Topic 2- Education: The Research Context Flashcards
what are the 5 main groups and settings in education you can research?
- pupils
- teachers
- parents
- classrooms
- schools
what are the 3 main differences between studying adults and young people?
- power and status
- ability and understanding
- vulnerability
how does power and status affect researching pupils?
3
- children have less power than adults so it is more difficult to state their views openly
- schools are hierarchical so teachers have more power and can influence which pupils are selected for research
- if pupils have bad relationships with teachers they are more likely to hae bad relationships with the researcher
how does vulnerability affect researching pupils?
2
- young people are more vulnerable so participation of them in research is a question to be asked
- parental consent is not enough the researcher should be getting consent from the pupil as well
how does ability and understanding affect researching pupils?
4
- pupils vocabulary and skills are more likely to be limited compared to an adults
- sociologists will have to take care in the wording of questions so pupils will understand
- harder to gain informed consent as they limit understanding
- memory is less developed so cannot recall information
how do laws and guidelines affect pupil research?
- child protection laws prevent researchers from doing research
- eg. safeguarding vulnerable groups act 2006
how does power and status affect researching teachers?
- teachers have more power than pupils in school
- nature of a classroom reinforces power
- researchers may have to have a cover to gain the teachers’ trust by being a supply teacher
how does impression management affect researching teachers?
- teachers are used to being observed by ofsted so more willing to be observed by a researcher
- impression management means putting on an act so the researcher has to find ways to get behind the public face they put on
- researchers won’t be able to see how they are backstage like in the staffroom
what are the 4 points to consider researching pupils?
- laws and guidelines
- vulnerability
- ability and understanding
- power and status
what are the 2 points of researching teachers?
- power and status
- impression management
what are the 2 points of researching classrooms?
- gatekeepers
- peer groups
how do gatekeepers affect researching classrooms?
- classrooms are controlled by many gatekeepers
- for example teachers headteachers and chld protection
- the more gatekeepers there are, the more difficult it is to have access to it
how do peer groups affect researching classrooms?
- young people may be insecure about their identity and status
- so in groups like classes and friendship groups they may be more pressured to conform
- may be necessary to supervise pupils when filling in questionnaires to avoid influence on answers
what are the 4 aspects of researching schools?
- schools’ own data
- the law
- gatekeepers
- school organisation
how does the schools’ own data affect researching them?
- there is a lot of secondary data about schools which makes them data rich
- however some data is confidential or schools lie about data
- schools may change curriculum to make them seem better
how does the lawof attending school affect researching schools?
- the law requires young people to go to school
- researchers know where everyone is however some teachers may say they are disrupting education and refuse to be researched
how do gatekeepers affect researching schools?
- governers and headteachers are gatekeepers who have power to refuse the researcher access to the school
- some situations may be off limits and they may steer you towards better things and avoid things like classes where the teacher has bad classroom control
how does school organisation affect researching it?
- many schools are single sex so if the researcher is a different gender they will stick out of the crowd and become suspicious
- schools timetables may affect the researcher’s time for example holidays and exam season
- size and complexity can make it hard to understand and remember everything
what 3 things can parents influence what goes on in education?
- how they bring up their children
- involvement in school
- marketisation policies see them as consumers so have a choice in schools
how does access to parents affect researching them?
- most parent child interaction takes place at home
- parents are only at school when it is parents evening
- schools cannot share information of parents’ contact details and addresses
