Research Methods in Ed Flashcards
(4 cards)
Documents in Education
P+ free and cheap with large amounts of data
+ saves time
+ gives qualitative data with insight
E+ public documents so consent is already given
T+ high in validity - gives qualitative data with insight of author’s intention
P- hard to access
-may not be specific to sociologist research
E- issues in consent for personal documents
T- unrepresentative
-low in reliablity (may be biased or forged)
- difficult to draw conclusions
- when finding conclusion, researcher may impose their own meaning
Interpretivists - prefer documents because they are high in validity, is an authentic statement on the author’s views, provides qualitative data giving us an insight into the author’s meanings
Positivists - reject documents because they are low in reliability, generalisability and representativeness, often unstandardised e.g. every person’s diary is unique meaning it is difficult to make generalisations and researchers may impose their own meanings on them
However, positivists do sometimes carry out a content analysis on documents to produce quantitative data from them
Official Statistics in Ed
P+ free source
+statistics can be compared
+collected at regular intervals so show trends and patterns over time
E+ consent and ethical issues would’ve been taken care of as it’s secondary data
T+ very representative- large no. of data
+ high in reliabilty
P- some data might not be available for topic of research
E- data may have political, economic, social survelliuance sensitive data
T- may be less represenative as it’s based on a sample size for research
- low in validity as it’s soft statistics (eg. crime rates, poverty, education senstitive topics)
Positivists- prefer OS as the statistics are true and objective measures of the real state of crime, suicide, achievement etc. They give data that is high in reliability, generalisability and representativeness- allows them to identify patterns and cause and effect relationships.
Interpretivists- Atkinson - OS do not represent ‘social facts’ - they are socially constructed (created and accepted by the people in society)- OS fail to have validity as they don’t explain trends or show the true meaning behind the statistics.
Example:
Durkheim- used OS to find relationship between suicide and religion. Concluded that if they are Protestant, not married they are more likely to commit suicide but he didn’t personally know them and data could’ve been forged by government cuz it’s sensitive soft statistics
Content Analysis in Ed
-method used for content in documents. Turns quantitative data into qualitative data
Advantages:
-Cheap
-Easier to access
-Positivists prefer→ objective and quantitative
-Ethical
Examples:
-McRobbie → study of girls’ magazines
-1970s → emphasises the importance of marriage, husbands, children
-Today → emphasise hardworking, independent women
Field Experiments in Ed
P+ could take notes openly when he observed lessons
E+ confidential- uses pseudonyms
T+ more valid than lab experiments – as it’s carried out in a real school environment
+reliable -systematic so are easy to replicate
P- access – a sensitive topic so access might not be granted
-as it’s carried out at a real school, the experimenter can’t control all the variables.
E- deceit eg. not briefing true information/ purpose of experiment
-psychological harm – answering questions about labelling could trigger negative memories, cause psychological harm but can gain valid results like Ball, Lacey and Sewell
T-lack of validity - parents may lie to be
seen as ‘good parents’
-unrepresentative - carried out at one school, so a small sample
-difficult to generalise info
Examples:
Ball- studied school processes eg. labelling, streaming on students progress
-used unstructured/structured interviews (Flanders system- used to observe and analyse classroom interactions between teachers and students), observations, school reports (official statistics)
-found students put into streams based on primary skill data
found strong correlation between parents’ occupation and streams
Rosenthal and Jacobson- studied labelling
-found that self fulfilling prophecy occurs when teachers treat students based on their abilities (e.g. spurters high achievers) so after 2 years they actually achieved more than the others
Lacey- studied subculture formation
-used participant/ non-participant observation
-found streaming led to polarisation into anti-skl and pro-skl
Sewell- studied racism and subculture formation
-used semi-structured group interviews and observations
-found teachers focus and have more control over black boys
Woods- studied subculture formation and labelling
-used observations and interviews
-found students respond in variety of ways (retreatism, rebellion, ritualism, ingratiation)
