education and research

Question 1

what are the five main areas of study?

Answer 1

• pupils
• teachers
• school
• classroom
• parents

Question 2

problems with researching pupils include:

Answer 2

• schools have a hierarchal structure - pupils have less status
• children often not asked for consent - often told not to say no
• could prevent pupils from expressing themselves
• teachers may choose which pupils will be in the sample
• pupils may lack the ability to understand the questions and nature of the study
• pupils are more vulnerable to psychological harm
• questioning children for too long periods of time is inappropriate
• difficult to gain access to pupils - need permission from guardians
• vetting and barring scheme DBS checks

Question 3

problems which researching teachers include:

Answer 3

• often have heavy workloads, so may be less cooperative
• have a duty of care to pupils
• are used to being observed so could ‘put on an act’ - impression management
• unlikely to be critical of the school or senior management
• unlikely to be critical of the school or senior management
• head teachers may select which teachers should be in the research

Question 4

problems with researching parents include:

Answer 4

-parents have lots of influence on their children

• little involvement in actual school life (parents evenings etc)
• must have parental consent for research to take place
• hard to gain access to parents

Question 5

problems with researching in classrooms include:

Answer 5

• classrooms are close settings with physical and social boundaries
• controlled environment - lots of rules - pupils and teachers could hide their true feelings
• peer pressure could influence the results

Question 6

problems with researching in schools include:

Answer 6

• tens of thousands of schools in the uk so could be difficult to select a representative sample
• lots of secondary data avaliable such as leauge tables, truancy figures, pupils claiming FSM, and OFSTED reports
• schools records are confidential data so hard to get access to these
• head teachers and governors are the ‘gatekeepers’ so could refuse access
• they dont encourage pupils to comment on teachers