a private setting often closed to researchers, this presents particular difficulties, eg while classroom interactions between teachers and pupils can be observed easily, there are few opportunities to observe whether parents help children with their homework

Question 52

How do parents differ from other important groups within education?

Answer 52

Unlike most other important groups within education, parents are unusual in that they are for the most part physically located outside the school. This may make them more difficult to contact and research

Question 53

How can the school help with access to parents?

Answer 53

Lists of parents’ names and addresses exist in school records, though a school would not normally release such information to researchers. However, the school may be happy to help a researcher contact parents by using the usual method of sending letters or questionnaires home with pupils. However, this would not necessarily guarantee that parents received them or that pupils always returned the questionnaires that their parents had completed

Question 54

What is unusual about education as a research topic?

Answer 54

Virtually everyone-including researchers-has had experience of education. Researchers can draw on their own experience of education, eg when formulating their hypotheses or interpreting data

Question 55

How can the researcher’s own personal experience of education be a bad thing?

Answer 55

The sociologist’s personal experience and familiarity with classrooms and schools can dull their awareness of just how different educational environments are from other social settings. Because sociologists have spent years in school/university, these places may seem ‘natural’ to them, so when carrying out research they need to be aware of their taken-for-granted assumptions about schools and classrooms, teachers and pupils

Question 56

How may the researcher’s success influence their investigations of education?

Answer 56

The researcher has probably been quite successful in education and this may make it difficult for them to empathise with underachieving pupils in an anti-school subculture. Similarly, class, gender or ethnic differences between researcher and pupils may hinder the research

Question 57

How can politics affect sociological research into education?

Answer 57

Education is a prominent political issue, with different political parties, pressure groups and individuals holding conflict opinions about what should happen in schools. Research into education issues takes place in this political context and the researcher has to be aware that their investigations can become part of a wider political and media debate