Transcript Researching Education - From the Sandpit.

Researching Education
Methods in context- Applying
sociological methods to the issue
of education
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Legal issues:
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Child protection issues are important. For example,
personal data should not be kept unless it is vital to
research
Teachers have legal responsibilities and a duty of
care to the young people they teach which may
mean researcher’s access is limited
The law requires schools to collect information on
pupil’s attendance, achievement and so on and this
may be useful to sociologists
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Ethics:
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Young people are more vulnerable to physical and
psychological harm than adults. If the young person
is made aware of what the research entails are they
mature enough to make the moral choice to
participate?
Will participation put any stress on the pupil, e.g.
questioning young children for long periods of time
would be considered inappropriate
Given children’s greater vulnerability, it is important
to establish rapport and gain trust
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Problems of access:
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Teachers are often overworked and may be less than fully cooperative, even when they
want to be helpful. This may mean that interviews and questionnaires need to be kept
short
The classroom is less open than most settings such as leisure centres or shops. The
teacher and school control time, behaviour, noise, dress, e.t.c. young people rarely
experience this level of control in other areas of their lives
Some situations and school settings may be ‘off limits’ to a researcher- for example, head
teachers interviews with parents
Schools operate to a daily and yearly timetable. This may affect when and how research
can be carried out
Heads and governors may refuse permission if they believe that the research will interfere
with the work of the school
Parents are for the most part physically outside of the school which may make them more
difficult to contact and research. For example, while classroom interactions between
teachers and pupils can often be observed easily, there are few opportunities to observe
whether parents help children with their homework
Class and ethnic differences between sociologists and some parents may be a barrier to
research. E.g. M/C parents who are more pro-school may be more likely than W/C
parents to return questionnaires and this will make findings unrepresentative
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Power relationships
Young people have less power and status then adults. This make it more
difficult for them to state their views openly, especially if these challenge
adult opinions
Pupils vocab, thinking skills and confidence are likely to be more limited
than those of adults
The nature of the classroom reinforces the power of the teacher.
Teachers often see it as ‘my classroom’, in which the researcher may be
viewed as a trespasser.
Teachers are used to being inspected and scrutinised. They are
experienced enough to be able to ‘put on a show’ for the researcher so
as to create the best impossible impression
In classroom interactions, teachers and pupils are very experienced at
disguising their real thoughts and feelings from each other; they may
conceal these from the researcher too.
Researchers may come to be seen as part of the hierarchy. E.g. students
may see them as teachers, while teachers may see them as inspectors.
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Availability of secondary data
Sociologists may be able to make use of
secondary data such as exam results, league
tables, and figures on truancy, subject choices,
Ofsted reports, government inquiries and
school policy documents. Schools also
produce large quantities of more personal
documents such as students reports
However, school records are confidential and
researchers may not be able to gain access to
them