MiC - Who are we studying and issues with context

Question 1

What are the issues with Researching Pupils?

Answer 1

-Power and Status
»Age difference - Pupils and researcher (authority bias)
»Class, Gender, Ethnicity differences
-Ability
»Having the maturity levels to handle being involved with research
»Can be hard to express emotions/feelings
-Ethical Issues
»Right to withdraw
»Harm involved - asking about family life

Question 2

What are the issues with Researching Teachers?

Answer 2

-Power and Status
»Usually white middle class
»similar background to the researcher
-The Classroom as Territory
»want to maintain a professional image
»‘Duty of care’ over students
»sensitive to criticism over their treatment of pupils
-Co-operation
»don’t want to talk about the school
»protective over schools reputation
-Hawthorne Effect
»teachers are used to being observed, they can maintain a professional image

Question 3

What are the issues with researching Teachers, Pupils and the School?

Answer 3

-Closed, highly controlled social settings
-Disguising true thoughts

Question 4

What is an issues in researching the classroom?

Answer 4

-Peer pressure
»Students may change their answers because of the presence of classmates

Question 5

What are the issues in researching schools?

Answer 5

-Refusing permission/restricting access
-Hawthorne effect - steering
-Availability of secondary sources from the schools
»school has lots of data on pupils (Private and confidential)
-Single-sex schools
»Difficult to achieve representativeness
-School calendar/timetable
»lots of exams
»revision = teachers will be reluctant to allow students time out of lessons

Question 6

What are the issues with researching parents?

Answer 6

-Parents can influence education
»middle class vs working class
»language code, knowledge of the education system, socially desirable answers
-Influence outside of the school (access)
»busy with job so cant take part
»WC- cultural capital MC-cultural deprivation