Education Methods in Context Flashcards
Name 3 practical issues when researching schools?
- Different school types undermines representativeness of sociological sample.
- Some school data may be unavailable due to confidentiality.
- Governors and Heads may deny permission for they research if they think the findings may end badly.
Name 3 issues in researching parents using interviews or questionnaires?
- Responses may be biased if parents are involved with school e.g. governors.
- School may select parent sample which may be biased and wont identify their social class or ethnicity.
- Parents may manage the impression of the research by exaggerating their support or interest.
Name 3 issues with researching teachers using questionnaires or interviews?
- Teachers may manage the impression of the researcher and may be unwilling to admit negative behaviour such as stereotyping.
- Teachers who volunteer or are selected to take part may be unrepresentative of all teachers in the school.
- Teachers may be reluctant to take part due to fears of what management will use the information for.
Name 3 issues with researching classrooms using observations?
- Teacher is aware of observation, so their interactions with students are less natural.
- Students and teachers may be subject to Hawthorne effect.
- Ethical issues with covert - deception.
What are 3 practical issues with researching students?
- Truanting students or excluded students will be hard to access.
- Anti-school subculture students will not cooperate with researchers.
- Children may be reluctant to admit behaviour due to authority.
What are 3 ethical issues with researching students?
- Children are a vulnerable group that need to be treated sensitively, especially special needs.
- Researchers need to obtain informed consent from children.
- Children lack power and may find it hard to turn down a request for research.
What are 3 theoretical issues with researching students?
- Interpretivists - power differences between children and researcher can undermine validity of data.
- Children may act unnaturally if observed in a classroom
- Peer pressure may undermine validity of responses.
Name 3 issues with student questionnaires?
- Lower response rates.
- Uneducated students may not have knowledge to complete questionnaires.
- Students may fear that responses may be used against them and lie.
Name 2 issues with parent questionnaires?
- Parents may view them as judgemental and exaggerate or mislead researcher.
- Questions and pre-set answers meaning they answer in that way, which undermines validity.
Who did a key study on parents contribution to their child’s education with questionnaires?
Bicknell (2014).
What did a study with interviews on head teachers and teachers?
Ruth Lupton (2004).
Who did a study with aggressive interviews on chicago teachers?
Howard Becker (1970).
What are 3 issues with interviewing teachers?
- Teachers have busy schedules and timetables so may be reluctant to take part.
- Teachers are unlikely to admit unprofessional behaviour.
- Head teachers may only allow researchers with similar values to that of the school.
What are 3 issues with interviewing parents?
- Some parents may be hard to access and get in contact with.
- Some people may feel threatened by the status of the interview.
- Parents may be unwilling to admit unethical practices to interviewers.
Name 2 strengths and 2 drawbacks of group interviews?
+Draw out shared group values that may otherwise be bottled up.
+Safer or more confident in groups rather than 1 to 1.
- Fear of being bullied by others.
- Invalid responses for social desirability.
Name 3 issues with using one-to-one interviews?
- Require consent from parents and teachers, which may be declined over fears of bad image.
- Children may associate interviewers with authority figures and be will willing to cooperate.
- Researchers cant guarantee confidentiality as issues such as abuse have to be reported.
Who conducted interviews on teenage boys about masculinity?
Frosh (2002).
Give 2 strengths and 2 drawbacks of non-participant observation?
+Uncovers real behaviour that may not be admitted in interviews.
+Allows researchers to see behaviour from point of view of students/teachers.
- Time consuming and hard to organise with busy teachers.
- Hawthorne effect and knowledge of being observed.
Which 2 sociologists used participant observation?
Paul Corrigan and Paul Willis.
Which 2 sociologists used non-participant observation?
Becky Francis and Colin Lacey.
Give 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses of using official statistics?
+Easily accessible via internet.
+No ethical concerns involved as data is public
+Standardised data techniques that are objective, reliable and representative.
- Little data available about private school students.
- Some head teachers may manipulate or distort statistics.
- Not always available in the form needed by sociologists.
Give 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses of using documents?
+Saves time, effort and money.
+No ethical limitations as they are public.
+Based on evidence collected in a standardised and objective way (reliable!).
- Availability of diaries and autobiographies is limited.
- Most documents are written to attract the reader e.g. school marketing documents.
- Some documents may distort views to gain a positive image.
Name 3 issues with experiments?
- Unlikely to behave in the way the experiment hopes the observe.
- Difficult to gain consent for experiments on young children.
- Difficult to control all behaviour so other confounding variables may come into play.
